Still playing catch-up. Some time late last month, I went to see a three-band show at the DF. First up, Juan Prophet Organization. I was there with someone who likes to be at shows right on time, damnit! So we were there for this opening band, and regretted it. Damn, I hate bands in costumes. One guy dressed like Orville Redenbacher, another in a tux, a Tim-Burton-claymation-esque wench (who probably calls herself a wench...*shudder*) except not wraithlike and thin, and a genuine unitard-and-mask fucking superhero costume. Seriously? The music was like a vampire-metal stage musical as staged by a...ugh...troupe of Renaissance Festival minstrels in their off-season. After the set was over, all I could say was, "Let us never speak of this again." Oops...here I go speaking of it. Well, this will be the last time, I swear. Next, and the reason we were there (a favorite of the showgoing companion): Chris Robley and the Fear of Heights. I really want to like this guy, I swear I do. I'm thisclose. The vaguely orchestral bits are lovely. The traditional/americana nods are perfectly done. Interesting chords and rhythms. And then Robley's voice slips into a White Lion-esque hard-rock-ballad warble, and I'm jarred out of my enjoyment. Briefly, sure, but repeatedly. The word 'gone' does NOT have a 'w' in the middle! One syllable! ONE, damnit! Sigh. Thisclose. Finally, Heroes and Villains. I saw them once a few years ago, and hoped they had changed. Not much, sadly. It's kind of fun, but ultimately gimmicky. A cool collection of instruments put together mostly just to be a cool collection of instruments--celeste, a tiny organ-grinder's-monkey bass, tiny glockenspiel (of course), mandolin (I've come to hate the mandolin), and a bowler hat. They seemed to be playing dress-up, which just always seems amateurish to me. At some point, as a musician, don't you stop carefully selecting your costume-y outfit for every show? I still love Ali Ippolito and her accordion. The other chick's voice, though, was just grating and Lillith-Faire-y. We left early.
Next up...Spoooooon! (...said The Tick.) Some band called Everest opened. They were more-or-less adequate, not interesting, not awful. Spoon did their typical '60s garage-rock attack, but then threw in all this unexpected stuff, too. Is this a cover of some lost Pat Benetar B-side? Is there some Elvis Costello ballad I don't know about that they're channeling here? Though both times they tried to ballad (there really aren't Spoon ballads), they gave it up halfway through and decided to all-out rock. That's what they're good at, and damn, are they good at it! Some early-'80s Genesis, a helicopter noise, an underwater nature special...and every moment overwhelming and kick-fucking-ass. This was a one-off show rather than part of a tour and it showed, in a good way (though when they toured for Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, they totally tore shit up, too). I think Britt Daniel had gotten a new echo pedal, and called up the rest of the band in Austin, and said, "Come on up to Portland! The new pedal's coming FedEx!" It was like the new toy he couldn't put down.
Last up, a Show Someone Else Wanted To See (SSEWtS). I'd never been to Satyricon before (either the old Satyricon, which was defunct by just months after I'd moved here, or the new Satyricon, where this show was). It seemed pretty friendly for a punk club. The graffiti in the bathroom was, on the whole, kinda upbeat, and the band stickers were actually lined up, so they must be there on purpose. Dingy, as it ought to be, but some kind of interesting elements, like the distressed composite-stone bar, some sparkly vinyl booths, cute repro starburst formica tables, and galvanized-steel details. Maldroid was up first. Dressed in thrift-store suit jackets with band logos appliqued like country-club crests, an ascot, and a pair of white plastic sunglasses, they were goofy robot-electro-punk. The Devo cover fit in seamlessly, which should pretty much explain everything you need to know. They were pretty fun, and had their shit together. The Punk Group followed, and they were also uber-electro and Devo-influenced, with the occasional bizarro Mojo Nixon bit (once, I wanted to shout, "Elvis is everywhere!", but then the Devo kicked back in). Two guys and a lot of synth-looped and recorded sounds. And dancing. I would have liked this a lot more had misogyny not substituted for cleverness. This one's about a fat chick...this one's about an ugly chick...hey, another one about a fat chick. What could have been fun ended up vaguely irritating. They seem to have gone sunglasses shopping with Maldroid. And then, the SSEWtS we were there for, The Phenomenauts. Sci-fi rocka-punkabilly-surfpunk without exception. One punkabilly song = fun. A whole show of punkabilly songs = repetitive. And then there were the costumes...both onstage and in the audience (gag...wretch...ew). Rehearsed stage banter (to which the audience had its rehearsed responses...I'm not sure whether I disdain that sort of thing more when I don't know what the response is supposed to be, or when I do...) that was about their outer-space origins. So here's what I figured out: Surfpunk is punkabilly at half tempo. There was a cover...The Ramones? Good stuff, whatever it was. The band was fun, and danceable, but in the end, the spectacle and theatrics overshadowed the music, which was just too narrow-genre to really grab me. I remember the fog machine and the balloon and the toilet paper gun and the lasers, not the songs. I feel bad saying this about a band, because I really didn't dislike them, but...I would have loved this band when I was nineteen. I've just become a total snot about spectacle (oh, yeah, and the whole tightly-convention-bound genre of punkabilly) as I grow older. All in all, it was best described as a decent way to spend an evening, with the occasional pointy nudge of discomfort that comes from being forced to face my background as a total nerd. I'm not going to become a fan, but I'm not going to complain that I'll never get those hours back, either.
Sheesh, now that I'm caught up, it's time to go out and see some damn shows!
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