As per usual, I spent my early evening on this fine Wednesday playing a
little basketball with the lads; and not unlike Ice
Cube, I messed around and got a triple double (fouls, turnovers, missed
shots). I always kinda dread going to shows
after I've played ball because my legs are shot, but I assumed I would
have a couple of hours to recover and get ready
for the rock. The problem is, when I logged on to the Cat's
Cradle website to check the start time, it was listed as doors
at 6:30, show at 7:30!!! What in the holy hell is this, a Yanni
concert?!? Who starts a metal show this early? I was
completely confused and bewildered as to what was going on, but the
bottom line I was going to have to get on my
horse and get to getting if I wanted to see this show.
I finally got to the club around 9:15 or so, only to see a crew of
surly types setting up the stage for Mastodon.
I was
hoping to see at least the end of Kylesa's set, but I've seen them
before and I'm sure I'll get a chance to see them again.
On the plus side, my tired, basketball-worn old man legs wouldn't be
standing for very long tonight.
It wasn't the greatest show I've ever seen Mastodon play, but it was
still very good. I'm guessing a big reason I was a
little underwhelmed is because the entire first half of the show was
from their newest record "Crack the Skye", and I
have only listened to it a couple of times. With pretty much any
band, knowing the music makes the live experience
more enjoyable, but I find this to especially be the case with metal
music for whatever reason.
after about 45 minutes of only new songs, the band left the
stage...certainly, this wasn't the whole show was it? No it
wasn't; they were running this thing Broadway-style, with an
intermission between two sets...the first set being all new,
and the second set being all older songs. I'm terrible with song
names with this band in particular, but I know they
played a bunch of tracks off of "Leviathan" to help fulfill by "metal
songs about whales" needs. the crowd of almost
entirely dudes in black t-shirts got noticeably more animated for these
older, well-loved tracks, with no shortage of
devil horns thrown in the air both before AND after the song. And
we all know nothing is more metal than throwing the
devil horns at a concert, saluting the band with a message of "I enjoy
your songs to the extent that I will contort my
fingers into a fanciful shape and raise them above my head, in unison
with my fellow crowd members".
Like any other Superchunk show, I was standing
there doing my ridiculous version of dancing, singing along quietly and
gawking at Laura Balance, when it occurred to me that I have had a
crush on her for around 18 years now. 18 years!!!
That means I've spent more of my life fawning over her than I
haven't. I'm getting old. Laura Balance is getting
old. And
Superchunk, yeah they are getting old too.
This Wednesday night gig was intended as a warm-up for their impending
weekend outing to the enormous music
festival Coachella. As per usual, the fans were very receptive
and excitable getting to see the hometown heroes; though
the Cradle was surprisingly not packed and sweaty as I'm used to for a
Chunk show - it was crowded, but not uncom-
fortably so.
I was expecting some songs off of their new EP "Leaves in the Gutter",
and there were a couple from that release (a
really good EP, in case you were wondering...shows off the raucous,
upbeat side of the band with obvious heavy pop
leanings). But what I wasn't expecting was how many old songs
they would be playing...outside of "The Popular Music"
off of "Indoor Living" and the new tracks, there wasn't a single song
released after 1995. Lots of crowd favorites -
"Precision Auto", "Hyper Enough", "Tie a Rope to the Back of the Bus",
and "throwing Things". More importantly, they
played three of my top-five all-time favorite Superchunk songs:
"Driveway to Driveway", "Detroit Has a Skyline", and the
rarely heard but amazing "Animated Airplanes Over Germany". The
band was having such a good time they played not
one but two encores, closing out the night with, you guessed it, "Slack
Motherfucker".
Hopefully with them releasing their first new music since 2001 and
playing a few shows, hopefully this outing marks the
beginning of a Superchunk resurgence. God knows it would make my
life more complete if there was a new Chunk
record to listen to, some live shows to attend...and of course some
more opportunities to stare at Laura Balance.
