I got to Cafe Nine at around 10 o'clock on Friday, only to find out that a bunch of hippies were using the back lot to show a movie on the side of the building, meaning that I basically had to pay to park a block or two down the street by the police station instead of parking right next to the club for free. Well, maybe they weren't hippies, because if they were hippies I'm sure the cops would've stormed the place to beat all of them up. So they were probably yuppies, who are allowed to do things in New Haven like show movies on the sides of buildings. And actually I didn't mind all that much, because they were showing "The Blues Brothers", which is a movie that I actually sorta like. It's just that as I was leaving, the guy in the parking lot next to the police station said "$20", so I had to sit in my car at 1 AM and argue with the guy for five minutes before he finally let me out at the usual rate. What a bunch of suck! Shitty hippies and their 'art'!! Plus Tyvek never showed up, their van broke down in New Jersey.
Frustrations were already playing when I walked in, which was pretty early for a Cafe Nine show-- usually things don't get going for another half hour or so. I didn't feel like walking all the way back to the car to get my camera, so instead of taking photos I just stood in the back of the room and watched. Frustrations sounded really really good; the last time I saw them at Popeye's I didn't like them at all, but something clicked this time and they were pretty great. For some reason they almost sounded like TV Ghost, or one of those bands. It seems weird how Frustrations are from Detroit and I've seen them three times now, when there's local bands that I haven't seen even half as much. After Frustrations were done playing I went over to their merch table and bought the Fontana LP, which came out a bunch of years ago though I've never bothered to snag one before (there's a copy sitting at Redscroll, too). I have a tape with a few songs from the LP on it that I've been listening to in the car lately and it's been really growing on me, so I figured it was about time to buy a copy.
I wasn't familiar with Wet Hair's stuff at all, so it was like a new thing to me to find out that they're just a pile of keyboards and a bass player (plus a drummer, too). They were sort of dancey '80s wave-o -- maybe saying Krautrock sounds more respectable -- but I kinda liked it, probably because it's not the kind of stuff that I've heard a bunch of times before. I think I need Matt Korvette to review them once so I can steal what he says and come up with a better description. The guy in Wet Hair runs Night People, and they had about 17 of their tapes laid out for sale on their merch table, and I really wanted to buy a bunch of them but Night People tapes look all cryptic and shit so I couldn't figure out what any of them were. I seriously once bought a split tape on Night People because it had Tyvek on it, and literally had to go home and look at the NP web site before I could figure out who the other band was. Turns out I'd forgotten that Lab Coast had just released a tape on Night People, and I love Lab Coast, except that I didn't recognize the tape the other night when it was sitting right there in front of me or I totally would've boughten that shit. Tyvek and Wet Hair have another show scheduled at The Flywheel on Tuesday-- maybe since Tyvek cancelled on Friday, I'll catch them later at the Flywheel show and then pick up a tape there. Only the burrito place in Easthampton closed, meaning you gotta eat at Subway, and that sucks.
"Tell It To Them"
Wet Hair -
"Blessed"
Fontana -
"Giant Centipede"
