LUDIC LOG

How's about a nice Hawaiian concert review?

First of all, huge and boundless thanks to Allison for getting me into this gig. She's a hell of a person and she knows good music. You can see her website here, or you can find her radio station here, so be sure and reward her kindness by tuning in Monday nights from 6:30 to 8:00 PM on your radio or on the internet.

So, tonight found me at the good ol' Cabaret Metro for a show featuring three bands from the delightful city of Austin, TX: Murder by Death, America is Waiting and And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead. It was a 7PM show, which meant lots of teenagers, but luckily we were able to perch up in the lofty balcony and nurse our watery drinks far away from the li'l' folks. And a good thing too, this 7PM start -- as my friend pointed out, the early shows are good for the young folks, but they're good for us old folks as well, who (speaking for myself alone) can't pack away to liquor or stay up late on a school night like they could when they were spryer. Regardless of our decrepitude, we arrived in fine shape after an amusing encounter on the bus with an extremely polluted Swedish girl who had just gotten fired from her job, and settled in for a night of rock 'n' roll hip action. We didn't know what to expect, since we were completely unfamiliar with the two opening bands, so we decided to just stand back and see where the evening took us.

First up was Murder by Death. We came in just as they were starting their set, and I wasn't immediately bowled over; the five-piece (guitar/vox, bass, keys, drums, electric cello) seemed to have a decent line in Nick-Cave-level despair-pop, but the dynamic wasn't working for me at first. However, as they built their set, I grew to like them more and more: the cello, which at first struck me as gimmicky, ended up contributing quite a bit to the overall dynamic of the songs, and I was particularly impressed by the keyboard player. A nerdy young kid in a western shirt, he grasped what so few keyboardists seem to: that all the effects and voices and trickery in the world ususally won't sound better than good solid hard piano playing. The keyboard in too much rock music these days is used like a glorified effects pedal or a dumbed-up synthesizer; this guy understood and exploited the jazzy, rolling punch that a well-played electric piano can add to a good song. The vocalist didn't have much to say, lyrically or musically, which is why I was pleasantly surprised that he didn't say it: he spent more time playing the guitar, which he did well, than singing, which he didn't, and best of all, they mixed in a handful of instrumental pieces, something a lot of bands are too chickenshit to attempt. Musically they gave the impression of a moody pop-rock outfit with a raucous country band trying to break out; they didn't set my world on fire, but they were certainly a pleasant surprise.

Also surprising, but in an unfortunately disappointing way, was the next band, America is Waiting. Checking out these guys' website before the show, I noticed that they have some sort of impenetrable (though presumably sincere) manifesto on it; this made me really nervous, since a manifesto is almost always a sign of big-time artistic bankruptcy just over the horizon. Luckily, they weren't anywhere near that bad. In fact, they weren't bad at all. But, by the same token, they weren't all that good, either. On paper, I should have fucking loved these guys: if ever a band was destined to be recorded by Steve Albini, it is America is Waiting. They have the whole Big Black/Shellac sound completely perfected: the mutter-shout vocal blurts, the crunchy guitars, the brutal, ultra-crisp drum snap, the weighty pinpoint bass in deadly synch with the drums. They even had a nice added element, replacing one of the sledgehammer-blow guitars typically found in an Albini lineup with a nice, sinuous, snakey slithering one that reminded me a lot of Guy Kyser's playing with Thin White Rope. I love Albini; I love Thin White Rope; and I love Big Black and Shellac. But...I didn't love America is Waiting. Maybe it was because they were a bit too samey; maybe it was because they were striving a bit too hard to emulate the Albini sound; maybe it was because they had the sound but not the material to lay it over, which made the whole set seem like listening to a bunch of Shellac b-sides and songs that weren't good enough to make it onto the albums. I didn't hate them; I didn't even dislike them. But I should have loved them, and I didn't.

Finally, And You WIll Know Us By The Trail Of Dead came out. They weren't the same Trail of Dead I saw a few months back at the Riviera, the Trail of Dead that was touring in support of Godspeed You Black Emperor! and completely blew them off the stage. That Trail of Dead was a bit more energetic, a bit less polished, and a whole fucking lot louder. The Riviera show was one of the loudest I've ever seen; it was punishingly loud, like sticking your head in a bucket and then setting off a grenade. Maybe it was because we were high up, but while they were ringingly loud, they weren't skirting on the threshhold of pain like they were the last time I saw them. Of course, loud don't always mean good, and Trail of Dead was very fine tonight: aggressive, jumpy, responsive to the crowd, and looser than before but still drum-tight. They ran out a lot of new material, most of which was pretty good; they played a good long set that never seemed excessive; and they generally held up my theory that they're the current heirs to the twisted, noisy hooks-with-a-difference throne left vacant by the late lamented Archers of Loaf. Also, their singer/drummer/guitarist got off the best line of the evening: futzing around before the first song with a terribly out-of-tune guitar while the audience waited patiently, he said

"I feel like Cat Power."