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If there's one thing I love, my friends, it's hitting the road for an out of town show. It feels like a teensy vacation, venturing outside state lines to go see some music at a club outside your usual circle of venues. And Durham's Motorco might just be my favorite non-local spot within driving distance. So give me the chance to go see two amazing live bands at such a great venue and odds are good I'll make the trip. Even with all that hideous DC metro Friday evening traffic. But damned if Hooray for Earth and A Place to Bury Strangers weren't worth the trip and then some. I don't really know what else could be better on a Friday night.
Hooray for Earth, some of my new favorite New Yorkers, are definitely a special live band. They have this certain feel to them, a rush of breathless, frenetic yet totally chill energy. It's the sound of the promise of beautiful warm weather, and to my winter coat-wearing ears they sounded simply delightful. To me, they're at their best when bouncing all over the place sonically, buoyed by lively drums and an inescapable feeling of excitement. At times, the room lacked a little intensity, but I think a big part of that was the drunken, basketball-glutted Duke and UNC fans in attendance. Taking cues from their lovely noise, the accompanying background images were a collection of swirling, dizzying colors and shapes. Big, clunky riffs and an uneven, awesome drum beat hallmarked a lot of the songs from their upcoming LP. "The barbecue truck is fuckin' rad," they opined between killer songs that went by much too quickly. Initially, I wasn't quite sold on this tour pairing, but having seen Hooray for Earth again, and heard more of their great, great songs, I think it totally made sense. In a way, they're like the sunshine to the stormcloud of animalistic aggression that is A Place to Bury Strangers. They didn't even throw my jam ("Surrounded by Your Friends") into the set, and they were still daggum fantastic.
So too was A Place to Bury Strangers. They've been just about flawless each and every time I've seen them, and are without a doubt one of my favorite live bands. And I made damn sure to have myself some earplugs for this one. The crowd was still on the lackluster side for their set, but the band played like they didn't notice. One song in, Oliver was already going gangbusters with his guitar-playing contortions and herky jerky moves, a precursor of the awesomeness to come. They weren't, as usual, big on banter, but early on we were informed that drummer Jay Space had a broken collarbone. After their set, I'd have said I didn't believe it. He, and the rest of the band, carried out their industrialized shoegaze with gusto. "Deadbeat," one of my most-loved APTBS songs, sounded about as good as I've ever heard, with that growling bassline and Oliver's onslaught of vicious guitar noise. The guitar bore the brunt, too, ending up tossed across the stage before the song was over. My most favorite song came right after, an extra feedbacked and extra slinky rendition of "Ego Death." It was nothing short of ferocious. The trio gritted and grimed and fuzzed and tore their way through their set with much savage force. And I ate up every last minute. Also notable was "I Lived My Life to Stand in the Shadow of Your Heart," which might have been my favorite song of the night. The black and white ballerina projections were the perfect juxtaposition to the sheer brutality of the merciless fuzz. The instrumentation in this song in particular was nigh on epic. This is a band that taps into some amazing energy when they get together on a stage, and if you haven't yet seen them live, well, you'll want to amend that as soon as possible.
Despite the blase attitude of the basketball-hungover crowd, both of these bands killed it at Motorco. It was a great tour pairing, and both of these bands should be seen live whenever possible. Trust.
mp3: Comfortable, Comparable (Hooray for Earth from the Momo EP)
mp3: In Your Heart (A Place to Bury Strangers from Exploding Head)
[photo by Megan Petty - Philly, 2010]
Y'all, this makes me really sad. Sure, I love A Place To Bury Strangers to bits and pieces and think they're one of the best live bands on the face of the Earth, but any which way you slice it this just sucks, regardless of who the victim is. Here's the official word on what happened to APTBS and their stuff in Roma.
"A Place To Bury Strangers were midway through a three week long, 18 show tour across Europe when on Friday 12/3 their van, a Mercedes Sprinter Splitter van with British plates R965HSG, was stolen in Rome, Italy outside the BlackoutClub from the venue’s parking lot.
The band’s gear was safe in the venue, but 1000 Euros in merchandise money, plus a lot of merchandise, all of their suitcases and clothes, bassist Dion Lunadon’s New Zealand Passport & Green Card, the band’s Macbook Pro laptop and numerous personal items and various other gear were in the van at the time of the theft.
The items stolen from the van were worth over $15K, not including the excess van rental charges, plane fare, Passport fees, cancelled shows, etc. They have set up a paypal link for donations. Any donation, no matter how small, will be of great help. Their friends/former tour-mates in Holy Fuck were kind enough to donate a download of the APTBS remix of their track “Red Lights”to thank fans who donate. Each person who donates will be e-mailed a link to download the remix. You may donate here.
A list of stolen items can be found here, please contact Manager Steven Matrick if you have any information that could be of help recovering any of the band’s items. Thank you in advance. The band will be finishing out the remaining dates of the tour and all dates can be found here."I mean...their clothes?! What is this world coming to? If you can help, please do.mp3: Suffragette City (David Bowie cover) (A Place To Bury Strangers from We Were So Turned On: A Tribute to David Bowie)
I went to Philly’s Rittenhouse Square expecting nothing more than my second fantastic A Place To Bury Strangers gig. I left town a little shorter of hearing and pretty convinced that I’d just experienced the best gig of the year thus far (and that’s even taking into account the small group of juvenile delinquents intent on moshing). But those three boys of APTBS seemed hell-bent for leather on making this one seriously killer show, and succeed they did.
