Last night at the Charter Oak in Hartford started out looking like a wash out when a bunch of Murdervan's gear wound up missing. Listed as the headliners, Murdervan instead went on second (after Post-Modern Sounds), playing without their pedals as well as without any replacement strings, apparently. A broken bass string mid-way through the third song almost brought an end to their set, and it took a few minutes of discussion before Murdervan finally finished playing using a bass borrowed from one of the other bands.
Steinbeck and Pluto Gang went on after Murdervan and ended up being just interesting (and stupid) enough pull this night out of the ashes, right when I thought things were gonna suck completely. Steinbeck, despite the literary band name and drawn-out song titles like "This Ain't the Age of Aquarius and I'm Not Growing Waterwings," actually rocked out and even reminded me of Dimestore Halos, I swear. Or at least the singer's voice sounded like Chaz Matthews' a bit, when he was in between sounding like Josh Silverman a lot (ex-Shirk Circus/Plus Tax, neither of which you've ever heard of so forget I even mentioned it).
Steinbeck had some, um, visual inconsistencies about them-- most notably the cast-wearing bass player and the barefoot drummer with the goofy kit and splash cymbals-- but they have a song on a brand new Magnetic Fields tribute album (I know, I know...) which I like way too much, actually, once I got past the problematic tempo changes. I'm sure we've all wondered a million times what Stephin Merritt would've sounded like if he'd grown up writing songs for a band like The Ergs!, without ever expecting to get the answer. Okay, maybe you haven't wondered, but here it is anyway:
"I Think I Need a New Heart"
(Magnetic Fields cover)
(this file is now listen-only)
Pluto Gang then played a set of mostly ordinary pop punk, but were hilarious anyway, mostly because their shitfaced singer kept sliding on the carpet and falling down, even while he was picking fake fights with the crowd and everybody else in the band. They played "Coolidge" twice, as well as one song which I haven't figured out yet if it's a cover or not, but it goes, "I don't care what your momma's been thinking, everyone knows that BEER! AIN'T! DRINKING!!" Of course, bourbon is drinking, so eventually Pluto Gang's singer crawled behind the drum kit during the middle of a song and literally passed out, which was the end of Pluto Gang's set and the end of the night as well.
"She Said"
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While I'm at it, here's a track from the newest Murdervan CD; to their credit, even with all their technical problems and after going on early, Murdervan stuck around last night to watch the rest of the bands on the bill. By the way, they're playing Cafe Nine on June 12th with The Dukes of Hillsborough. Fukkin' right!
Murdervan -
"The Wheel"
(this file is now listen-only)
3 comments:
The mp3 files on this post are now listen-only (non-downloadable) files.
I booked Pluto Gang the next day and they were not very interesting, and also made very dubious boasts about fighting/killing police officers. I would have been upset with the woman who recommended them if she hadn't booked them for this thing and had them puke/pass out on her.
Yeah, I remember there was a huge show in Manchester the day after this one, with Hand Grenade Serenade and Post-Modern Sounds and Pluto Gang and Dead Uncles and so forth. Some people were wondering if Pluto Gang were going to be able to sober up in time.
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