I Can Hear the Grass Grow

Two Fridays ago found me up in the hippie ‘burg of Boulder to catch The Fall, who played at the Boulder Theater. I hadn’t been to this venue since my junior year of college, and I hafta say I was impressed – a really nice spot, with great sound. It wasn’t too crowded, although the turnout was decent. Seeing that CU is out for the summer and that the show was at the beginning of the Memorial Day weekend, this probably would have been a bigger draw in D-town.

Local guy Dario Rosa (pleasant 60’s-esque pop tunes) got the evening started, and was followed by an odd music video deejay. This was one of the strangest things I’ve seen in some time – this guy had a DVD mixer, and mixed together all sorts of music footage. I recall seeing Donna Summer, Queen, Led Zeppelin, Michael Jackson, Sonny and Cher, and Elvis Presley. The effect was creepy at times, and hilarious at others – I enjoyed it. After a while, however, it got a good portion of the crowd pissed off. A few people had started voicing their displeasure, and then the deejay’s equipment froze up. Luckily, The Fall was waiting in the wings and immediately hit the stage.

At this point, I’ll admit that I was curious as to how The Fall would do – the band that leader Mark E. Smith brought over from England bailed on him less than two weeks prior to the Boulder date. Never one to give up easily, Smith (and his keyboardist wife) asked label mates The Cairo Gang to be his band for the remainder of the tour. Well, I certainly didn’t need to worry as these guys really stepped up and did a terrific job. Quite honestly, it was the best Fall show I’ve ever seen. If you’ve seen them before, you know what to expect - Mark E. Smith wandering around the stage, looking like your demented grandfather, while he rants away and sizes up the audience. Oh, and he likes to wander to the back of the stage and fiddle with the knobs on the musician’s amplifiers. What he did this time, which I’ve never seen him do before, was randomly grab a different microphone and drop the one he was previously singing into. He did this throughout the show, and even tossed a vocal mike into the bass drum a few times – soundmen have got to hate this guy! It all added up to a show that was both chaotic and entertaining. Another show to beat for 2006? You'd better believe it!

The set was mostly material from the last two Fall releases, Fall Heads Roll and The Real New Fall LP (formerly Country on the Click) - both worth your time if you’ve ever been a Fall fan (especially the latter). The only oldies I recognized were Wrong Place, Right Time and their cover of Mr. Pharmacist. Not too surprising, as Mark E. Smith has never been one to dwell in the past. He’s kept The Fall going for 30 years now, and while everything they’ve put out hasn’t been terrific their music has always been interesting. How many other artists can make that same claim? Not too many… Long live The Fall!

Modern Art makes me want to Rock Out!

We made it over to the Hi Dive last Friday to catch British buzz band Art Brut. Not only was I impressed, I hafta say that this is currently the frontrunner for “show of the year.” Their album, Bang Bang Rock & Roll, isn’t due out in this country until later this month. I picked up an import vinyl copy a few weeks ago, and I really like it (a lot of people must be tracking down imports or downloads of their album, as a large portion of the crowd was singing along). As great as the album is, the live show is really where it’s at with these guys. The band is incredibly energetic, and they appear to be having a great time onstage. The singer is about as far from the typical rock and roll front man as you can get. With his cheesy mustache, square clothing, and pudgy build he reminds me more of a guy who’d have a job selling car stereos than the singer of a rock band (my Seattle friend Big Joe Bloggs compared him to a has-been lounge singer). At the beginning of each song, he’d ask “Are you ready Art Brut?” as if he was calling a superhero team into action. They played all of the songs from the album, including several which have apparently been big hits in other countries (although I dispute the singer’s claim of being “number one in Narnia and Disneyland”). They had some new songs as well, including one which stole the title from a Billy Childish tune, Punk Rock is Nicht Tot – you gotta love that. Lots of highlights: Formed a Band, Emily Kane, Modern Art, Moving to L.A., Bang Bang Rock & Roll, their most popular tune Good Weekend…heck, they were all highlights. My only complaint was the vocals were a bit hard to hear at times, and the vocals are my favorite part of their songs. A great performance from a terrific new band, I think they live up to the hype. Art Brut – Top of the Pops!

