BrightestYoungThings: The Life and Times / Medications / Deleted Scenes @ RNR

all words: Phil Cohen
all photos: Alyssa Lesser (from back when)

Two years ago, I saw Kansas City’s the Life and Times open for the Appleseed Cast (who, oddly enough, I saw again two days before this show) at Rock and Roll Hotel. I’d heard a few songs by them but was totally taken off-guard by the incomprehensible skill and dexterity of their drummer, Chris Metcalf. The guy played like fucking Dr. Octopus, augmenting their muscular, driving shoegaze-inspired rock songs with the kind of playing you expect to see from John Bonham or some robot designed by Honda. Needless to say, when I saw they were playing again, headlining this time, in support of their second full-length, Tragic Boogie, I might have peed a little bit. That excitement was only intensified upon learning that Medications, a mathy yet poppy post-hardcore band from Faraquet’s Devin Ocampo and Deleted Scenes, D.C. stalwarts and recent Pitchfork darlings, would also be there. It’s not an exaggeration to say that these are three bands I would see by themselves any night of the week, playing anywhere. The thought of them performing on the same bill stoked the pants off of me.

Deleted Scenes have had the praise heaped on lately due to their admittedly awesome debut album, Birdseed Shirt. However, whereas the record is stylistically schizophrenic, juggling songs that sound like a cross between Spoon and Grizzly Bear (“Turn To Sand”) and spacier cuts like “City That Never Wakes Up,” the set managed to take the tracks’ disparate traits and form a cohesive, mostly rocking set out of them. Opener “Ithaca” placed gorgeous, twinkling keys on top of warm, rollicking percussion and subtly catchy melodies and while the album version is captivating in its own right, live, it bursts with a passion and sense of joy that took me by surprise. Frontman Dan Scheuerman manages to strike just the right balance between bugfuck-insane and adorable everyman, which, I get the impression, is what he’s going for. Their set didn’t merely translate the album to a live setting; it actually improved on it. “Mortal Sin,” which never quite equals the sum of its parts on the record, killed it live, sounding like Modest Mouse with a badass slide line. Much of the credit has to be given to drummer Brian Hospital, who, in addition to having the best name in the history of names, played infinitely better than Birdseed Sheet indicted I was going to see, looking fluid and effortless and sounding tight as fuck.

I saw Medications three weeks ago and, in the interest of full disclosure, have to admit it was more or less the same set. That’s not to say it was in any way bad: Ocampo still shreds like no one I’ve ever seen, managing to somehow simultaneously play these incredibly intricate guitar lines while singing equally complex, angular melodies. The best parts about watching him play are the various rockstar poses he makes, always pushing his full body into the song. I’m pretty ready to see a new release from these guys, as I suspect they are; watching them play “This Is The Part We Laugh About” is still affecting but, I imagine, less so than circa 2006. To say this was the weakest set of the night is like saying a hand job is the worst way to have an orgasm. You’re still coming.

I’m pretty sure there were actually less people there when the Life and Times went on than for Deleted Scenes, which is not so surprising considering one is a local band and the other isn’t. However, even though about 40% of the audience consisted of people I suckered into going with me, those who were there were most definitely there out of their love for the band. Singer and guitarist Alan Epley basically told us upfront they were mostly going to be playing the new album, a statement which went over pretty well by everyone who’s heard just how incredible Tragic Boogie is. My friend who’d been to Appleseed Cast with me two days earlier had described their sound as “sex”; in trying to convince her to come along to this one, I told her that if Appleseed Cast was sex, the Life and Times was sex in a Ferrari at 90 MPH. This turned out not being too far from the truth: Metcalf’s magnetic presence and Epley’s gorgeous, gauzy and aggressive guitars form the backbone of the band, somehow simultaneously creating an icy detachment and intense intimacy. These songs all hit the ground running, growing bigger by the bar, with Epley’s vocals mixed low as to not detract from the myriad other layers going on at any given second within any given song. Barnburners like “Let It Eat” and “Fall of the Angry Clowns” fit nicely alongside slower tracks like “Old Souls” and Tragic Boogie’s title track and “The Politics of Driving,” the best song on the album, was a fucking scorcher live; when it explodes at the end, there was not a single inattentive ear in the room. I didn’t check the time one time throughout the blisteringly loud set and when the band announced their last song, I marveled at how quickly time had passed. They honored the crowd’s request for an encore with a particularly fiery version of Suburban Hymns’s “Running Redlights,” a move that didn’t even come close to satisfying the room’s enthusiasm. Epley seemed genuinely moved by the ultra-receptive crowd, considering the album has barely come out and has received little to no media coverage thus far. That’s pretty clearly all about to change.

I don’t even know what to say. If it isn’t abundantly clear from the review, you’d be stupid to miss any of these three bands live. I don’t remember the last time I was this excited about a show but can pretty safely guess the next time will probably involve one or more of these three.

Live DC

The Life and Times / Medications / Deleted Scenes @ RNR

THURSDAY 10/14

Belle & Sebastian

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