(continuing the mega-giga coverage of the Monday night show at the Black Cat, John Foster has decided to write 2 reviews for it-one for We Were Promised Jetpacks which ran half an hour a go and one for the BrakesBrakesBrakes/Twilight Sad. All photos: Will Mullady-ed)
How not to succeed in the music business: starring the enchanting accents of The Brakes and The Twilight Sad.
The first rule would almost certainly be to prevent having to follow the star-grabbing bombast that is We Were Promised Jetpacks, as both bands had the misfortune to do.
One has to wonder if their performances would have struck me in a different way had the show remained in the smaller confines of the backstage (something made impossible, based on the ticket sales for WWPJ alone.) We'll never know.
In fact, both bands did an admirable job of holding court on the big stage and brought with them a small gathering of the devoted to surge to the front of the room.
What they also managed to accomplish was making it difficult to fully appreciate their charms - but they did so in wildly different ways.
I should tell you that I absolutely adore Brakes. I just do.
That is why it is so hard to write some of these words and also why I might be more inclined to embrace their faults.
The bald truth (apologies to Eamon and Alex) is that they are just a sloppy sort of band. They shambled on dressed as if they couldn't care less (Eamon) or cared too much (Tom) but both in that lovably uncomfortable manner. Their quick and quirky bursts have been refreshing and fun on record, but often serve as breaks between the more nuanced compositions. Live they should sparkle and amuse. They have a bevy of smirking lines and punchy chords but they are barely held together in the studio and require a tightness in a live setting that seems outside of their grasp. Certainly blasting through "Cheney" twice, so that two different audience members can count it in, charms the pants right off me but it could easily have been so much more.
Where the loose performance really hinders them is in the country-soaked joys (god how I love them!) and when they wrap themselves around the hushed beauty of "Isabel," the rasp that remains late in the set and the bar chatter kill the impact. Then again, this is a band that is playing several songs live for the first time in quite awhile and in some cases - ever. I love that they take chances - I just wish they didn't do it on every song.
But maybe I just love them too much. Maybe I am too hard on them. (Maybe I'm just like my Mother, she's never satisfied.) Maybe I am an asshole and maybe I would have loved this type of a show in a small and sweaty room. Just maybe.
One thing I am sure of is that where Brakes are forever destined to cult status, despite having the skills to hit the charts - The Twilight Sad seemed determined to undermine their potential.
Epic structures and performances on record are drowned in aural abuse for the sheer sadomasochistic pleasure of it. Will you winnow your crowd down to the very devoted and will they follow you off the cliffs? Certainly. But why?
Let me be clear on this. It's not a pedal-driven showcase that is causing my concern, like one might expect, but rather an embracing of a Mogwai style white noise and a mix that sends the icy keyboards and bottled hisses and sheens that left me pacing the room trying to desperately find some spot where it would begin to make sense. I was so perplexed that I sought out members of the tour to confirm that all of the shows have taken this approach (it should be noted that both Brakes and Twilight Sad used the touring soundman with them and had issues, in my opinion, because of it - especially with the vocals.)
Coming on to "Reflection of the Television" with an elongated intro, allowing the percussive thump to puncture the pulsing wall of chilly sound, I am understanding. They are finding their rhythm and going for the dramatic entrance. Little do I know that drums and noise is all I am about to be left with.
James Graham has the best intentions. He is soon on his knees, wrenching the words from his throat, but it is so disassociated with the music around him at this point that they fall next to him on the stage with a stilted sigh.
In fact, the overriding glaze has rendered the entire operation one executed solely by memory. The band members can not hear one another over the din (and criminally, very little of guitarist Andy MacFarlane's work sneaks through) and they are forced to play what they expect at the right moment. Soon, tiny errors become apparent as the timing slips and it isn't long before I am left queasy from the out of sync sway on stage and the assault of freezing buzz and keys.
I can take a hint.
If they don't want me there - I'm leaving.
Previously in Live DC:
- 5/24: LiveDC: The Adicts @ RNR Hotel
- 5/24: LiveDC: The Donkeys @ Black Cat
- 5/23: LiveDC: The Barr Brothers w/ Kishi Bashi @ The Hamilton
- 5/23: LiveDC: Damien Jurado @ Black Cat
- 5/23: Report: Soundbites 2012
- 5/22: LiveDC: Spirit Animal @ Red Palace
- 5/22: LiveDC: Astra Via @ Black Cat
- 5/22: LiveDC: Father John Misty @ Rock & Roll Hotel
- 5/22: LiveDC: Drive-By Truckers and Lucinda Williams @ Merriweather
- 5/22: Photos: Summer Camp takes the "Ladies of Town" Drag Show
God loves a cheerful giver.
dear reviewer, we get it. you were there for WWPJ and then got your panties in a twist. glad you left.
the twilight sad ripped the place up and had the whole crowd pumped (or as much so as you see at a dark, shoegazey show) as they tore through every track on their new release and 1 or 2 from the 1st LP. there were sound problems through some tracks but they got resolved pretty quickly. some tracks (i became a prostitute) did sound particularly different.
I don't know that I should add much here, as anyone following the site or the show could see that I was VERY much there for all three bands. It wouldn't be doing anyone any favors to gloss over the experience and I am glad you mentioned "Prostitute" which is my favorite track on the excellent new disc and the song that caused me to travel all through the room to try in vain for a spot where it sounded decent.
I stayed for eight songs, so it is not as if I was run out or had my delicates tightening around my special no no's, but I did mention that this is the perfect way to narrow your audience down to the devoted. Trimming a crowd of 500 down to a tidy double digit audience attests to that.
Both of these bands deserve more adulation for their obvious talents and I point it out because I care.
Having been to hundreds of shoegazing shows I also feel the compulsion to note that this is not a shoegazer band live by any means - but a drone rock presentation - the problem is that they actually write really good songs and you would never know it with this barrier put in front of it that doesn't exist on record.