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review: I ain't gonna front: I am not the biggest Slint fan. Sure, I have a great respect for them as musicians, and for the influence they've had on bands today; however, they are just a little too "rawk" for my tastes, what with the screaming and wailing guitars and all. The band broke up back in 1992, but have done what many people thought was the unthinkable, and they've reunited this spring for a handful of tour dates. Mike was a big Slint fan back in the day, and never had the chance to see them live. (Though he has seen the post-Slint band The For Carnation a couple of times.) So, Saturday night, I changed out of my Hello Kitty t-shirt into something more "iconoclastic", and Mike and I headed out to this sold out show.
tara jane o'neil: I do have to say, I adore Tara Jane, but her back catalog is a little hit-or-miss with me. I don't care for her first band Rodan, but I'm a huge Retsin fan. I hadn't heard anything from her latest incarnation, as TJO, and I wasn't sure what to expect.
Well, TJO finds Tara with a full-band, including a violinst and a stand-up bass player. The songs are beautiful, in that folky melancholy Retsin-way, but a little more on the experimental side, with odd jazzy instrumental endings. Tara looked freaking adorable. She is so so so teeny! She looks like a twelve-year-old boy, especially with her hair flopping in her face. She's as cute as can be, but man, are her teeth nicotine-stained. Her drummer was also adorable, and I spent a lot of time staring at her haircut, trying to memorize it, because I'd love to get my hair cut like that! (Sadly though, I got the impression her hair is naturally curly, alas!)
I haven't even mentioned the, uh, "sideshow". At the beginning, there was a huge screen set up to the left of the band (right where Mike and I were standing, oh goody). And when TJO began to play, a silhouetted figure behind the screen began twirling a sword, or creating images using jumbled-up wire, or posing or dancing. It was a little distracting, but I shrugged it off.
Then, the figure emerged from behind the screen, walked across the stage and headed to the backstage area. It was a dude. A really old scary looking dude. With his bangs pulled up into a "samurai"-style ponytail, and an oriental-style robe worn over a frilly floral dress. And bright orange socks, with old man black oxfords on. Whoa.
The scary guy returned, taking his place yet again behind the screen. But now that we've seen him, the mystique is gone, and all that remained was a disgusted shudder. Eww. So, the scary guy, in another distracting move, plunged his sword through the screen, ripping open the fabric, through which he emerged as the wooden stakes holding up the screen tumbled down. Did I mention, whoa?
As TJO continued to play, here's what the guy did during their set:
After finishing the song, Tara bent over to fix the cord, saying gently to the dancing old man, "Hey, look, you gotta be careful, alright? See this cord? You can't step on it, okay?" as if talking to a child. And just like a child, what does this guy start to do? He spends the next song purposefully dancing on Tara's guitar cord! Uncool.
slint: Thankfully, the weird old guy left the stage with TKO (I was a little worried he would "dance" during Slint, too). We watched the band set up, and oddly enough, they spread waaay out...so guitarist David Pajo and vocalist/guitarist Brian McMahan were completely far away from each other. Weird. I also thought it was odd how David brought out a little rug for himself to play on. How hippie.
We had just seen David last year opening for Super Furry Animals, so he didn't look any different or anything. He was wearing a Black Sabbath t-shirt, ugh. Drummer Britt Walford also looked really good, but he was wearing a Led Zeppelin t-shirt...double ugh. Thankfully, Brian came out wearing a simple grey/orange baseball-style tee, looking sorta like Ben Affleck (although Mike was thinking more like Ben Stiller...either way, he looked like a "Ben"). They had two other guest musicians with them, one who looked like Chris Murphy from Sloan, and the other who looked like a young Lemmy from Motorhead.
I guess I was expecting them to be scary, like their music, but Brian was actually kinda goofy and nerdy and funny. He began their set with the following: "I apologize for the ass crack earlier..." referring to his wayward waistband from when he was setting up instruments. HA! Someone in the audience shouted out, "More ass crack!" to which Brian smirked and replied something along the lines of, "Oh, there'll be more..." Hee! Hey, wait --- you're the guy from SLINT! Be more scary!!!
They opened with their (heh) "hit", "Good Morning Captain", which gained popularity from appearing on the soundtrack to the (craptastic) movie Kids. (It's not actually in the movie, mind you, it's just on the soundtrack.) The stage had colored lights everywhere, and they seemed carefully chorographed to flash with the crescendos and low points of each and every song. To indicate a song was over, the lights would go off completely, and then when the next song would start, the lights would slowly pull up again in red, blue, purple...it was all very synchronized. And then Brian showed just how creepy he can still be as he muttered-sang the lyrics, screaming at the end "I MISS YOU".
Since I snagged a set list, here's what they played:
The catcallers at the show were out of control. Some guy just kept screaming "Louisville". One guy was all, "Brian! Brian! Brian!", to which Brian gave him a weird sideways look and smirked. Someone shouted, "Show us your tummy", to which Brian slyly started pulling up his shirt, smirking the whole time. Smirky McSmirkyson. He also said to the audience early in the set, "Since you've all been bad, we're playing nothing but old sh*t tonight"...HA!
And they sounded great. Watching Britt live was enthralling, and only once did David go into a crappy heavy metal tinkering guitar solo. (I think even he felt cheesy doing it, 'cause he broke into an uncharacteristic smile afterwards.) And then at the end of the show, Brian said, "This is our last song, f*ckers..." inciting the audience into wild cheers of "YAAAY! We're f*ckers!!!". It was really crazy, but all in all, a great show. (janice 03.05)
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