review- godspeed you! black emperor at the vic- 3.28.11

Sorry, Chicago, but London has you beaten by miles. Say what you will about the English, but they are a well-behaved bunch at live shows. I’m beginning to think that my four months in London seeing tons and tons of amazing shows ruined my show-going life forever more and it wasn’t until seeing godspeed at the Vic tonight that I realised this. Yup, I used the English spelling. You had your personal space, people weren’t constantly pushing past you like you weren’t there to get closer to the action or elbowing their way to the bar the entire night and everyone also *gasp* listened to and cared about the music considerately. My first time seeing godspeed was at the Scala in seedy King’s Cross while on an exchange program during my junior year of college. It was how my parents convinced me to stay in college- they sent me to London for four months and gave me $900 a month to do whatever I wanted with. I saw a show practically every week and at least ten of these shows ended up being pivotal experiences in my long and illustrious show-going life—Radiohead in Glasgow, Scotland on the tent tour, Elliott Smith at the Forum in Kentish Town and I even managed to see Bright Eyes in a teeny bar in Camden and Modest Mouse at the Garage in Highbury for £7. Godspeed at the Scala has long been one of the most special shows I’ve ever attended. I recorded the show that night and cherish few of my recordings as much as that one. The crowd was at rapt attention the entire time- during the quiet moments you could hear a pin drop it was so still and then the band would build up to ungodly heights of volume. Nothing fell short of astonishing the entire night.

Last night I’d say outdid the London show in length (over two hours), visually (the projections were all gorgeous- the stop-motion loops of smoke-stacks and bridges during 'Monheim' were quite stirring) and in emotional intensity—I’ve been to very few shows that have stirred me up emotionally in the same way. Sigur Rós at the Civic Opera House in 2006 springs to mind (I almost cried about five times during one song), but this was different—this was ‘Dancer in the Dark’ intense by the end. Perhaps this was what made the petty annoyances of the way that the people around me were behaving as inescapably irritating as I found them. It’s long been a gripe of mine at shows that people as a whole seem empirically incapable of sitting and enjoying music without acting like inconsiderate little ids the entire time (i.e. talking loudly during quiet ‘boring’ bits, making sure that they have a beer to suck down during every second they are present no matter how many people they have to elbow and push through to accomplish this, texting, tweeting, facebooking, snapping crappy photos on their cellphones, what have you). I had the displeasure of standing next to someone who felt the need to narrate every little thought he was having to his friend the entire time—‘dude, this is the song that was in ‘Friday Night Lights,’’ ‘Whoa, fucking amazing!’ ‘This part’s kind of boring,’ etc. Someone near me even dropped a fartbomb at one point—a first for me in over sixteen years of going to shows. There was a man dancing maniacally the entire time to my right—the people in that section gave him a good ten foot berth to either side which he took full advantage of. As irritating as I found his need to take up that much room and make such a spectacle of himself (I suppose it’s not enough to enjoy a show yourself, you should do your best to make it as much about you as anything else for those around you) it did teach me a valuable lesson that also holds true when you feel uncomfortable during your late night subway ride home—just pretend you’re nuts and people will give more than enough personal space and leave you alone. By the end of the evening the dancing guy was the least annoying part of the entire experience—at least he was enjoying the music.

Now that I’ve gotten the venting out of the way, the setlist was completely different from the previous time I’d seen them with the addition of two new songs that I’d never heard (maybe I should call them ‘pieces’ as ‘songs’ isn’t really a proper description of godspeed’s body of work)—in my searches for sound recordings on archive.org (I highly recommend you check some of these recordings out, by the way) they are referred to as ‘Hope Drone’ (which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like—a largely structureless piece built from absolutely nothing that they opened with) and ‘Albanian’—which I would describe as an admirable exercise in Spacemen 3-style droning minimalism during its main movement before it gave way to their penchant for more ornate and repeated wind-downs and wind-ups and unlike anything they have ever done before. Once they broke into the more ornate sections of ‘Albanian’ I have to admit that I found myself pining for a more droning minimal approach favored (and accomplished excellently) by the Warlocks. They played the title track from ‘Lift Yr. Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven’ (or ‘Levez Vos Skinny Fists Comme Antennas to Heaven’ for every other country the record was released in) second which I found to be the highlight of the evening (that one’s a personal favourite of mine). They played a lot more of their slower, moodier pieces that were less prone to explosion—i.e. ‘Monheim’ and ‘World Police/Friendly Fire.’ The ending triplet was brutally affecting and by the end of ‘Blaise Bailey Finnegan III’ I was having some pretty dark thoughts (it’s been a rough month). ‘Slow Moving Trains’/’The Cowboy’ was particularly breathtaking to hear live as I’d never really seen an example or heard tell of them playing it at these recent shows. ‘Dead Metheny’ was good to hear again (that and ‘Lift Yr. Skinny Fists…’ were the only two that they’d played at the Scala all those years ago). The only bummer for me was that they didn’t play ‘Rockets Fall on Rocket Falls’ which is the best godspeed piece in their entire ouvré and blew my socks off completely when I witnessed it live in London. The recorded version of it on ‘Yanqui U.X.O.’ doesn’t even come close.

