On Saturday I drove the hour or so down to New Haven to see Lemuria (who've nearly become my favorite band all of a sudden) and a bunch of other bands that I also really like, only to get crossed up when the show was moved to a different venue within an hour or so of when it was supposed to start and I ended up missing the whole friggin' thing. All was not lost, however, since I hit up Redscroll on the way back home-- finally scoring a used copy of The Injections EP to replace my horribly battle-scarred original-- and then once I got back into town I stopped by the Whitney House, where they were having an all-acoustic show with Malcolm Tent and Al Pist.
I've known Malcolm peripherally for a lot of years, as well as being familiar with his playing with Bunnybrains and Ultrabunny and Creepdust and so forth, but this was the first time I've ever seen his solo acoustic show, and it was too hilarious. To say that his solo stuff sounds like an equal mix of Jello Biafra and Paul Caporino might sound like a bunch of hype, but for almost every one of the songs he played I was thinking, "This sounds like the Dead Kennedys", or "This could be a M.O.T.O. song" (except for the covers, of course-- Black Flag, Gorilla Biscuits(!), Devo, DKs, and the Ramones are the ones I can remember). You should seriously look up his "they all suck" song on YouTube; "Presidential People Suck" is the name of it, I think.
Al Pist was really good, too; he's got good songs and he presents them well, in a manner that is believable and sincere without any excess bullshit (seeing as I brought up Jello Biafra's name already, I figured I'd make that distinction). I think he was the only guy all night that I saw tuning up, also. I could definitely see Al playing to a regular crowd, and not just a punk crowd that already knows his background or whatever, and pulling it off sucessfully. I'm not sure any of this sounds complimentary or not, but it's meant to be, and I'm saying it anyway. Al ended his set with a Code of Honor cover, and he really does have a "Beware the Savage Jaw" tattoo, by the way.
I didn't take any pictures because I would've felt stupid using a flash in a small room where everyone was sitting down. I've had this God's Left Hand CD for a few years, though, so I'll go with that instead.
God's Left Hand -
"Fire Is My Friend"
(this file is now listen-only)
14 comments:
I saw Lemuria at Maxwells on sunday right before they left for Europe.
They were quite wonderful. Sheena had been away so they had very little time to practice before this tour and only know 12 songs. But they know them VERY well. They closed with "Mechanical" from the Get Better album but with a new arrangement that made it way more rocking.
Yeah, Jim, thanks for rubbing it in. I heard they were really really good on Saturday, too (the show I missed).
Thanks for coming out to the show and taking the time to do the review! You know China Pan is like Mecca for vegans like me (vegans who like their food deep fried with a lot of sauce on it!)
China Pan is AWESOME. Who knew it was world famous?
Hmmm. I rather like "Fire Is My Friend" cut. A bit of a grower, and oddly infectious in an 'old school' kind of fashion.
Oh man--I see on that post you linked Al was looking fro a confirmation of that tattoo from me! I shoulda gone back to that post....
Also, how did I never notice Al has a song on that cd about Jimmy Piersall?? Another terrible job by me.
Yes, Jere-- you are now the Official Tattoo Verifier. Actually, I can vouch for it, also.
ib! Glad you like the song. Got some cool noisy parts going on in it, also, for all of us old avant-garde artistic types.
A full week of Al and Malcolm on the top of the page--I love it!
Yeah, and it's not from me being lazy; I burned up my main computer, so it's in the shop.
That stinks. I look forward to the next post, but will enjoy Al's cover repeatedly in the meantime. Even though I mentally try to turn that backwards apostrophe around every time.
Oh, wow, I never noticed that apostrophe (just like how I forgot to point out "A. Dying Gymast" instead of Gymnast on the cover of the Footprints of God 7-inch).
I do have a partial post saved that I could finish using the laptop, but it's about Chronic Disorder and I'm sure nobody cares.
Chronic Disorder--I see you posted it. I read the whole thing.
One time I made a flier for our big Ms. Pac-Man competition show, and I, Mr. Proofreader, spelled it COMPETION. There was no hiding it either. A great flier, ruined.
You read that whole thing? Jesus, that deserves a medal.
The mp3 file on this post is now a listen-only (non-downloadable) file. It's now being hosted on my Vox page (accesible through the above listen-only link), along with two other songs from the God's Left Hand CD which weren't included in the original post.
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