2005年 11月 22日 火曜日 13:33
Saw The Damnwells (well, half of them) & Blue Rodeo at Iron Horse last night.
The Damnwells were amazing, even with half of the band missing (off having babies). It was just Alex & Dave, acoustic guitar & lap steel. I really don't understand why these guys aren't famous - Alex has an amazing voice & there's nothing alienating about their music. The middle-aged people who came to see Blue Rodeo all seemed to like The Damnwells a lot. They have a new album coming out sometime soon; maybe that one'll get some radio play or something.
Anyway, the set was really mellow (as a consequence of the acoustic-ness). They played a bunch of new stuff that I obviously didn't recognize, but they also played most of my favorite songs: Electric Harmony, Kiss Catastrophe, I'll be Around, Assholes (the extended version from There's No One Left in Brooklyn but You), I will Keep the Bad Things from You (the song that gets my vote for sexiest song of 2004, even if Alex moved away from the mic for the "I will feed you fries with steak sauce" line), & of course Sleepsinging. In other words, they played every song I wanted them to play other than New Delhi & Death After Life (which would have been alienating to play when opening for a country-ish band, anyway), both of which were probably too upbeat for the acoustic set.
I was extremely impressed overall - it was my first time seeing them live & they don't lose anything in translation for the studio to the stage. The fact that all of the songs were amazing stripped down so much just proves that they're great songs - they don't need much production to sound good.
Blue Rodeo was a little bit… country (& a little bit rock & roll, for that matter), mostly the kind of music I don't like to admit listening to. I'd never heard of the band, but the audience was full of yuppies & middle-aged people who knew all the words. The band managed to remind me of everyone from Elvis Costello to Chris Isaak to Franz Ferdinand to Chuck and Mudd. I'm not sure whether that's a good thing or not - they didn't seem to have one specific style. Some of the songs were too buegrassy for me & others could have been performed by any contemporary rock band. They certainly weren't bad, but I never would have gone to see them had The Damnwells not been opening. I'm glad I did go, even if I felt out of place being one of the youngest people there.