Catching up, slowly.

Again, here I am behind in my reviews. Saturday the 17th, I saw Built to Spill at the Crystal Ballroom! I got there for half of the Prids' set. They were loud. They played rock music. Meh.

Next up, Brett Netson. A member of BtS, I expected good things. Boy, was I wrong. '70's soporific medievalist meandering aimless hippie jam crap. 3 "songs", 45 minutes. But during that otherwise wasted time, I spent a lot of time observing the band. The guitarist reminded me of frightwig (who can be found at a blog entitled sundappled wood), only old and balding. But it was the vibraphonist who I couldn't stop watching. Like a train wreck. I've never seen anyone who so obviously has an eating disorder. From where I was sitting, I had so little perspective I couldn't tell you how tall she was, but I'm gonna estimate 5'6". And she couldn't have weighed 75 pounds. The hollow face, the sunken chest, the convex upper arms, the shoulder blades and spine and scapulae...just looking at her was so sad and frightening. I might look like that if I lost 45 pounds. Maybe. I don't understand how she could be on tour with two bandmates and two other bands, and no one thinks, "she's sick, she won't make it. She needs to be in the hospital." That really rattled me.

Then, finally, BtS. The visuals behind them really captured my attention. And you know how I feel about that kind of thing. It always makes me wonder, "Why do you feel you need to distract me from the music?" But BtS wasn't hiding behind cool visuals. The images, ranging from cartoony to Joan Miro, were kinda fascinating and didn't take anything away from the performance. It was a great show, not too jam-bandy (Nick asked me, "You went to see Built to Spill? Aren't they... (nose wrinkled in subtle distaste) ...kind of a jam band???" Sheesh, some people's histories skip entire decades.), absorbing and intense. Unlike that one time I saw them in Charlottesville, they didn't end the show with Freebird, but those guys put on a great live show every time.

I've seen a zillion other shows, so more to come, I hope...