Skip to main content

Le Fun

Unlike the Golden Falcons' show Friday night, I didn't have to worry about putting a strain in my neck to watch the Theater Fire/Happy Bullets/Tah Dahs show last night. Everyone's height was manageable from my point of view, but like the Golden Falcons' show, last night's show was as good.

I honestly don't know how many times I've seen the Happy Bullets and the Tah Dahs play in the last year and a half, but I wouldn't see surprised if the number was around twenty. Though I need a break with seeing them play every few months, I think it's always good to come back to them.

I think it's really interesting how just a matter of a sound mix can improve or hamper a live show. Given all the times that I've seen these bands play (from the big room in Sons of Herman Hall to the bar/restaurant, the Meridian Room to Tower Records), I give kudos to the soundman at the Double Wide for allowing us listeners to hear separation in sound. A lot of times I hear really muddy mixes live and can't really hear certain things. I think last night's show was the first time I've ever heard Kris Youmans' cello during the songs he played with the Happy Bullets.

The mix also really helped out during the Theater Fire's set. With seven members and instruments like keyboard, acoustic guitar, mandolin, various percussion, violin and accordion in addition to bass and drums, hearing all of them was crucial. The Theater Fire's material is really subtle, but really beautiful at the same time, but it doesn't come across if everything's sounding muddy. I look forward to hearing their forthcoming record.

Given the fact that I've seen the Tah Dahs a number of times, I rarely get tired of their frantic, spastic rock. I think it's because the songs are also really melodic and the spastic nature makes them rather unique. I couldn't call it straight punk rock or straight post-hardcore, but it could be lumped somewhere in between there. Plus, Roy always has something funny and random to say between songs. One of the best quotes from last night was, "This isn't a show-it's a party. This is a song about suicide. It's called 'Jumping on the Bed.'" Where he gets these ideas, I don't know-but I like to watch.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Catherine Wheel

Originally posted: Tuesday, August 29th, 2006 Despite managing to release five proper albums, Catherine Wheel was one of those bands that always seemed to slip past the mainstream rock crowd. Yes, they got some nice airplay in their day, but people seem to have forgotten about them. You may hear “Black Metallic” or “Waydown” on a “classic alternative” show on Sirius or XM or maybe even on terrestrial radio, but that’s about it. For me, they were one of most consistent rock bands of the ’90s, meandering through shoegazer, hard rock, space rock and pop rock, all while eluding mainstream pigeonholing. Led by the smooth, warm pipes of vocalist/guitarist Rob Dickinson (cousin of Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson), Catherine Wheel featured Brian Futter on lead guitar, Dave Hawes on bass and Neil Sims on drums. They weren’t a pretty-boy guitar band, but they weren’t a scuzzy bunch of ragamuffins either. Though the band hailed from England, Catherine Wheel found itself more welcome on American air

Best of 2021

  Last year, my attention span was not wide enough to listen to a lot of LPs from start to finish. Too much went on in 2020 to focus on 10-15 albums, so I went with only a couple to spotlight. Well, 2021 was a little better, as I have a list of top four records, and a lot of individual tracks.  (I made a lengthy Spotify playlist ) So, without further ado, here’s my list of favorites of the year: Albums Deafheaven, Infinite Granite (listen) Hands down, my favorite album of the year. I was not sure where Deafheaven would go after another record that brought My Bloody Valentine and death metal fans together, but they beautifully rebooted their sound on Infinite Granite. The divisive goblin vocals are vastly pared-down here, as are the blast beats. Sounding more inspired by Slowdive, the band has discovered a new sonic palette that I hope they explore more of in the future. It’s a welcome revelation. I still love their older material, but this has renewed my love of what these guys do.  J

Hello, Control

I'm still a big fan of iTunes . I haven't tried Napster , Urge or eMusic as I've been perfectly happy with Apple's program ever since I downloaded it two years ago. However, an annoying new feature has come up with its latest version, 7.0. Whenever you pull up your music library, a sidebar taking up 3/4ths of the screen appears plugging the iTunes Music Store. Why is this an annoyance? Well, first and foremost, since you can't close the sidebar, you can't escape it. I believe a music library is a private collection, a spot away from the music store. So what's the need for constant advertisements and plugs? To provide a better visual, let me describe what I see whenever I pull up a song in my iTunes library. When I listen to "This is a Fire Door Never Leave Open" by the Weakerthans, I see a graphic for Left and Leaving , the album that it comes from (and available in the iTunes Music Store), along with a list of the Weakerthans' other albums,