Sunday, November 28, 2004
the hilarity of a one night show
the venue looks more like a dungeon than a place to throw a gig. quite a funky dungeon, that is. dim red light from the bar side, few chairs and sofas near the front door, a stage at the end of the other side, and a confined alley-like hallway complete with red brick wall and chairs hanging on the ceiling. that's right. hanging on the ceiling. a good number of posters were stapled on the wall, some absurd trip hop songs were played from the speakers while waiting for the first band to do their soundcheck. people who came were just as peculiar. you could find people who were trying to be old school, wearing tight shirts with short ties and indie hairdo chatting together with people wearing punk wardrobe. i was pretty dumbfounded when a girl who wore socks of different colours and net stocking asked me for a cigarette and grabbed my bum. before i could even say no, a guy with an even weirder attire (long bushy hair, a formal long coat, military pants, and a pair of converse) hugged her from behind.
i felt like i was the only sane person in that bar.
it took a little bit long for the place to fill up, but the on-stage preparation was even longer. this is what you get when you're acting early bird. i've learned my lesson.
not-so-soon later, the opening act started. "hiwerethe advantageandwerefromcaliforniathisisourfirstsongsomethingsomething¹," the spoke person introduced themselves in his murmurs. the advantage, a band with incredibly talented guitarist, incredibly ridiculous drummer, incredibly odd bassist and incredibly surprising music. they actually combined retro-style melodic rhythm with wicked rock, it scared me. ripping guitars and more murmurs. i was touched.
along came neil hamburger, an awful stand up comedian who consider blasphemy, celebrity-bashing and toilet humour as 'funny'. one big irony, especially because the ads had described him as 'the last real comedian on earth'. arguably this was the worst kind of performance i have ever seen in my entire life, past, present and future. what's worse, he continued rambling his lame jokes for more than an exhaustive half an hour or so. i began to worry that i'd come there for nothing.
awhile and it paid off. i was not the only one who thought i have wasted my time for the show. in fact everyone did, and we showed it loud and clear to the poor old dope, so off the stage he was. i could finally breath again. well, sorta. and after another stretched and boring session of stage preparation, finally, the reason of why i abandoned my textbooks to go to the bar was there on stage.
pinback.
rob crow and zach of the former three mile pilot. right in front of me.
it felt weird being that close to the stage; prolly the place gave an even more dramatic effect with the proximity and the, should i say, intimacy of the crowd and the performers.
they started by delivering the computer-generated pilot-on-a-jet-like sounds followed by the guitar rhythm of the song boo. everyone chanted for several seconds before a hypnotizing silence emerged while listening to the song. hysterical applause roared after the song finished. they deserved it alright. after a moment of rob's murmurs² thanking us to be oh-so-faithful waiting for them (who were half an hour late), they blew our mind off with the hit tripoli from their debut self-titled album. and from that point onwards, songs after songs waving their beautiful sounds to the now bewitched audience. they played all of everyone's favourite songs from their second album blue screen life (my personal pleasure): XIY, bbtone, offline P.K., and of course the famous concrete sounds. when zach the bassist spelled the punch line of the lyrics, "anything i say to you is gonna come out wrong anyway..." everyone sang along and the bar was more alive than ever.
other tracks from the pinback album also filled the room: charborg, chaos engine, and the ultimately exquisitely relaxing loro. everyone nodded their heads, following the guitar melody, whispering the chorus and hummed along with rob and zach, "da da da dunna da da da." but the highlight of the gig was, of course, the illuminated penelope. the air suddenly seemed full of colours. it was almost like a dream.
i found all of this funny, however, as the band was formed by their mutual love of video games and sci-fi.
their last song, if i'm not mistaken, syracruse, was simply amazing, until zach unintendedly ragged the last string of his bass about a minute before the song ended. the rest of the band continued, and the audience was wooing the incident. it was hillarious yet sad at the time, for now even though we would shout "we want more!" to the band, they would not be able to put a full band with no bass.
"i'm sorry guys, but we've been playing more than we're supposed to," rob crow finally came back on stage after they all left earlier. all of us kept wooing him. "okay whatever, i'll just do this dumb thing. well, not exactly dumb, but..." he trailed his words while picking up his guitar and did an acoustic session for one song, of which none of us had heard before and he referred to as 'dumb', but really, 'refined' is a more accurate way to describe it, leaving me strayed from reality to the world of my imagination, pure and refined.
____________________
¹ "hi. we're the advantage and we're from california. this is our first song [insert song's title here]."