During ‘Blaise Bailey Finnegan III’ I found myself pulled inexorably into the bleakest tenets of their music. The song is dense, long, unyieldingly intense and possibly the most depressing, hopeless piece of music I’ve ever heard in my life. I’m certainly not the type of person to shy away from depressing music, either—just look at any of my diary playlists. I’ve never listened to it much as I have some bitter memories associated with it. My introduction to godspeed was through this song and it happened when I was driving a friend back to Lawrence, KS from Kansas City after a thoroughly disheartening and disappointing band practice. This friend was in two bands with me at that time and we would try to practice for both bands (one band was an infant version of shalloboi and the other was a hardcore band that was largely the pet of my best friend at the time), but my best friend at the time would often skip over shalloboi practice in favor of the other band while also somehow convincing me to pick up and drive home this friend from Lawrence despite the fact that I was constantly getting screwed out of practice for my own band. Given this memory and the nature of the song it puts me in a bit of an odd place and because of this I’ve never listened to it much. By the end of it it was quite clear that there would be no encore. In the interest of a little levity Stefanie and I went to Schuba’s to have a drink with my friend who had played there that night.

It appears that godspeed have finally returned from their eight-year disappearance into tangential side-projects. Throughout the show a particularly loud-mouthed audience member kept making strange comments (‘It’s my birthday!’ for example), however, one comment was quite poignant—in the middle of the show she called out, ‘We missed you! Never go away again!’ Fair enough.

for your consideration-
2011.03.28- the vic- chicago, il
2000.11.22- the scala- london, uk (taped by yours truly with a tape recorder purchased at best buy for $20)

diary 3.5.11- wave a white flag

song- artist- album

1. let's jump in- dead meadow- 'feathers'
2. guider- disappears- 'guider'
3. love on the sea- moon duo- 'love on the sea' 12"
4. outta my head- wooden shjips- 'vol. 2'
5. awake- black rebel motorcycle club- s/t
6. summer holiday- wild nothing- 'gemini'
7. blue as your blood- the walkmen- 'lisbon'
8. majesty/magic- low- 'c'mon'
9. this may be the last time- staple singers- 'spacemen 3 110 comp'
10. take care of my baby- dum dum girls- 'he gets me high' 12"
11. i'm a fool to want you- ketty lester- 'love letter' 7"
12. how can you mend a broken heart- al green- 'let's stay together'
13. spiral dream- jessica bailiff- 'feels like home'
14. in here the world begins- broadcast- 'mother is the milky way'
15. you're lionel richie- mogwai- 'harcore will never die, but you will'
16. won't get to heaven (the state i'm in)- spiritualized- 'let it come down'
17. netty's girl- beastie boys- 'the sounds of science'

review- vivian girls- 'share the joy'

Vivian Girls- ‘Share the Joy’

Another pre-ordered album that came early in digital form. The third Vivian Girls album arrived in my world almost out of nowhere. I wasn’t even aware that they had been recording a new album until I found the pre-ordering info via twitter. I figured that Cassie Ramone and Katy Goodman were busy with their other projects- the Babies and La Sera respectively. I’d even begun to think that we wouldn’t be hearing anything new from the band in quite a while as their presence had been so all-consuming and impossible to ignore for the better part of two years.

