pinback
november 10, 2001 • crocodile cafe, seattle wa • review by janice • photography by mike


review:
I've been crazy-insane for Pinback for some time now, listening to their first album on "repeat" for days on end, for months now. They're from California, so I figured upon moving to Seattle that we'd eventually get to see 'em. Well, after we left Texas, they played Austin twice! Bastards!!!

But, finally, finally, our day came! The band were actually playing two shows at the Crocodile, an early all-ages show, and then a later 21+ show. Mike and I opted for the evening show, because we're old and getting tired, HA! : ) (To be fair, it had been an exhausting week.) Plus, there was less smoking at the earlier show since most of the people there were too young to buy cigarettes. Right on!

Pinback are pretty mysterious to me, since I haven't seen a lot of press on them, and their website isn't info-packed either. The only picture I'd ever seen of them was about 2" X 3" and was printed on newsprint. So I only had a vague impression of them. Then, when they stepped out on stage, Mike and I were sorta taken aback. As my darling husband put it, they looked like they played in hardcore bands. Their bass player/vocalist Armistead Burwell Smith IV (or Zach, as he calls himself, although how he got "Zach" from all that I don't know...) is a hulking man, his gigantic biceps straining against the sleeves of his simple black tee. Their guitarist/vocalist Rob had a buzz cut kinda hairstyle and was also a big guy, though nowhere near as "buff" as Zach. So, it was almost laughable when Zach sat down at the keyboard and began delicately playing these gorgeous piano melodies. It made me think of a young Billy Joel --- a scruffy, former boxer who went on to become the "Piano Man." : ) HA!

I'd also like to note at this point that the band won major brownie points with Mike for having the Star Wars Rebel Alliance symbol painted on one of their amps. At the end of the show, some guy shouted out something like, "Long live the Alliance!" and Rob's whole face just lit up. It was cute!

So, anyway, seeing them play live was just tremendous. If you've read my review of their last album, you'll know that I was already impressed with their musicianship. The two boys play every instrument themselves on the CD, and I was pretty blown away by how talented they are. Well, listening to the CD is nothing compared to seeing them live!

For example, on "Tripoli", which is one of my favorite songs of theirs, it sounds like two guitars being played on the CD. At the show, we watched in amazement as Zach proceeded to play the whole darn thing himself --- on a bass! He is definitely one of the most talented bass players I think I've ever seen!

For their shows, the band has to kinda re-invent their songs for a live setting. Oddly enough, this usually translated into much speedier versions of the songs, noteworthy on "Tripoli" for instance. And for the DJ scratching on that song, Rob just cleverly ran his pick along the strings of his guitar to duplicate the sound. Very effective! Other songs were given clever live reworks. Rob had two microphones set up, one with an effects pedal or something hooked up, so he would echo his vocals out at the end of songs, or sing rounds with himself. Very very cool!

On the other hand, I think the sound levels were a little wack, cause Zach and Rob sing together on most of the songs, and Rob could've been louder. And on "Shag", when the keyboardist played the "fish" (as he told us it was called) you could barely hear it, which made it weird.

But these are all minor complaints, because for the most part, we were totally blown away and thrilled by their performance! They rocked! And they seemed so nice, too. Someone in the audience was coughing, and Rob asked, "Who's coughing? I've got a whole bunch of cough drops back here if you need 'em..." Like, how nice is that?! Zach seemed kinda shy, but Rob was just all smiles. And after seeing them play, well, so were we. : )

related links


• check out more awesome pics of the show at photophonic.com!