² maybe the genre indie should be renamed as the murmurs (which might include dream pop, considering the band's own genre)
the venue looks more like a dungeon than a place to throw a gig. quite a funky dungeon, that is. dim red light from the bar side, few chairs and sofas near the front door, a stage at the end of the other side, and a confined alley-like hallway complete with red brick wall and chairs hanging on the ceiling. that's right. hanging on the ceiling. a good number of posters were stapled on the wall, some absurd trip hop songs were played from the speakers while waiting for the first band to do their soundcheck. people who came were just as peculiar. you could find people who were trying to be old school, wearing tight shirts with short ties and indie hairdo chatting together with people wearing punk wardrobe. i was pretty dumbfounded when a girl who wore socks of different colours and net stocking asked me for a cigarette and grabbed my bum. before i could even say no, a guy with an even weirder attire (long bushy hair, a formal long coat, military pants, and a pair of converse) hugged her from behind.
i felt like i was the only sane person in that bar.
it took a little bit long for the place to fill up, but the on-stage preparation was even longer. this is what you get when you're acting early bird. i've learned my lesson.
not-so-soon later, the opening act started. "hiwerethe advantageandwerefromcaliforniathisisourfirstsongsomethingsomething¹," the spoke person introduced themselves in his murmurs. the advantage, a band with incredibly talented guitarist, incredibly ridiculous drummer, incredibly odd bassist and incredibly surprising music. they actually combined retro-style melodic rhythm with wicked rock, it scared me. ripping guitars and more murmurs. i was touched.
along came neil hamburger, an awful stand up comedian who consider blasphemy, celebrity-bashing and toilet humour as 'funny'. one big irony, especially because the ads had described him as 'the last real comedian on earth'. arguably this was the worst kind of performance i have ever seen in my entire life, past, present and future. what's worse, he continued rambling his lame jokes for more than an exhaustive half an hour or so. i began to worry that i'd come there for nothing.
awhile and it paid off. i was not the only one who thought i have wasted my time for the show. in fact everyone did, and we showed it loud and clear to the poor old dope, so off the stage he was. i could finally breath again. well, sorta. and after another stretched and boring session of stage preparation, finally, the reason of why i abandoned my textbooks to go to the bar was there on stage.
pinback.
rob crow and zach of the former three mile pilot. right in front of me.
it felt weird being that close to the stage; prolly the place gave an even more dramatic effect with the proximity and the, should i say, intimacy of the crowd and the performers.
they started by delivering the computer-generated pilot-on-a-jet-like sounds followed by the guitar rhythm of the song boo. everyone chanted for several seconds before a hypnotizing silence emerged while listening to the song. hysterical applause roared after the song finished. they deserved it alright. after a moment of rob's murmurs² thanking us to be oh-so-faithful waiting for them (who were half an hour late), they blew our mind off with the hit tripoli from their debut self-titled album. and from that point onwards, songs after songs waving their beautiful sounds to the now bewitched audience. they played all of everyone's favourite songs from their second album blue screen life (my personal pleasure): XIY, bbtone, offline P.K., and of course the famous concrete sounds. when zach the bassist spelled the punch line of the lyrics, "anything i say to you is gonna come out wrong anyway..." everyone sang along and the bar was more alive than ever.
other tracks from the pinback album also filled the room: charborg, chaos engine, and the ultimately exquisitely relaxing loro. everyone nodded their heads, following the guitar melody, whispering the chorus and hummed along with rob and zach, "da da da dunna da da da." but the highlight of the gig was, of course, the illuminated penelope. the air suddenly seemed full of colours. it was almost like a dream.
take you to the forestseveral people swayed their bodies in the most intriguing of ways, yet this shows nothing but the fact that the band lived up to their reputation of the intricate indie pop genre they have been extensively acquinted. earlier this year their third full-length album, summer in abaddon, was praised by critics to be surprisingly satisfactory, considering their previous albums were already excellent. the tour gig was about promoting this album, naturally, that after several first hits they played the feel-good non photo blue, the dark fortress and a couple of other songs that mark the latter album's next-to-perfection.
let you feel the raindrops falling down
seeping through your redscales
eliminate the faucet
eliminate the need for water
replace it with a safe shell
if they summon the rains now,
are you gonna rise?
i found all of this funny, however, as the band was formed by their mutual love of video games and sci-fi.
their last song, if i'm not mistaken, syracruse, was simply amazing, until zach unintendedly ragged the last string of his bass about a minute before the song ended. the rest of the band continued, and the audience was wooing the incident. it was hillarious yet sad at the time, for now even though we would shout "we want more!" to the band, they would not be able to put a full band with no bass.
"i'm sorry guys, but we've been playing more than we're supposed to," rob crow finally came back on stage after they all left earlier. all of us kept wooing him. "okay whatever, i'll just do this dumb thing. well, not exactly dumb, but..." he trailed his words while picking up his guitar and did an acoustic session for one song, of which none of us had heard before and he referred to as 'dumb', but really, 'refined' is a more accurate way to describe it, leaving me strayed from reality to the world of my imagination, pure and refined.
____________________
¹ "hi. we're the advantage and we're from california. this is our first song [insert song's title here]."
² maybe the genre indie should be renamed as the murmurs (which might include dream pop, considering the band's own genre)