‘Share the Joy’ would fall into the category of their cleanest-sounding record. While ‘Everything Goes Wrong’ was their first recorded in a ‘proper’ studio, it retained that gritty, sloppy charm that was their hallmark at that particular point in time. They were doing so much so quickly that they always opted for leaving in mistakes and off-key vocals. Since Ali Koehler has left the band in favor of Best Coast’s endless touring schedule it seems that Ramone and Goodman made a concerted effort to get the songs sounding tighter, the singing more focused and in-key and the results sound very refreshing indeed. I’m not sure if I can compare it to their other two records as, to me, the first will probably always be untouchable, but the second is a great record that will never get a fair shake- for instance it’s probably the only record I’ve ever heard of that has been referred to as ‘overlong’ while still clocking in at under 45 minutes. ‘Share the Joy’ glistens and shines, the production is pristine but for the occasional buzz of a tube amp during the fadeouts. It’s surprising how clean it is considering the fact that it was done at Rear House, the home studio of Jeremy Earl, the genius behind perpetually lo-fi (well, at least until last year) Woods. While the vocals are more in-key than they were before, they are also defiantly and obviously free of auto-tune. I find it difficult to believe that naysayers are still so quick to call ‘foul’ on their famously lax singing styles- perfectly on-key-at-all times vocals have never been what the Vivian Girls have been going for. The fact that they aren’t perfect musicians or singers but are still able to craft such vibrant songs and play them in their own, distinctive way without relying on the modern-day cheats that are now so often part and parcel for digital radio-ready recordings is now officially remarkable. Even if the harmonies aren’t always perfect or Ramone can be heard struggling to grab the guitar melodies she's reaching for the emotion is always there and the effect is always achieved. It’s similar to the way that Neil Young worked and it’s encouraging to hear a new and very hyped about band bravely put themselves up for such scrutiny so readily. There's a purity to this method that can yield inspiring results.

The most intriguing feature of this record are the complexity of the songs- they would be unbearably pretentious epics in less capable hands. The closing track is six minutes- an eternity compared to anything on the first record- and it never feels overblown or self-indulgent. The melodic break in opener ‘The Other Girls’ meanders and moves somewhat awkwardly at times- wavering but never falling down and it keeps going and going, ascending and ascending clear into the angelic ‘ooohs’ and ‘aaaahs’ of the bridge. It’s incredibly intriguing to hear the band push their sound into new territory in this way and it never gets old or feels forced in the slightest. Even songs that sound like they are going to be missteps upon first listen take ideas that shouldn’t work and bend them to the bands' will in these incredibly creatively dense songs. ‘Dance (If you Wanna)’ sounds like a tossed-off attempt at a shameless pop song for about thirty seconds and then kicks itself into overdrive and takes you in at least three different directions that you weren’t expecting at all and builds upon itself in the simplest, subtlest ways. Even a song like ‘Take it As it Comes’ should not work at all- it’s such an obvious attempt at an old-style girl group conversational song and yet they somehow manage to pull it off with an effortless skill that is severely lacking in most fawned-over bands these days. The chorus of that song is irresistible no matter how hackneyed the premise seems at first.

The record also features two previously released tracks- ‘Lake House,’ which has been present in their live set for at least two years and on the ‘The World’s Lousy With Ideas Vol. 8’ compilation and ‘Death,’ which was the B-side to the excellent ‘Moped Girls’ 7” but here appears in a more vocally toned-down form. Both versions of ‘Death’ serve as a good litmus test for the evolution present on this album- the differences are deceptively subtle. It’d be fairly easy for them to slip by unnoticed, it just means that you have to listen a little closer.

review- mogwai- 'hardcore will never die, but you will' Take TWO

I felt that I had to rewrite this review as I realised that I’d broken my cardinal rule of album review writing- always listen to a record at least three times before sitting down to write about it. My theory is that my favourite records over the years have occasionally been the types of albums that don’t pull you in instantly on the first or even the second listen. Deerhunter’s ‘Halcyon Digest’ was like this, My Bloody Valentine’s ‘Isn’t Anything,’ Cocteau Twins’ ‘Heaven or Las Vegas’- all records I love to death and all records that I didn’t get at all the first two times I listened to them. I’d have to say that ‘Hardcore Will Never Die, but you Will’ is like this too. While it still isn’t among my favourite Mogwai records, I’d at least place it in line with ‘Rock Action’- it’s reaching for new territory, succeeding most of the time but definitely with a few missteps along the way.

