Scripted Failures

Friday was a show I won’t forget. The Ataris played at the Multiplex in north Madison, which, despite it’s name, is a very small venue in a strip mall attached to a Texaco station. The show had been moved from Crossroads Music Hall in Huntsville about a week beforehand, so the turnout was a little smaller than expected. Honestly, I never thought I’d get to see the Ataris with a room of about 50 people. Opening for them were local acts or the Children’s Crusade, The Arrival (their last show), and Eyes Around.

Eyes Around were pretty good, but there were problems with the mix that were never fully reconciled by the end of their set. The Arrival brought out the teen girl crowd, most of whom didn’t stay past their set, unfortunately. They were solid as usual, and I got to pick up their last EP for super cheap. otCC featured former members of Married in a Fever and was a pleasant surprise. I had never seen them before, but their sound was unique and the songwriting was strong. They seemed genuinely starstruck to be opening for The Ataris (as I would be).

The Ataris put on a pretty amazing show. It was heavy on their older material (not a single track from Welcome the Night), so it was as if I was seeing them back in college right after So Long Astoria. Highlights were “Summer Wind Was Always Our Song,” “Unopened Letter to the World,” “I.O.U. One Galaxy,” and of course, “San Dimas High School Football Rules.” Despite playing to such a small crowd, they gave it their all and weren’t just going through the motions. Talking to Kris after the show, I apologized at the lack of people that showed up, but he didn’t seem to mind at all. I’m glad we were able to give them an extra stop on their way through the southeast. Hopefully he’ll be coming back by on his solo tour. Look for The Ataris’ new album, “The Graveyard of the Atlantic” later this year (he said around the August timeframe).

All in all, it was my favorite type of show: a couple of good local bands, awesome headliner, being a part of a small, dedicated group fans, getting to banter with the band, request songs, talking afterward at the merch table, etc. If every show was like this, I’d be a happy guy.

Thanks to Nathan Carter and 256 Booking for putting on the show.

Links:
The Ataris
or the Children’s Crusade
The Arrival
Eyes Around
256 Booking

I heard stirrings about Fleet Foxes over the last year, but until relatively recently, I hadn’t heard them. It wasn’t until their SNL performance in January that I even knew what they sounded like. I’ve come to realize that their self-titled album is easily one of the best albums of 2008.

The performance itself was flawless, with every vocal harmony intact. It was one of the most impressive performances on SNL in many years. I’ve since obtained a copy of their full-length (as well as the previous Sun, Giant EP) and it hasn’t left my iPod (I’m one of those people that doesn’t have one big enough for their entire library).

I can hear a lot of other bands in their music, including (obviously) The Beach Boys, Simon and Garfunkel, Crosby, Stills, & Nash, and newer acts such as Maria Taylor, Band of Horses, and Iron and Wine. I find the best time to listen to Fleet Foxes is in the evening, when you’re winding down to go to bed. And while I’m not a morning person, I would imagine waking up to it would be pleasant as well. It’s certainly a relaxing record, yet it maintains the necessary energy to keep from boring the listener.

Standout tracks “White Winter Hymnal,” “He Doesn’t Know Why,” and “Blue Ridge Mountains”) are interspersed at even intervals, which makes it hard not to listen straight through.

Watch their performance of “Blue Ridge Mountains” on SNL

7:15
Justin and I are sitting at Kenny Mango’s on Hughes Rd.  The place is nice, good coffee, nice atmosphere, but they could use a few more tables.  Oracle is playing at the moment (just the lead singer, acoustic).  The acoustics are nice.  A good natural reverb.  His songs are pretty good.  I wasn’t a big of the “Romantic Children” novelty song, but everything else sounded great.

8:30
TerraTerraTerra is on now.  I got myself a Costa Rican coffee and Justin got a Cafe Mocha.  Good stuff.  They sound alright.  Good harmonies.  Some of their songs have a definite CCM feel.  “Transmission Lost” was a definite highlight.

You can hear all these bands at their MySpace pages:
http://www.myspace.com/dgn
http://www.myspace.com/terraterraterra
http://www.myspace.com/oracle

9:09
DGN is rockin right now.  There are four of them: 2 acoustic guitars, a bass, and a vocalist.  Sounds pretty catchy.  Reminds me of some of the emo pop-punk I used to listen to in the 90’s.

All in all, a good show.  Great music for chillin and surfin the net.  Good coffee, good times.

DGN and TerraTerraTerra are playing tomorrow at Hope Church on Balch Rd in Madison.  $10 cover.

A little later than promised, but I had a friend that needed company last night. Enjoy.

P.S. Yes, I know they suck.

The Weakerthans at The Bottletree, Birmingham, AL, March 30, 2008.

Lead singer John Samson and bassist Greg Smith	John, Greg, and drummer Jason Tait
John, Greg, and Jason	Doh! Guitarist Stephen Carroll stealing the spotlight I was trying to take a picture of Jason here, and Stephen walked right into the frame.
Christine Fellows, John’s wife Christine Fellows playing keys and singing backup. She also played an opening set	John, Greg, and Jason
Jason Tait, drumming Jason, and John and Greg’s arms.	3/4 of the Band From where I was, I couldn’t get the whole band at once. This is probably my favorite picture.
John Samson	Jason, John and Greg rocking out.
Christine Fellows again, and some dude’s nose The flash was off, so it turned out extra-blurry	John playing one of the encores by himself
John and Stephen

The Weakerthans put on a hell of a show last night in Birmingham, AL.  My wife and I arrived a few minutes late, but caught most of Christine Fellows‘ set.  I need to listen to some of her albums now.  Afterwards, The Bottletree pulled down the famous “screen” and we waited.  Next up was local singer/songwriter AA Bondy, who sang mostly acoustic love songs with strong Christian overtones.  Then came the screen again

Finally, the main act arrived.  John Samson looked so much different than I remember from pictures.  I thought I remembered him with facial hair and glasses, and a bit older.  I realize he must be going on 30 at this point, as he started The Weakerthans in 1997, but he looked really young for some reason.