(Below are some crappy digi photos I took at the show)
This was by far the weirdest Morrissey show I have ever
seen. I guess that is to be expected when you go see a man
this sensitive in a town as ridiculous as Myrtle Beach, where we passed
no less than two dozen miniature golf courses
and about 400 "Wings" stores en route to the House of Blues.
The man from Manchester had canceled all of his shows in the tour
previous to this one because he was "sick", and we
were checking the website every day to see if this concert would be
canceled as well. Luckily, the show went on as
planned even though it was obvious that Morrissey's voice was not 100%
healthy.
I'm guessing it was also due to this sickness that he only played for a
little over an hour, a very short show by typical
Morrissey concert standards (that aren't cut short by him wigging out
over stage crashers or being able to smell meat
cooking or god knows what else). It was still a good outing,
fairly typical for the shows he has been putting on these
last few years - lots of new songs from the last couple of records,
virtually nothing from his early or middle solo era
(I think "Sister, I'm a Poet" was the only song from this period), and
a few classic Smiths songs ("This Charming Man",
"How Soon is Now?", and "Ask" if I recall correctly). All
perfectly fine songs, especially the smiths tracks, but what I
wouldn't give to hear "Sing Your Life" or "I Don't Mind If You Forget
Me" or "Speedway" or about a bazillion other over-
looked classics.
I was going to ramble on about how strange the crowd was, an odd
combination of hipsters, Myrtle Beach tourists,
businessmen just off of work and tarted up middle age women, but I
wouldn't even know where to begin. what I do know
is the woman with the perm standing next to me looked like she had just
stepped out of a time machine from 1983. In
fact, she may have been one of my elementary school teachers...
Warning
signs:
- Euphoria leading to paranoia.
- Stealitazation of your thangs.
- Jibbery styled oinkery what don't make no sense.
...Yes, I've been watching too much "Squidbillies"...it might be the
funniest show on TV right now. If only I hadn't been so
damn stubborn and put off watching it for ages.
Gentleman Jess & His Men
with The Black Lips
The Cat's Cradle
3/4/09
Every once in a while a band comes along that plays pop music the way
it is meant to be played...that band is Gentle- man Jesse & His Men.
This Atlanta group is fronted by a man named, get this, Jesse!
Jesse Smith to be exact, a
member of the Carbonas, a good punk band that may be broken up now but
I'm too lazy to research it. I saw the
Carbonas play a few years back in Oakland and they were quite good
(even if I did like openers Beat Beat Beat better,
the side-project band of another one of the members). I'm not
qualified to report on Jesse's gentlemanlyness, but I
certainly have no problem noting that he can write some amazing pop
songs full of hooks.
They put on a fantastic live show - song after song that I had to
restrain myself from singing along to like I do in the car.
They played a lot of songs from their self-titled debut album, as well
as some new tracks and a King Tuff cover. It was
a very no nonsense affair, no goofy banter, no overlong tuning
problems, just an onslaught of power pop that you'd think
was straight out of a time machine from 1980. After a blistering
set and a lot of bad dancing on my part, I promptly
loaded up at the merch table and can now be seen tooling around
suburbia in a Gentleman Jesse t-shirt that surely
dumbfounds the soccer moms.
Despite my enthusiasm, Gentleman Jesse was not why most folks were at
this show, but rather they were there to see
the controversial Black Lips, they of the stage
pissing and fighting and making out with each other on stage. It
always
felt a bit put on to me, but I'm no expert in relieving ones self while
performing live so who knows?
I've tried and tried to listen to the Black Lips, and have many friends
who swear by them, but something about them has
always rubbed me the wrong way. I'd never seen them live though
and decided to stick around for a few songs and see
if my mind could be changed. The verdict? Eh, not
really. While their music is definitely more enjoyable in a live
setting,
it's still nothing special in my book - typical garage rock with a
slight psychedelic tinge (though their newest record is a
step in a better, more original direction). I do give them bonus
points for gratuitous and enthusiastic use of the smoke
machine in combination with some 60's era psychedelic light show
effects, but I still took off after about 30 minutes not
won over by this band yet again.