My third listen was a bit of a revelation- which is what often happens with records like this and thus the reason for the ‘three spins’ minimum rule. If whatever’s hiding in there doesn’t jump out at you after three listens it’s either not there or you weren’t meant to hear it. Basically I think that the lead-off track is brilliant and belongs in the class with all of the great Mogwai lead-off tracks (Mogwai are particularly adept at choosing a lead-off track- I’m beginning to think that they must deliberately work on these lead-off tracks specifically to BE lead-off tracks). ‘Mexican Grand Prix’ is still objectionable to me, but mainly only because of the vocals- I feel like if it were just an instrumental I would like it more. ‘Rano Pano’ is a track I’ve warmed up to- it sounds loping and bizarre to me now, but also the evidence of the band not taking themselves too seriously and simply having a good time. ‘Death Rays’ revealed itself to me, as did ‘How to be a Werewolf.’ I found that the excellent ‘Letters to the Metro’ had always been one of my favourite tracks on here but suffered from being sandwiched between my two least-favourite tracks (I still find ‘San Pedro’ and ‘George Thatcher Square Death Party’ to be a buzz-kill and the victim of annoying vocals respectively).

I’m still a huge fan of the final three songs on the album, which I actually find to be stronger since they are essentially the moody tracks on a very ‘up’ sounding album for Mogwai. I’m so enamored of this album that I am definitely going to buy it on vinyl now and I might even reconsider the prospect of going to see them play at the Metro. In their overall canon I wouldn’t rate this album as one of my favourites- although I also don’t really have a list. This is probably as close as they’re likely to come to making an album as perfectly sequenced and fresh-sounding as ‘Happy Songs for Happy People’- which also took several listens for me to grasp how great it was. I'm not afraid to come out and admit when I'm wrong about something. *ding*

review- dum dum girls at the empty bottle- 2/24/11

(photo by dave knapik)

Life has a way of being just a touch ironic on its own sometimes. I got an email the day of the show from polyvinyl informing me that the download link for the new Vivian Girls release ‘Share the Joy’ was now active, so I downloaded it without much thought and Stefanie and I listened to it in the car on the way down to the Empty Bottle to see the elusive Dum Dum Girls (a band who circumstances have forced me to miss live twice now). It wasn’t until we were rounding a corner while looking for a parking space right outside the Empty Bottle- I suddenly felt self-conscious and turned the volume down at the sight of all of the hipster-types smoking outside. The specter of the onslaught of girl-group and reverb-drenched female bands looms kind of large over a band like Dum Dum Girls. There are times when the saturation is a bit much and I hadn’t given it much thought until that moment.

We arrived at about 10:30 or so, just in time to catch Brooklyn’s MINKS. I have to admit that I didn’t like them at all from the get-go. They mumbled and sleep-walked their way through their set exactly the way that one would expect a bunch of hipster cutouts from Brooklyn to at their first show in boring old Chicago. The skinny, female singer stood front and center not moving much playing a tambourine when she wasn’t singing along with the cataclysmically bored frontman who seems to think that ripping off ’17 seconds’-era Cure song structures and the Strokes with some of the mumbliest vocals I’ve ever heard is a stylistic choice. He even managed to sound snotty and bitchy when saying ‘thank you’ after every song. My favourite moment: someone in the crowd yelled, ‘Eat something!’ at the emaciated singer. The aforementioned frontman’s icy response- ‘We’re going to eat you if you’re not careful!’ Touché! The drummer even played that standard Laurence Tolhurst circa 1979 and 80 drumbeat during EVERY song. I’d say that MINKS’ set was pretty much the polar opposite of seeing Wild Nothing. They should probably have that skinny singer taking up the lion’s share of the vocals rather than standing front and center looking self-conscious and exposed- her singing at least didn’t sound bored and she had too nice of a voice for her to just stand there for the whole set looking like she didn't have enough to do.