MINI RECAP: A Place To Bury Strangers = Deafeningly Diabolical! Overall score: A+.
Sure, driving to Philly the night before one has to be at work around 7:30 in the morning might, on the surface, seem like not such a good idea. But missing A Place To Bury Strangers for the second time this year was too unacceptable a notion for me, so up to Philadelphialand went I, with my bestie Laura, my most favorite of show companions. We strolled to the park and nabbed spots right near the stage in the middle of the greenery just in time, as the band was already setting up and testing the sonic barriers of the Square. Initially I wasn’t sure how the chaotic, intense sound of APTBS would translate to the open air, but when it was all said and done I felt silly for ever questioning.
I’m pretty sure this band could sound amazing just about anywhere you asked them to play. Taking the stage right as the sun had said farewell for the night, the trio pounced on their instruments and proceeded to tear their set apart for nearly an hour. It was a riotous set, nearly sixty minutes of blistering, beautiful aural ferocity. Think this band is fierce on record? You ain’t heard nothin’, my friends, til you’ve seen ‘em live. It was raw and powerful and violent and absolutely breathtaking. They chose four of my favorite songs from their gorgeous, must-own record Exploding Head (“I Lived My Life to Stand in The Shadow of Your Heart”, “In Your Heart”, “Deadbeat”, and my uberfave “Ego Death”), along with a bevy of first album tracks to boot. Each and every song was given the same careful attention to destruction, the band seemingly overtaken with a maniacal force driving them every onwards in their demolition. Every stake was raised, and they all delivered time and time again.
Singer and guitarist (and Virginia boy) Oliver Ackermann was particularly possessed, at times prone to a slightly deranged glint in his eyes just before he launched into a thrashing near-ruination of his guitar. Jerking around the stage almost as if in fits, he and his compatriots blew me away minute after minute. To quote a friend of mine, it was as if they had bellies full of hell. The guitar was searing, the vocals sneered menacingly, the bass inspired with its brutality, and the drums pounded without mercy. This was a band on the edge, and it was magnificent.
It all ended with a nearly incomprehensible wall of noise, as the boys turned things up to 11 and made with the never-ending waves of distortion that barraged the crowd for quite a while. I made the mistake of de-ear plugging a little too soon, and a few days later my hearing is still not quite right. The one real fly in the ointment? The smoke, which had been so effective when I had seen the band many moons ago at DC9, didn’t quite work as well in the great urban outdoors. But when a lackluster smoke machine is the biggest issue, you know it’s been a goddam good set. I felt the earth literally move more than once, and that can’t all be chalked up to my spot right near one of the speakers.
I’ve never been so happy to be experiencing some hearing loss. Ok, so there’s a few more months left in 2010, and plenty more shows where this one came from. But as of right now, this is it, folks. Show of the year thus far. No doubt about it.
mp3: Ego Death (A Place To Bury Strangers from Exploding Head)
Round about this time, I think, is the right time to give each member of the top 5 its own special post. Starting in at #5 with a band I almost totally and tragically ignored, A Place to Bury Strangers. Why did I almost give them the cold shoulder you might wonder? Well, little darlings of mine, it’s because of their name. Yes, their name almost sounded a little too emo to be true. I had horrible visions of bad haircuts and heavy eyeliner and awful lyrics. And shame on me, because I was so very wrong. After seeing them last Fall with LET favorites Darker My Love, I was made aware of the glaring error of my ways, and immediately ended my unfair APTBS embargo. Thankfully, there’s no moping suburban crap on this record. Exploding Head is a dark, grinding, heady record, glossy yet pleasingly rough around the edges.
The entire thing sounds a bit like vintage Nine Inch Nails (think Pretty Hate Machine era) having a torrid, dancey affair with Joy Division and Cure acolytes (or maybe even the real things) from the early 80s, with some Britpop dalliances thrown in for the sake of variety; it’s full of pounding synths and vocal echoes and drums that make you question whether they’re man or machine made. But the album is also decidedly modern, towering and imposing and full of pretty powerful sexiness. “Ego Death,” for example, is one of the biggest, boldest tracks on Exploding Head. Guitars grind and grate and play against the deep, husky vocals and basic drum machine beat. It’s simply exhilarating. The fantastic “Deadbeat” features one of my favorite lyrics of the year, “What the fuck/Don’t play with my heart,” as well as some seriously shattering guitar play. And the title track conjures up the ghost of early 80s Cure, in an eerily wonderful way. I was completely caught by surprise by this record, and by how much I found myself loving it. It’s the kind of album that grabs you from the start and refuses to let you go until it’s good and goddam ready to. Exploding Head hijacks your attention and forces itself into your ears and you will absolutely and completely love every minute of it.
mp3: Deadbeat (A Place to Bury Strangers from Exploding Head)
If there's one thing I love, my friends, it's hitting the road for an out of town show. It feels like a teensy vacation, venturing outside state lines to go see some music at a club outside your usual circle of venues. And Durham's Motorco might just be my favorite non-local spot within driving distance. So give me the chance to go see two amazing live bands at such a great venue and odds are good I'll make the trip. Even with all that hideous DC metro Friday evening traffic. But damned if Hooray for Earth and A Place to Bury Strangers weren't worth the trip and then some. I don't really know what else could be better on a Friday night.
