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As I walk up the stairs at Charlie's, I wonder why the jukebox is turned up so loud. It proves to be Westward Trail, playing something like live. There are two of them, and they're actually very good singers, but they're playing the most tragic laptop synth-pop pablum imaginable, with cheesy, tinny canned drums and sappy faux strings. They're also playing guitars over it, and they really can sing, but nothing could rescue this experience for me.
Yeah, we just saw Clickers last night, but they're really good and we wanted to see them again. In particular, I find that their songs benefit from familiarity for me, so having heard some of these last night is a plus. They struggle just a bit with the equipment here, but eventually seem to decide that getting shocked by the mics is not too much of a problem. The songs are, as ever, a wild ride. The guitars are a smorgasbord of sonic weirdness: this band makes such great use of electronics, without ever sounding electronic about it. I notice the supple and involved bass lines more tonight than usual. The drumming gets a tiny bit rough from time to time, but he redeems himself utterly by closing with "Shotgun On All Things to Come," probably my favorite song of theirs thanks to the incredible drums.
Union Ares are a three-piece. They seem to be trying to do something interesting, but it's not really working. The PA is distorting the vocal pretty badly, which was fine for Clickers' set--they're mostly shouting, and it sounded okay--but Union Ares are trying to sing, and the distortion on his voice sounds really bad. The vocal lines are a little bland, and the guitar playing is kind of simple and strummy. The drummer is trying some difficult stuff, but he's not always succeeding. Under other circumstances I might stick around, but it's Monday night and I'm tired.
