Tonight was a fabulous exercise in today's music scene. The world of entertainment and media is extremely different than any other era that has come before. We, as a society, are constantly craving the next big thing, barely ever sticking with bands for more than an album. The "buzz band" is the epitome of this. This band normally has one album and has really only had a following for a few months. Said band will be able to sell out in large New York venues just because people want to say they saw the "next big thing" while they still were "the next big thing" instead of just the "big thing." This is not to say that being a buzz band discredits you in any way, in fact some of the most recent ones really and truly have been fantastic bands (those second albums better live up ya jokers or else its back to nowheresville, ya seee?). What of the time tested band? They've paid their dues and certainly deserve to be shown respect right? Apparently not, because this was the case at Wednesday nights show with buzz band, and Pitchfork lauded, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, and the indie rock veterans (yes in this case 3 albums will classify as a veteran)The National.
Now, I've written on the National before, they're a favorite of mine, so I can just say that I was pretty excited to see them. On the other hand, though, I also enjoy CYHSY quite a bit as well. The crowd was fairly excited to see them and we're fairly vocal with their "yeahs" and very adept at clapping. The set was primarily from their debut album and it was played well. They are obviously still getting a feel for playing, and are fairly static onstage, but all in all they were aided by very strong songs. Kudos to their keyboard/guitar player though, he kept that party attitude that their music affects. Hopped around like a damn grinnin fool is what he did.
Now when does this buzz/older band divide come into play, you ask. Right now, good sir! After the opening band played people, I guess, decided that they had come to see what Pitchfork liked. The crowd preceded to thin out to about half at this point, which is pretty sad considering The National commenced in kicking the bejeezus out of CYHSY. I realy haven't seen a band with a true front man in a long time. Often now you've either got your guitar anchored front man, or the introverted shoe gazer front man. Both of these types are held back in some way, but not Matt Berringer, no sir. That boy is a fuckin wild-man. Listen to their albums and you may hear only a couple of rave ups, and frankly you'd be correct. On the quiet songs Berringer would be the soft sort of crazy boy, pawing at his head, twitching and ambling blindly around the stage. Come a total rocked out song though, whether Abel or Mr. November, Berringer transformed into a complete and utter psycho. I honestly have never seen a person disconnect a mic stand from its solid metal base but there it happened, in the flesh. Not to mention his set closing antics during Abel in which he scaled the venues stacks and jumped to the balcony. He is one of the few frontmen able to do the quiet baritone and switch completely into a throat shredding scream without making it seem jarring. Screaming, you say? Absolutely!!! Everything about all of their songs was absolutely pushed to 11 (sorry, but there really is not other way to get that across without using the traditional Spinal Tap refernce), every last part of the show was ear splittingly loud and it was fantastic. It truly was unfortunate that people left before the men who actually knew their way around a stage hit the scene. Ah, well, it's their loss. What they should know is that Pitchfork basically gave this same review of their NY show on their website...how bout that for fuckin up yourday trend-setters?
Since this is my second post with primarily words, I'll put a quick musical tidbit up. I'm not really postive if this is the best album to start you in on a band with, but I enjoy it thouroughly so you can just deal. It's a good album one way or another. The Wedding Present were contemporaries of the Smiths in their heyday, and frankly you could give me one of their albums over any of Moz's, solo or with that famous band. This album is not from that time, however. Released in '94 Watusi is sort of an all over the place hop-around tour of the power-pop/punk/spaz-out tunes of the Wedding Present's general catalog. The opener "So Long, Baby" has a great switch over from rollicking, bass-heavy trot to hopped up sing along at the drop of hat. "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah" is a jangly pop nugget that makes you feel like doing 20 things at once. So yeah, I dont really feel like talking about this album all that much more. Interesting factoid: It may be the best album with the worst art ever! Use that at the next cocktail party!
The Wedding Present - Watusi
Love,
John
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