They started off with “Bigfoot!”, a slow, almost lullabye-like number from the new album.  After that, they broke into “Our Retired Explorer (Dines with Michel Foucault in Paris, 1961)” from Reconstruction Site.  Then they hit “Civil Twilight,” followed by “Night Windows,” both from Reunion Tour.  The full set list (from my faulty memory) is below.  The slashed tracks comprise the section I’m not too sure of, but I think I have the order mostly right.  I’ll confirm with someone else that was at the show.  (If you were, feel free to comment and correct me).

“Bigfoot!” [Reunion Tour]
“Our Retired Explorer (Dines with…etc.etc.)” [Reconstruction Site]
“Civil Twilight” [Reunion Tour]
“The Reasons” [Reconstruction Site]
“Sun in an Empty Room” [Reunion Tour]
“Night Windows” [Reunion Tour]
“Tournament of Hearts” [Reunion Tour]
“Benediction” [Reconstruction Site]
“Reconstruction Site” [Reconstruction Site]
“Aside” [Left and Leaving]
“Virtue the Cat Explains Her Departure” [Reunion Tour]
“Watermark” [Left and Leaving]
“Left and Leaving” [Left and Leaving]
“Confessions of a Futon-Revolutionist” [the only track from Fallow]
“Plea from a Cat Named Virtue” [Reconstruction Site]
[Encore]
“One Great City!” [Reconstruction Site]
“My Favourite Chords” [Left and Leaving]
“This Is a Fire Door, Never Leave Open” [Left and Leaving]
“(Manifest)” [Reconstruction Site]

It was a fairly balanced set.  I was expecting a run-through of the new album with some older songs interspersed, but I was happy to hear a good mix of new songs plus some of the songs that I never had a chance to see when they were touring for previous albums (esp. “Aside” and “Watermark”, both of which I was very excited to hear).

It’s hard to pick highlights when the whole show was excellent, but I think the encore might’ve been my favorite part.  John Samson came back onstage to play “One Great City!” (before which I kept hearing people yelling “I Hate Winnipeg!” and during which I sang “I Hate Birmingham!” which elicited a smile from a couple of people next to me).  “My Favourite Chords” is such a great song, and when I was convinced these two solo songs were going to end it, the band came back and joined in on cue for the ending, after which they threw in “This Is a Fire Door…”, a song I hadn’t thought about in a while, and had forgotten how much I loved, and then, to top it off, a postlude of “(Manifest),” my favorite of the 3 segues on Reconstruction Site (due to how much more rocking it is than the others, and how awesome the words are).

After the show, we waited outside for a few minutes, hoping John would come out.  Stephen came by, and I looked at him, but by the time I recognized him, he had gone inside.  He looked to be in a hurry, and I’m not for hassling bands after a show, but I did want to meet John and tell him how much I enjoyed it.  I bought a tour poster and Reconstruction Site (I’m horribly embarassed that I didn’t own that until yesterday), completing my Weakerthans catalog.

I have pictures!  But they’re at home and I’m at work, so bear with me.  They will be posted tonight post-haste!  To everyone that came out, I hope we gave ‘em a warm enough welcome that they’ll consider hitting AL again on their next tour!

Update: I found a video someone took of Civil Twilight from the show at al.com.  Check it out here (http://videos.al.com/2008/03/the_weakerthans_live_at_bottle.html).

I just found out yesterday that Winnipeg, MB’s own The Weakerthans are scheduled to play at The Bottletree in my former college town of Birmingham, AL, only 1.5 hours from here, on March 30.  I’m ecstatic.  This will be the first time they’ve ever played in Alabama.  Tickets (via etix.com) are only $13, and there are two other bands, Liam Finn and Christine Fellows, neither of which I am familiar with, but I plan on being so before the end of March.

I never thought I’d see The Weakerthans live without heading up to Canada, so this is amazingly awesome.  Here’s a video of their most recent single off of their most recent album, Reunion Tour, entitled, “A Civil Twilight.”  Enjoy:

I’d like to issue a minor correction to my previous “In Rainbows” review.  After buying the physical copy at FYE, and listening to it again, I can honestly say that it ranks up there with their last few albums.  “Not that great” was a bit of an understatement.  I was disappointed because my expectations were too high.

I still don’t think it’s “Ok Computer,” but it’s definitely “Hail to the Thief.”

I’ll just rest easy knowing that I wrote that short-sighted review on an indie blog that no one will ever read, and not after we become huge.

Also, for people that haven’t heard somehow, Radiohead released some live studio footage on New Year’s Eve.  It contained the entirely of “In Rainbows” performed live in the studio.  As you would expect, they changed up the songs quite a bit from what I’ve heard.  Justin and I are planning on watching it tonight.  I’m highly looking forward to it.