The changeover between bands took an inordinate amount of time considering that MINKS had used all of Dum Dum Girls’ amps and drums. Somehow it still took over thirty minutes for the stage technician to get everything sounding just right. Even given all of that once they were up on stage and the house music was killed we watched the band awkwardly twiddle with amps and move things around for a good five minutes. This is often a bit of a pet-peeve of mine having played many shows myself as it just makes me wonder why anyone bothers with a tech of any kind at a place like the Empty Bottle? Every time I've been at a show where the band brings a tech this happens- the tech spends forever getting everything just right and then the band comes onstage and the guitars aren't loud enough or the vocal mic starts feeding back. Or it plays out like a ridiculous charade so that the crowd won't get pissed that they're being forced to wait an hour inbetween bands because the tech goes out every five minutes to tune the guitars. In this case once the music started all was forgiven as they did sound fantastic, although Dee Dee’s guitar was pretty much inaudible. When she was playing it by herself you could hear it kind of faintly while hearing the picking sound on the strings. Dee Dee’s singing was front and center and strong as were the harmonies traded off between all of the other players. I found it fascinating the way they had parsed out the harmonies amongst the bass player, lead guitarist and drummer and how they would very sparingly use three or four part harmonies. Those vocal harmonies are what carries those fantastic songs, which is what makes a quiet guitar a minor gripe. I also thought that Dee Dee was a great frontwoman- she was very enthusiastic and emphatic but not over-affected and her delivery was spot on.

The set started with their excellent cover of ‘Play With Fire’ by the Rolling Stones and was culled mostly from ‘I Will Be’ and they played at least three of the four tracks from ‘He Gets Me High’ (which I still haven’t gotten in the mail yet, but I’m definitely looking forward to hearing), all of which were excellent and showing some very promising musical evolution. It also sounds to me like the live band were more invested in the newer songs as their parts came alive on these songs in a way that they sometimes didn’t on those that were bringing Dee Dee’s solo 4-track recordings to life. The only pre-‘I Will Be’ song that they played was ‘Catholicked,’ which was kind of a shame as I would’ve liked to have heard a few more songs from that era. They also played what they said was a brand new song that they had just learned that morning which came off beautifully.

They played for almost an hour and did one encore, which was their interesting take on ‘There is a Light That Never Goes Out’ by the Smiths. All in all the set was very solid and they didn’t go overboard with the theatrics, which I often find annoying. When you have great songs and you're presenting them in a heartfelt, enthusiastic way theatrics become more of a distraction than an enhancement. I’d call it a symptom of having come of music listening age during a time when bands didn’t feel the need to bother with much in the way of stage theatrics. Matching outfits and guitars is an aesthetic I can get behind, though.

A lot of outside influences were working their magic to distract us from the music while we were there- it was a sold-out crowd and, as often happens, Stefanie operated as a magnet for drunk, annoying people- we were all the way in the back and a group of people much younger than us decided that they had to dance around bumping into us all night all the while posing in contrived tableaux with hamm’s cans in their hands frozen in mid-drink for facebook-bound photos. One of them has Stefanie’s middle finger in it as they bumped into her three times and ignored her ‘Do you mind?’ after this aforementioned third time. One of them did eventually apologize. A friend of mine and I were talking about how she prefers going to metal shows because people know how to behave themselves and not be obnoxious, whereas with indie shows these days you get a lot of this kind of behavior- I suppose that people think that being there means you need to take picture after picture of you with your drunk friends texting and tweeting the entire night away hopelessly oblivious to those around you. There’s a little music going on, too, folks. I suppose I was due for an experience like this as the other two recent shows I’ve been to have been refreshingly free of this kind of stuff (and they were both indie shows).

Also the Dum Dum Girls will have to bear, yet again, the unfortunate position of being compared to the Vivian Girls as Stefanie and I couldn’t help but do so as we were listening to the rest of the 'Share the Joy' on the way home. The two are comparable, but ultimately going about their respective musical aesthetic in very different ways- the Vivian Girls are very infused a no-bullshit punk approach- you can hear them struggling with guitar parts, hitting the occasional bum note and a good deal of shamelessly out-of-key singing but the fact remains that they are playing these brilliantly written and heartfelt songs that are a fantastic cocktail of punk, girl-groups and the occasional Jesus and Mary Chain feedbacky-scuzzfest. Dum Dum Girls are a sleeker affair with their matching black skirts and tights, guitars and disciplined harmonies. A lot of what they suffer from live is the fact that they are a band that came into existence to bring one person’s recordings to life whereas the Vivian Girls have always existed as a band. Here’s hoping that Dum Dum Girls continue to evolve as a band rather than just as a group of hired hands to bring solo recordings to life onstage.

