Index of Shows | Homepage | Upcoming Shows | Write to me
It's week 3 of the Tristan Da Cunha residency, and things are getting weird. Last week we had snacks—baguettes and brie, for Bastille Day—but this week is out of hand, with fruit and cereal and candy and fluffernutters! The first band up is called All Combinations. I don't know about "all combinations." I hear maybe two combinations: a sort of jammy instrumental with sparse keyboards over somewhat repetetive strings, and passages with a similar feel but with gentle, timid vocals. I try to get into it, but the best I can manage is "contemplative." It's good quality playing, but it's languid stuff, and I'm bored.
Good thing, then, that Mad Man Films are up next. They are a high-energy three-person freak show, and damned fine musicians besides. They come out in costume: the drummer in a bathrobe, the (male) bassist in a ladies' nightgown and wrap, and the singer/guitarist in some kind of silver lame spaceman outfit that looks awfully warm for mid-July. (None of the three of them manages to keep the outfit on for very long, about which you will not hear me complain, particularly as the singer/guitarist's boxer briefs leave little to the imagination.) The between-songs patter is crazed. The music is pretty crazed, too, punky and spastic, with a noisy mess of guitar and soaring, operatic vocals. He's really an incredible singer, and that rich, beautiful voice sets off the weird, challenging music perfectly. The rhythm section provide power, melodic bass lines, and pretty falsetto harmonies. They cover Talking Heads and, my god, The Residents! I'm in love.
Tristan Da Cunha are starting to pull out the really weird stuff late in the residency. Tonight's entire set features Steve "Mr. Adorable" Budney on guitar and vocals. On top of that, they play only one Tristan Da Cunha song! In addition to covering Hüsker Dü and Sparks, they play songs from previous bands of Steve's: Barisal Ammo (kinda straightforward indie rock songs, at least by their standards) and Spineless (more sprawling, Tristan-like material, and very, very good). It's great to hear them stretch out with unfamiliar stuff, and then, when it seems like Ernie must surely be near passing out, they launch into "Strong Candidate," their epic. It's a huge, amazing song, with what seems like dozens of different movements, and tonight, hearing it for the fourth or fifth time, I start to get the first hint of an understanding of its larger structure. I just can't believe that any band can actually be this good.
Very wisely, they've got a very different band scheduled to go on after them. I kind of thought that I might find Roh Delikat boring or too pretty, but that's really not a problem. The singer has a lovely voice, no question about that, but she varies the texture enough that it never gets bland. The guitar, too, flirts with a harshness of tone that balances the pretty melodies, and the rhythm section is fierce. I confess that I'm getting tired, and I've already absorbed quite a lot of challenging and unfamiliar music tonight, so the songs don't stick the way I might like them too. But I'm definitely encouraged, and want to check them out again.
