Out and About -- March 2009 (Pt. I)
In the past few years, it seems like I only get out to concerts in clusters -- two or three nights out of four, and then nothing for another two months. 2009 has been no exception, with flurries of activity in March (aided by the pre-SXSW rush) and May (NYC Popfest). Since these events are long in the past, I'll try to keep it brief... but documentation of the events still has some personal value.
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The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, Let's Wrestle, Knight School
Bell House, Brooklyn, NY, 13-Mar-2009
This was my first trip to The Bell House, another venue from the team that runs Union Hall (a few blocks away in Park Slope). This converted Gowanus warehouse feels more like an old barn/banquet hall, with exposed rafters and concrete floor, rusticized paint job on plaster walls, and wood latticework behind bar. Wider than it is deep, with lots of standing room in the wings behind band. (Bonus points for the great beers out front; the performance space sacrifices taps but adds some surprising choices in cans.)
Knight School opened with its own trip down the well-beaten path of shambling fuzz-pop a few generations removed from, but clearly related to, common influences like Jesus & Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine. The entertaining but weightless songs were not helped by a PA mix that couldn't differentiate the high end. There's some quality here, but also room for growth.
Let's Wrestle suggests what Pavement would have become without the detour into "AM Gold" territory. Dominant bass melodies hook up with wacky and sometimes ironic lyrics, culminating in frayed, flannel-wrapped pop songs with metal hearts. "I Won't Lie To You" and "Man with Pica Syndrome" killed (and even had a few people singing along), not enough people recognized the brilliance of "Diana's Hair," and the remainder of the set featured songs from the recently released, highly recommended album on Stolen Recordings. I was at this show specifically to see Let's Wrestle and got everything I could have asked for. Put simply, a performance like this is how one recharges the noise-pop batteries.
The Pains of Being Pure At Heart have received plenty of hype and this was their big home show before heading to SXSW and points west. POBPAH seem to be the leaders in "Slumberland 2.0" (as a label and a sound), firmly anchored in the happy, upbeat side of 80s-style brit fuzz pop. The live show includes a side order of Cheap Trick-ish anthemry, minus the hammy showmanship and the gifts tossed on stage. The combination left me a little befuddled -- we all need our Cocoa Pebbles sometimes, but now I understand how the "elders" must have felt about my reaction to Slumberland 1.0. It's not like Mike and Archie were hiding their influences, but they brought a sense of individuality I didn't see on this night. The crowd was an odd mix of obsessive and ridiculously polite, to the point of being disconnected while present and carrying on like this band could save their lives. I'll certainly give POBPAH another chance, but this show just didn't do it for me.
You brought me around to some of that Slumberland stuff back at PRB, but when I saw TPOBPAH, I thought they sounded like a Pepsi commercial. And agree on the polite thing. I found it borderline creepy. -mike