review- mogwai- 'hardcore will never die, but you will'

Mogwai- ‘Hardcore Will Never Die, but you Will’

Let me preface this entry by saying that this is the first time I’ve ever been disappointed by a Mogwai record. A lot of people have criticized the combination of ‘Mr. Beast’ and ‘The Hawk is Howling’ as basically being the same album. I could see this point- if you listen to a playlist constructed from each track side by side the two albums’ respective tracklists were put together in an identical way- ‘Auto-Rock’ and ‘I’m Jim Morrison, I’m Dead,’ then ‘Glasgow Megasnake’ and ‘Batcat’ and so on and so forth. The similarities are undeniable, but to me the two albums are coming from a different enough place that the similarities to me are moot. In my mind ‘Mr. Beast’ is ‘Young Team’ to ‘The Hawk is Howling’s ‘Come on Die Young.’ The first two proper Mogwai releases were mining very similar territory as well, but few were brash enough to call ‘foul’ for that. It was for this reason that before I heard ‘Rock Action’ I was concerned that Mogwai would become a one-trick pony. They certainly could’ve and gone on to plenty of acclaim, acceptance and fortune (i.e. Explosions in the Sky or Sigur Rós), but they didn’t- ‘Rock Action,’ while definitely sagging in the middle from uneven-ness, pushed the band’s signature sound effortlessly into unexplored and rich territory. ‘Happy Songs for Happy People’ did this again, but more effortlessly and ‘Mr. Beast’ and ‘The Hawk is Howling’ continued to satisfy while fulfilling further mining of new ground (I’m sorry, but ‘The Sun Smells Too Loud’ is unlike anything that the band had ever attempted before and was executed with an aplomb and passion that few bands as far into their careers are capable of). ‘Special Moves’ pushed my undying devotion for Mogwai to unimagined heights. They could even pull off something as tired, risky and oftentimes pointless as a live record. It actually CAPTURED the visceral experience of witnessing them live (something I’d always assumed would be impossible)- it seemed like Mogwai could do no wrong. Then my friend from work walked in one day and handed me a copy of ‘Hardcore Will Never Die, but you Will’ (a record I was excited to death about hearing) and said, ‘I don’t know about this one- it’s awfully poppy.’

I’ve only attempted two listens so far. I had already heard ‘Rano Pano’ before- I remember feeling concerned when it ended up being the most lackluster 45 I’d picked up in a long time. ‘Mexican Grand Prix’ to me is the biggest offender- while I wasn’t wild about hearing Mogwai attempt a Kraftwerk/Stereolab-type song I was beginning to get with it until that most obnoxious vocoder started in. I actually find its presence on ‘Hunted by a Freak’ and ‘I’m Jim Morrison, I’m Dead’ perfectly valid as a textural choice that added something to the proceedings. Here it just seemed hackneyed, pointless and irritating. From there ‘Rano Pano’ sounds like the idiotic younger sibling of ‘Glasgow Megasnake’ and ‘Batcat’ and in the rest I found little to distinguish from one track to the next until the final three tracks- which is the only part of the album that I feel is worth the time spent listening to it. They’re all so good that it almost punctuates my disappointment with the album as a whole as it seems evidence to me of what they COULD’VE done on the rest of the album if they hadn’t been busy cooking up something sunnier and poppier sounding. 'How to Be a Werewolf' even has the pop-leanings of the earlier tracks, but manages to pull them off without sounding labored-over and contrived. I don’t even have an objection to their poppier side- ‘The Sun Smells too Loud’ is one of my favourites on ‘The Hawk is Howling’- here it just sounds like a band playing up to a forced idea of what they should be doing. They've always managed to sound invigorated, passionate and serious about what they were doing, but that spark seems to be missing for much of the beginning part of the record. The plethora of positive reviews are truly baffling to me. I will continue to listen to the record on the off chance that I warm up to it, but it just seems to me to reek of half-heartedness and has all the trappings of a forced artistic about-face.

