Index of Shows | Homepage | Write to me
After three days of International Pop Overthrow, I am seriously ready for some headache-inducing math rock. I didn't really like Shark and Bear the last time I saw them, but I like the impulse behind their music, all complexity and ambition, and I wanted to give them another chance. Tonight, the drummer still sounds to me like he's dropping beats. I am happy to concede the possibility that they are playing, perfectly, rhythms that are more elaborate, complicated, and deep than I can get my head around; there's no way for me to tell the difference. The strings (bass and 2 guitars) are gorgeous, sending out mind-altering, jagged squalls of joyful noise, but they never quite coalesce into songs for me. Shark and Bear, I respect your project, but I think that you are not for me.
Next up are Drew Isleib and the Long Shadows, from New Haven. I can't help wondering what thought process could have led to someone thinking, "That's it: I'll put this honky-tonk singer/songwriter guy between these two math rock bands." He's not at all bad--the songs are mild, pretty things, he has an appealingly gruff voice that he uses expertly, and the keyboard player provides fun, rootsy accompaniment to his guitar strumming--but it's not what I was expecting, and there's almost no overlap between the audiences.
Back to the math rock with Words For Snow. These guys are excellent, and reassure me that really, I'm not afraid of complicated music. My favorite of these songs has verses that follow a repeated 6-6-6-5 pattern, with choruses in 8; another swings wildly between 10, 16, and 7. The bass lines are driving and intricate, and usually one or the other of the guitars seems to be working with the bass to give the music a melodic focus while the other rains weirdness down from the upper register. As odd as all this is, there's some bona fide song structure here, and I actually walk home humming the last tune.
