the strokes
so indeed.
but ya can't get over the weightiness of tonight. it was hot for late October. Depression ridden. Just sorta tempered with frustration in general. Ya know when ya have music practice and they have to keep stopping every two seconds because people are making retarded errors and screaming "ah! I did it again!" and you want to throw something at them, but they keep doing it like the rest of us don't have lives to live beyond sitting there and trying to watch them painfully get through a rehearsal.
But it is revealed that the Bishop, who visited your church last week, thought your choir was so wonderful, that you were ready for the big times. yes. that's right kiddies. our first gig is going to be at the Travis county jail! Yes, should we accept, we will be singing to those in sing-sing. To the very people you will be reading about in a few months after they make a successful jail break. i will be in the presence of celebrity, and i'm sure most of them are @#!!!ing thrilled that our group of St. Peter the Apostle are coming to sing them such classics as "we have been told" and "psalm 42". If anything, I hope we are going to sing at an actual church service held in the jail and not to a bunch of people who are being forced to sit and watch.
Which, it has to be told that the reason why our choir sounds the way it does is because they hire people to come sing. They find vocalists who are in college and have had years and years of professional training, and their main contribution is to overpower the people of atonal nature, and to sing all of the solos. It's not like Sister Act where Whoopie Goldberg came in one day and whipped everyone into a rockin' powerhouse of spritualism. They cheat. Which is fine coz I would have nothing better to do on tuesdays and sundays if they didn't let non-believers join in.
then, after that mess is finally over, you get in your car, hoping to haul ass to get to the show, but you are stuck behind an incredibly slow 18-wheeler who is in the lane that you have to be in.
and as my watch decided to stop working at precisely 6:04 this evening, i had no @#!!!ing idea what time it was.
But ya get there in time to see the Moldy Peaches.
Which, ya know, I have no @#!!!ing clue to think about these guys either. They come out dressed in various halloween costumes such as Spiderman pj's, they start screaming "ARRGGHHH!!! ARRGGHHHH!!! ARGGHHH!!" and some retarded indie kid screams out, "you rock!"
but i suppose they did.
First, I hated them as they sounded just like every other band played on KVRX.
Then, I noticed the male co-lead singer's fly was unzipped. this is where the fun starts as it is apparent that Mr. Happy wants to join in the sing-along as he kept playing hide and seek with the audience.
And he had no clue.
Do you say something? Do you keep hoping one of his bandmates would notice tighty-whiteys and would say something? Nobody cared. which is good. There are too many zipped flys in rock today.
But the songs actually started to improve a bit. I think it's because their stage movements had some theateresque moments going on. Here is the girl, who sings this heart felt song about some guy that doesn't notice her and is probably seeing some skinny girl, and out comes the guy in a Pure Funk 'fro and squeaking the flute-a-phone. You can't help but laugh at the tenderness of it all.
And they were having fun. I was slowly won over a tad, but with no intentions of CD purchase as I don't think I could stand listening to an entire album of that without the insane guy jumping around for effect.
And they end on a high note. yay! huge crowd response, bordering on worthy of an encore, and here comes....
...ta da!....
so what the hell do I think of this mess? I saw these guys at SXSW. There was some attempt at stage movement, but since the stage was too small, it was semi-unsuccessful. so, I imagined that with plenty of room and a huge crowd who has now heard the CD, that something would magically transform. Another portal would be opened, and I would be standing at the gates of live act wizardry. It's what the NME would lead you to believe. It's what I thought was possible.
No. We get Julian looking a bit @#!!!ed up, anchored in one place unless its to make a circle back to take a chug of booze.
You know things aren't good when you have played 4 songs and you start announcing that it's your last song. Then you play another one. Then, you say again that the NEXT one is your last song. You have two last songs before you play another 6. That's @#!!!ing great. It's like 2 shows in one.
But people got into it anyway. Or, at least the people around me did, as I actually made it up towards the front of the stage. Which, should be dangerous, but I don't care at this point. I'm tired of seeing the backs' of people's heads. even though it didn't completely eliminate the problem. This one 6' tall guy, who looked like an extra from the movie Trainspotting, decided it was a good idea to get in front of me and pogo and start punching the air. I feared for my feet. I knew I should have been in the mellow section. The warning sign was that there was not even a whiff of the scent of weed.
But Julian starts to slightly sober up when he begins to realize "hey, this really IS our last song!" then, suddenly, there is movement! He grabbed the unbottoned flap of his blue jean jacket, and opened it like he was peddling fake Rolex's! And he moved from side to side of the stage and not up and down!
I'm sorry. The band was in top shape and they were actually working, and were very tight and all the usual things you say about bands, erm, um, "JustLikeMozartSmithsClashIggypopEllafitzgeraldMen udobutWith relevancy." And musically, better than the band the preceded. Better songs no doubt, and catchy enough that I could still remember little bits and pieces of songs I heard all the way back in March, but haven't found my way to the record store to purchase the full length album to expand on the 3-song EP I own and consummate it coz i'm not in the mood. I'm being pulled in more by Rufus Wainwright, and my CD's have a time limit on them. It'd end up buried somewhere. I want to be in that sorta mood where I want my music to be a nuissance. And right now, the only nuissance is that I can't get a damn ticket to see Roofies in November.
And so after the really final song was played, the lights came up and the "go home, you've got your money's worth" mood music came on. and people were a little perplexed. There was no opportunity for calling out for an encore, and I think in a weird way, I respect them for it. And nobody seemed too bothered by that either.
I think the cheapest encore I ever saw was at a Jonathan Richman show. He put on an ok show, and people, his fans, stood around and called out for waayyyy too long. and he popped out and said, "are you still here?" like he couldn't believe it and was annoyed by it. Then, he sung a few bars of one of his last songs a capella and disappeared again.
If you don't mean it, don't do it. Just go ahead and turn on the lights and go already.
So, I dunno. Maybe the band needs to go on a hiatus. Wasn't the most exciting thing I had ever seen, but there is no accounting for taste either way. Overly hyped? No, their songs were miles better than the Moldy Peaches, and they don't sound like most of the whiney indie f*ck-faces out there, so there is hope, but why was I bored? Why did it look like I was basically staring at the face of people who were playing it safe? Who weren't about to rip into anything, even if it was a package of Krispy Kreme donuts?
Oh well. They managed to draw a pretty large crowd. let's see if anyone will show up the next time around.