Even with all of this being as it is I find it difficult to be too hard on them- they did have an amazing seven album run (eight if you count ‘Special Moves’) and that’s nothing to sneeze at. That said I’m probably not going to shell out $27 to see them at the Metro in April. There are too many other shows coming through town that month that I’m more excited to see.

wild nothing- lincoln hall 2.18.11

another friday night show worthy of sleep deprivation- the perfect combination of shameless 80's nostalgia, jangly beauty, reverb-soaked dream-pop and some beautiful, melodic songs- wild nothing, the essential solo project of jack tatum. new order-style basslines, guitars that bounce between smiths-esque jangle, lush-style (as in the criminally underrated 90's band) strumming and occasionally my bloody valentine-spun background textural drones with some cure/depeche mode type keyboard lines.
i again left my house at around 10:30 so as to avoid the opening bands as a co-worker of mine told me that abe vigoda were awful (wow, he was not lying). i used the tail-end of their set to stake out the perfect spot in lincoln hall- which i finally found. one that allows for the type of perfect live sound that only seems possible there as well as a wealth of personal space. i'm not telling you where it is- that's how much i liked it. fortunately i only had to endure 20 or so minutes of abe vigoda and their hipster haircuts, strained caterwauling, pink miami vice shirts and bizarrely misguided machismo posturing amongst a din of cheesy sounding synths and upchuck reflex-inspiring melodrama. surprisingly they weren't the worst opening band i've ever seen. a group at the front seemed quite enthusiastic so i was hoping that maybe after they played a portion of the sold out crowd would leave.
wild nothing set up all of their own equipment very quickly, left us waiting for a considerate amount of time and started their set with a very no-bullshit reading of 'your rabbit feet' off of the 'golden haze' ep. this song is probably their most smiths-sounding song and i've never liked it much, but live i found it to be much more impressive. i was interested to hear how the songs would sound with a full band that weren't present on the recordings and this was the first of many songs that i'd never thought much of in their recorded form but enjoyed quite a bit live. tatum's voice was very assured and clear with just the right amount of reverb and without a suffocating sense of affectation- something i admire greatly in any singer. this song really set the tone for the entire night for me- no bullshit, we're just here to play the songs and play them with real passion and enthusiasm, not a bunch of posturing and bravado. kind of like the opposite of when we went to see crocodiles at the empty bottle (with the exception of that bands' rhythm section). from there over the course of the evening they went through about half of 'gemini' (maybe more)- which has revealed itself to be one of my favourite albums of last year- a shame i didn't own it when i put together my list as it's now one of my most frequently played records at work and at home- and two more tracks from 'golden haze' (including my absolute favourite- 'vultures like lovers' and the title track). the biggest surprise of the night and the exact moment that they won my heart completely happened midway through the set when tatum announced 'we're going to play a really short one that's also a cover,' counted it off to the other band members (it's always the mark of a true bandleader when the guitarist is the one counting the songs off and not the drummer- this is what also happened when i saw elliott smith) and the band launched into a beautifully faithful reading of 'velocity girl'- possibly the best primal scream song and b-side ever. just different enough to make it blend effortlessly with their own songs and just faithful enough to grant it the amount of reverence that it deserves. i don't think very many in the crowd besides me really got it, but i did and it was much appreciated. i was singing along and the people beside me looked completely baffled.
i was so enthralled and won over by the live takes of my least favourite 'gemini' tracks (i.e. 'confirmation,' 'bored games,' 'witching hour') that i didn't even notice until later that they had omitted my favourite section of the record- 'pessimist' and 'o, lilac.' it didn't really matter- one of my favourite features of many a cure show that i have witnessed and/or heard on a bootleg was when a live reading of an album track that i don't care for pushes the song into a context that makes me understand its aim and purpose better and winning me over completely in the process. i almost enjoy this more than when a band plays all of my favourite songs- i admire their ability to win me over with their songs that i had previously considered lackluster.
all told it was a fantastic evening. it's so refreshing to see a band that has garnered a lot of attention with a minimum of posturing and affectation. i think of it as a victory of an underdog. i'm on pins and needles to hear what they do next. the only bummer of the night was that i'd brought money to buy their 'cloudbusting' 7" as i was dying to hear their take on one of my favourite kate bush songs and i couldn't find it at the merch table.