Well that was mildly depressing. As if to underscore my lax attendance at the more popular PL shows, bartender du jour Mr. Lee greeted me with a confused expression mingled with I would say a mild look of disgust. And this: "What are you doing here? Do you know something I don't." I assured him I didn't (at least with regards to these bands). It isn't everyday I get to indulge in nostalgia while at the exact same time seeing/hearing a young British band on their first tour of America. But there was a weird vibe already because apparently the dudes in Smith Westerns or more to the point their "people" were being less than agreeable in all sorts of manners, which while keeping in mind the only occasionally reliable but often downright wrong Book/Cover trope, I had already gone ahead and assumed after watching this video, which I'll go ahead and admit is the only thing I've actually heard by the band. I didn't watch this, but the screenshot gives me a good idea of what I might be in for if I do. But that's Inside Baseball, and who cares, anyway, because I just can't bring myself to not listen to or dislike a musician because of a personality defect. Miles Davis was apparently a wife-beater, but should we never listen to Bitches Brew again? (Actually I probably shouldn't be so flip about this topic, and it opens up all sorts of questions when you start talking about, say, certain Black Metal bands and their underlying racist/fascist ideologies, most of which aren't readily identifiable in the music or discernible lyrics. A topic for another day, but suffice it to say you don't automatically get the freeze-out just for being an asshole. If that were the case we'd all be in trouble.)
I thought I was doing good by the PL clock by showing up @ 11:00, but local openers Cool Runnings (1 word or 2?) were on their last song when I entered. I've somehow only heard them play once, even though I know I've been to at least half a dozen shows where they were on the bill. They play like three times a month, and last night was another just-missed occasion. Oh well, it's not like I won't have ample opportunity in the future. Then Yuck spent 40 minutes or so doing a soundcheck (I guess this is a god time to mention while they were at the Backroom before the show there was some comment overheard from them about "fat Americans too lazy to do soundchecks," but they were apparently nice enough folks aside from that rather personal, American-generalizing statement. Though come to think of it, the one American in the band is a bit on the heavy side). They have a simple 2 guitar/bass/drum set up, but they do have a lot of pedals. It was worth it, I guess, because they sounded good. The trouble for me was it was more Superchunk than shoegaze, almost every song in their set a poppy rock tune with fuzzy guitar. Nothing against Superchunk or fuzzy rock-pop, but after the diversity of the songs they put up on Vimeo — a little My Bloody Valentine, a little Galaxie 500, some Swervedriver, some Yo La Tengo and yes, some Superchunk — I was a little disappointed their show was so samey. The one slower, quieter song they did was naturally marred by the talking and general noisiness of the crowd, and that's to be expected. Maybe they expected it as well, and stuck with the livelier stuff. Their final song was "Rubber," which I like a lot, sounding good and loud live, but it mostly just made me wish their set would have had more moments like it. But for such a young band they do an impressive facsimile of 20-25 year old music, and I'm curious to hear what they might do when they divest themselves of some of their influences and incorporate new ones. Jason Boardman said the singer/songwriter guy was really into David Berman, and Jason recommended Randy Newman to him. Is the world ready for a shoegazing British Randy Newman devotee? Oh, would that it were so.
I was going to stick around to hear a few songs by Smith Westerns, because despite my bitchy tone about them earlier, the single is ok enough and I like that funny guitar sound in it, plus I was curious about all the fuss. But they took their time getting started and really after just watching them carry themselves I didn't want to give them my time. For the moment, I guess, I was more tolerant of wife beaters and fascists than snotty young rock dudes. But the place was packed, so I'm sure they didn't miss me.
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