A Series Of Noises Was Aimed Towards Me
I went to go see the band Explosions In The Sky last night at the Logan Square Auditorium. They were good. I liked them. However, the opening band sucked. There were two, and the first wasn't so bad, but the second was just awful. And I'm not just talking regular style suck. They full on SUCKED.
Here's how it went: After the band The Motion played, up came Autumn. I figured they only play in the fall, because I think I'm clever and tend to think things like that to myself. They took about half an hour to set up all their instruments, which included a harp, an organ, an acoustic guitar and a xylophonic synthesizer. I figured they might be marginally interesting if they had such interesting instrumentation. How wrong I was. They sounded like Peter, Paul and Mary meets... well, Peter, Paul and Mary. Few people could tell when they began to play because they had all been waiting so long for them to get ready, and then they started playing really quiet shit. Then came in like a lamb and left like a lamb. If they called themselves Autumn because they were the awkward transition between two things of more substance, it made sense. There were no drums, and all the instruments were "very quiet", so the audiences attention often turned to the floor or the bar at the back of the room. They sounded like, as Beavis and Butthead so profoundly put it, the kind of music that "sucks at the beginning, but, you know, might rock later on". They stayed with the non-rocking formula throughout and the set became an endurance trial. At the end of their set, they had the gall to shush the audience, stating that "this next song is very important and we're not going to play it until everyone is quiet". I felt like I was back in kindergarten. It was a terrible way to lead into Explosions, because many audience members unfamiliar with their music would immedietly assume that they were in a similar vein as Autumn. They statr out real chill and quiet, which could easily be confused for sucking after hearing the previous band.
However, luckily, this was not the case. Explosions ruled. Their style of music (instrumental post-rock, sprawling ambience and hard waltz: think Godspeed You! Black Emperor) is hard to translate to concert, as I usually let the CD put me to sleep or use as background or score the times when I go out walking at night, but they pulled it off very well. Their stage presence was phenominal. The regained all the audiences attention and were privy to one of the most resounding sessions of applause I'd ever been witness to. There were several moments during the build up portion of songs that the three guitarists would whip their guitars up and down as they jumped in unison while the drummer abused his kit with manic precision in the background: It was inspiring. They managed to pull off the same affect they get on CD, as they flowed each song into one another, as though it were one giant masterpiece. Crowd dynamics don't work particularly well with their type of music: often I and others felt the hypnotic sleepiness one typically does with the chill attitude of the music. Moments of decisive silence were interrupted by crowd cheering. And standing in one place for three hours is not all that much fun. It would have been really cool to see them in a very low-key, intimate atmosphere... with beanbag chairs. Yeah. That would've been awesome.
Yeah.
Awesome.
All in all, good friday night. There are tons of concert opportunities here in Chicago. I've been to two this week, and am going to another tonight (granted, just the schools music program, but its music, innit? INNIT?) So far, I have attended the following:
The Black Keys
The Gossip with Pretty Girls Make Graves
Tortoise
Dillinger Four with The Briefs and None More Black
Explosions In The Sky
and will attend:
Antibalas
Mouse on Mars
Le Tigre with The Gossip
Eyedea and Abilites with Los Nativos, Illogic and P.O.S.
Damn, son!
Here's how it went: After the band The Motion played, up came Autumn. I figured they only play in the fall, because I think I'm clever and tend to think things like that to myself. They took about half an hour to set up all their instruments, which included a harp, an organ, an acoustic guitar and a xylophonic synthesizer. I figured they might be marginally interesting if they had such interesting instrumentation. How wrong I was. They sounded like Peter, Paul and Mary meets... well, Peter, Paul and Mary. Few people could tell when they began to play because they had all been waiting so long for them to get ready, and then they started playing really quiet shit. Then came in like a lamb and left like a lamb. If they called themselves Autumn because they were the awkward transition between two things of more substance, it made sense. There were no drums, and all the instruments were "very quiet", so the audiences attention often turned to the floor or the bar at the back of the room. They sounded like, as Beavis and Butthead so profoundly put it, the kind of music that "sucks at the beginning, but, you know, might rock later on". They stayed with the non-rocking formula throughout and the set became an endurance trial. At the end of their set, they had the gall to shush the audience, stating that "this next song is very important and we're not going to play it until everyone is quiet". I felt like I was back in kindergarten. It was a terrible way to lead into Explosions, because many audience members unfamiliar with their music would immedietly assume that they were in a similar vein as Autumn. They statr out real chill and quiet, which could easily be confused for sucking after hearing the previous band.
However, luckily, this was not the case. Explosions ruled. Their style of music (instrumental post-rock, sprawling ambience and hard waltz: think Godspeed You! Black Emperor) is hard to translate to concert, as I usually let the CD put me to sleep or use as background or score the times when I go out walking at night, but they pulled it off very well. Their stage presence was phenominal. The regained all the audiences attention and were privy to one of the most resounding sessions of applause I'd ever been witness to. There were several moments during the build up portion of songs that the three guitarists would whip their guitars up and down as they jumped in unison while the drummer abused his kit with manic precision in the background: It was inspiring. They managed to pull off the same affect they get on CD, as they flowed each song into one another, as though it were one giant masterpiece. Crowd dynamics don't work particularly well with their type of music: often I and others felt the hypnotic sleepiness one typically does with the chill attitude of the music. Moments of decisive silence were interrupted by crowd cheering. And standing in one place for three hours is not all that much fun. It would have been really cool to see them in a very low-key, intimate atmosphere... with beanbag chairs. Yeah. That would've been awesome.
Yeah.
Awesome.
All in all, good friday night. There are tons of concert opportunities here in Chicago. I've been to two this week, and am going to another tonight (granted, just the schools music program, but its music, innit? INNIT?) So far, I have attended the following:
The Black Keys
The Gossip with Pretty Girls Make Graves
Tortoise
Dillinger Four with The Briefs and None More Black
Explosions In The Sky
and will attend:
Antibalas
Mouse on Mars
Le Tigre with The Gossip
Eyedea and Abilites with Los Nativos, Illogic and P.O.S.
Damn, son!
posted by MC Harv at 1:32 PM
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