Overdue Review

So, in the midst of my not bike riding, I managed to get in a live show. Here is my review.

Tuesday - September 16 @ The National

Note - The National has chosen to disregard all previous rock and roll club standards. They start on time. This sucks. Wouldn't be so bad if stuff started at 10, but 8? Come on.

First up was a local band, Tulsa Drone. My friend Kelly said we had seen them before. After we got in, I remembered. How do you forget a dulcimer in a (post)rock band? The are really good. I don't know how well known they are in the real world, but if you like soundscapes with no vocals, they do the RVA proud. Its pretty hard to give any direct criticism of a show when there are no songs to pick out, so this is general by design. The sound was very good, and the band seemed to be enjoying themselves. Make time to see these guys when you get the chance. And, if I'm not mistaken, I *think* the dulcimer player works (or did work) at River City Cellars. Edit: A quick search confirms I'm right. He's a nice guy.

Second, we have the Fu*k Buttons. Yeah, I dunno. That last fragment of a sentence also sums up my opinion of their set. They were pretty damn awful to me. There was the brief occasion where either I was worn down or they hit on to something, but those were very few. Its two guys, a couple of hard drives ( I guess, pre-recorded stuff anyway), a childs karioke player, and a drum. Really, I just didn't get it. At one point they produced some sort of feedback loop that was really irritating. Much of it had no beat, and that kinda kills it for me. There were a couple of songs that sounded like Indian dances, something you'd see on an old western. At least they had a beat, but....ugh. They did, however, have great t-shirts. I love their graphic sense.

Finally, Mogwai. I picked one of theirs up years ago on a recommendation from the Sparklehorse mailing list. Like Tulsa Drone, they have almost no vocals. They have sampled TV stuff in some of their songs, but there wasn't much of that live. They have 3 guitars, although they all switch instruments and they have a keyboard as well. Their music is somewhat cinamatic in that it rises and falls, builds to cresendo and explodes. It can be quite powerful. In fact, you may have heard them as background music on a TV show.
They used strobe lights a bunch, which is a cool effect but hurts my eyes. It was pretty darn loud as well. I listened at the beginning without earplugs and ended up putting them in because I could sense the ringing coming. Glad I did because it got louder. It was a really great show.

I don't get to too many shows anymore. There are a fair amount coming, but its tough to find time to get to them. I already have tix for the mighty LoG in November. I'd like to get to the Misfits as well. There are a couple others, I think.

In other things, school is back in and I *think* we're getting to a routine again. Haven't been on the bike at all, but have managed the gym a couple times. I did almost finish my car stereo install yesterday. This thing is the bomb. Integrated Bluetooth, Ipod control and satellite radio integration. I've gotten everything to work, but the included instructions leave a little bit to be desired, so I still need to mess around with it. Next up is the subwoofer and new door speakers. That might be it, only other thing would be an amp, but I'm not going to make that call until after I see how the new speakers do.