Afterwards, we walked down the street to The Hornet to grab a bite. Not really my type of place, a bit too yuppie, but they have a late menu and it was close. Plus, a special on Newcastle is always welcome. Anyway, we’re enjoying our food and drinks when some stereotypical young “punks” walked up the window outside. Freshly painted and studded leather jackets, one guy sporting a mohawk – you know the drill. This look was considered a cliché when I first got into punk in the early 80’s, and after twenty-plus years it just makes me laugh. One of them threw himself up against the window, and the other guy starts showing us the menu he stole from the bar next door. Wow, a stolen menu – these guys mean business! We waved at them, and tried not to burst out laughing. They moved on, and I couldn’t help but comment “those are the guys…the guys that invented punk rock!” Then some girls from a bachelorette party ran outside to get their pictures taken with them. The punks then followed the girls back into The Hornet, and tried to look scary, but people pretty much just ignored them. Then they left, presumably to go do something punk. Because that’s what punks do.

Line, Line, Everywhere a Line

Some nights, no matter how good the bands are, I just don’t have a very good time when I go out. I’m not sure what sets me off, and it doesn’t happen very often, but I end up wishing I had stayed at home. Case in point: the Deathray Davies and the M’s show last Tuesday at the Hi Dive. I had heard good things about both bands, so I decided to give the show a try. First off, I have to say that I was really impressed with both groups. The Deathray Davies had a retro sound, but they were a bit more pop than your typical “garage” band. I thought they were terrific. There was a superfan up front during their set doing what I can only describe as a robot dance, it was pretty awesome. The M’s had more of a straight pop sound, but they were quirky enough to keep things interesting. I wouldn’t hesitate to see either band again. So why didn’t I have a better time? I’m really not sure – something had me in a funk, and not even a night of hot boogie could snap me out of it. If this happens again, I think I’m gonna bust out my own robot dance – that should cheer me up.

On Friday, my buddy JT and I caught Swedish band The Sounds at the Ogden. I’ve attempted to see this band twice before – the first time I went to the Larimer Lounge to find that they had cancelled, and the second time the li’l woman and I missed them due to a sellout at the Bluebird. I decided to give them another try, so we went over to the Ogden about an hour after the doors had opened to try our luck. There was a huge line for the box office, and it was barely moving. We were in line for about 30 minutes, and we heard music starting. JT noticed an acquaintance working the door, and walked up to make sure we weren’t missing the headliners. I then heard my name called, and JT was calling me up to the door and his friend was ushering us in for free – you gotta love that. We then waited in another line to go upstairs to the balcony, which is where the bar was located that evening. We then waited in another long line at the bar….I think you can see where this is going.

This is the point where I’m going to go off on a rant about the Ogden Theater. When I was in high school, I loved going to the Ogden to see movies. They stopped doing movies there a long time ago, and at some point in the 90’s it was reopened as a live music venue. If the place is only half full, it’s not a bad place to see a show. But when it’s packed, it is one of the worst places I’ve ever seen a concert – terrible sightlines, lousy ventilation, and an incredibly slow ticket and will call line. Recently, the Ogden went through a much ballyhooed renovation project. I had high hopes as huge improvements were promised, and they did follow through on a few of them – the sound is a little better, and they replaced the sticky old carpet with rubber flooring. The biggest change was the balcony – what used to be a small balcony now wraps around the sides of the venue. We spent the majority of the show up there, and I can’t say that I was very impressed. If you manage to get a seat right up along the railing, you’ll have a good view. If you don’t get one of those spots, you’ll have a partial view of the stage but mostly a view of a side portion of the balcony. I think the balcony increased maximum capacity of the Ogden by about 500 attendees – too bad the majority of those people will be looking at the back of someone’s head. So, all of those changes, and it looks like the Ogden will still be an awful venue when it’s packed. Unless you’re a big fan of waiting in long, slow lines – then you’ll have a great time!

And how was the show? Ehhhhh…it was okay. We saw part of openers Morningwood, who were pretty weak. The most entertaining part of their set was when they got a girl from the audience onstage and the female singer stripped her down to her bra and underwear while singing “I want to see you naked” – you’ve never seen so many guys angling for a better view. (Much hilarity ensued when JT observed “She just removed her belt…her white belt!”) The Sounds were a good bit better, but nothing amazing. The one CD I have, Living in America, has its moments but overall isn’t that impressive. I had heard that the band was much better (and rawer) live, but I was a little disappointed. Maybe it’s due to the fact that they have a very retro 80’s sound, but not the part of the 80’s that I have much nostalgia for – they honestly sound like Kim Wilde or Nena to me at times, there’s way too much synthesizer. We did make it down to the floor for the end of the show, and it was more impressive up close – the singer is really energetic, and nice to look at to boot. Come to think of it, the place was packed and there were a lot of young guys there….yep, it’s gotta be the hot blonde woman on vocals… Overall, not a bad time, but I don’t think I need to see them again – especially if they play at the Ogden.