(I actually took photos of Gentleman Jesse, these will obviously get
posted whenever I get around to processing the film)
"Well,
y'all need me, I'll be putting pictures of my ass on the internet."
Band Of Horses - Islands
On The Coast. It took me a few months to really grow
into the second Band of Horses
record, but th delayed verdict is: pretty damn good.
Bonus: No One's Gonna Love You
David Vandervelde - California
Breezes. David traded in some of the glam-pop of his
debut album for a taste of
70's era canyon folk. Not the smartest direction IMO, but still
pretty decent.
Bonus: Someone Like You
Fleet Foxes - Tiger
Mountain Peasant Song. Hey look, Fleet Foxes!
Nobody has posted these guys before! Like
a tree sloth, sometimes it takes me a while to get around to shit, but
I always get there eventually.
Bonus: White Winter Hymnal
Mojave 3 - Big
Star Baby. I had
never paid much attention to these guys, but their album "Puzzles Like
You" (where
these songs are taken from) is a damn pop masterpiece, one of the most
underrated records to come out in years.
Bonus: Breaking The Ice
Bonus:Most Days
Radar Bros - Happy
Spirits. It seems like I'm always posting Radar Bros.
songs...they need to stop putting out so
much awesome music so I can move on to other bands!
Bonus: Lake Life
The Velvet Underground - Rock
& Roll. True story: the Velvet Underground
authored many great songs.
Will Oldham - Barcelona.
Charmless - Action.
The Black Keys - Leavin'
Trunk.
All three of these tracks
came off of an Isota records compilation...I know the Charmless
track was available elsewhere,
but can't speak to the rareness of the other two tracks. I can
speak to them being really good songs though.
***February Twenty
Seventh
Two
Thousand and Nine***
Buying a house can kinda distract you from remembering to update your
goofy website...anyways...
This Polvo reunion basically
coincided with my moving back to the Triangle...coincidence? I
doubt it. Clearly, they
heard I was moving back and the area as a whole wanted to make a good
impression to keep me around. An Archers
of Loaf reunion would have been nice too, maybe even have Superchunk
play out more often, but the real prize was
Polvo reforming. So let me take this moment to thank the
Triangle, it's peoples and the band Polvo for reforming solely
for my behalf - it really means a lot.
This was my second time seeing them since their reformation
(technically third time, but since the second time only
consisted of a half a song, I'm not sure I'm going to count it).
That first show, the official "reunion" I guess, was amazing
just because I was getting to see them again, the nostalgia and
adrenaline rushing through your body as if you had just
reunited with your high school sweetheart. But I guess it wasn't
just a lark - they're still playing together, and not only
that - writing new songs. Really, really good new songs, as if
they had never taken any time off at all.
Most of their set featured a lot of the same songs from the last time I
saw them..."Feather of Forgiveness", "Fast
Canoe", "Enemy Insects" and "Lazy Comet". On top of that, they
played a "sorta" cover of Led Zeppelin's "Dazed and
Confused" that started out legit, morphed into a Polvo song (whose name
escapes me), and then finished the track up
back with the Zep song. And then they closed the night out with
one of the greatest songs of all time, "Every Holy
Shroud". You can't really end a set better than that, unless
maybe you are Oprah giving away free cars and cuisinarts.
Openers Birds of Avalon also deserve a
mention - made up of a murderer's row of local talent (including former
members of Cherry Valence and The Weather), these lads (and one lady)
basically set the stage on fire playing 70's-
era hard rock with a nod towards prog rock, but not so much that it
became a noodily wankfest that generally plagues
most prog rockers. And most importantly they were tight - as
tight as a cheapskate's tipping hand, as my grandfather
always said. Rumor on the street is they are recording a new
album, most likely a leading factor in their setting the
stage on fire and something to keep your eyes open for in the
future.
Archive - December 2009
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