It's been almost a year since I've seen a show at Cafe Nine, which is sorta crummy because it's a really fun place to see a band-- only that I'm not all that into trekking back from New Haven at 1:00 in the morning on a weeknight, and the schedules just haven't fallen in the right spots lately.
Things worked out on Saturday, though, and that was good because I finally got to see Medication, which was fucking righteous to say the least. I have the single on HoZac and I've heard two or three of the other songs, but hearing a full set of Medication for the first time was a complete eye-opener. As recorded, a song like "Didn't Wanna Know" is an almost perfect bit of 90's Darla Records-style droney bedroom pop, but taken outside with a 2nd guitar (Stefan) and drums behind it and it becomes something else entirely-- like something Dredd Foole and The Din would do, or The King Khan and BBQ Show, even. No doubt "Didn't Wanna Know" is one of the 4 or 5 best songs I've heard all year, but I'm telling you right now that there's a helluva lot more to Medication than what most people have heard. I mean, the guy has more brilliant songs that I can keep up with.
Estrogen Highs were yet again gigantic, even if they weren't "on" because Stefan's vintage tube-looking piece of crap amp kept shorting out or something. Even then, the extra squawking noises sorta added to the overall feel of things somewhat. It appears that Estrogen Highs have now gotten their set down to a science, where every song is unstoppable and the Big Boys cover ("Red/Green") is like a freakin' hammer. The second guitar player, Mark, is truly miles ahead of where he was a year ago, and I'm thinking that Wes could be the best bass player that any Connecticut punk band has right now, seriously. People from other scenes can talk all they want, but give me an army of ten Estrogen Highs and I'd take over the world.
They closed with "God Is Black" ("for all the white kids"), and then I had to split, though not before I was able to score a copy of the numbered silkscreened edition of the new Sudden Walks EP, which I thought I'd never get (Stefan: "Neither did we"), and then drove home literally blasting the demo from Stefan's black metal band, Ehrgeizig-- at least I think that's what they're called-- on the cassette player. Didn't matter if it was any good or not (I can't remember), because by then my ears were shot anyway.
"Didn't Wanna Know"
Estrogen Highs -
"Thinkin' of My Health"
(these files are now listen-only)
6 comments:
I watched the Netherlands upset the Dominican last night, and I thought of Stefan, as he's the only Dutch person I know. I think. And maybe he's not even Dutch, but I remember Tom telling me he was back in the early days of this decade. And today I come on here, and there's his picture, which you were posting while I was watching that game. Also, is "Wes" the same guy that used to have "WesFest" at his house? Either way, I gotta see their band live.
hey, thanks so much for the kind words! i stumbled across your blog a while ago through a friend posting a link to it on a messageboard, and was definitely pleasantly surprised to see some coverage on us and some other bands we like. aside from the local coverage, there's some great buried stuff on here (great plains, prisonshake, feedtime!!)
stefan is actually finnish, and his tape is "ehrgeizig" which is german for "ambitious." and i have never held a wesfest, although it sounds cool enough. introduce yourself next time our paths converge!
- wes
Oh right, Finnish. Whoops! Hopefully Stefan remembers me as that guy in The Pac-Men whose house house he went to like once. I'm glad to see he's continuing to rock. And that other Wes was a Danbury-area dude--we played his "WesFest". The Fonzies were great at that show, I'll never forget their set.
Oh and the band with the offspring of one of the Talking Heads or something played.
German for "ambitious", that's fucking great. Stefan told me the name, but I didn't remember it, and then when I tried to read the name on the demo I got the Olde English C's and E's mixed up. It was like trying to read Russian.
Off topic like you read about, but I still miss you writing about hockey.
Thanks, Tapeleg. Those sure were different times back then.
I almost should've slapped a couple of ads on the hockey blog after I shuttered it. That old thing's still getting a solid 300 visitors a day...
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