So it was Oneida (supported by Big Bear and the Coke Dares) last night at Mercury Lounge. Before we headed off into the city, Ilya, Jack and I watched some of the Can DVD. Very cool stuff. Not your run-of-the-mill music video, that is for certain. You can tell a lot of time and effort went into crafting the whole package.
So yeah, we showed up as the Coke Dares were ending. For those of you who do not know, they are the musicians that back Jason Molina when he tours as Magnolia Electric Co.. We got some drinks, and Ilya remarked rather quickly that his (get this) Long Island Iced Tea (ha!) was very strong. Needless to say he was pretty plastered rather quickly. A young, attractive woman walked over to the corner where we were standing around, looking for a drink. Ilya told her that he roofied both of the drinks on the table, and I don’t think the joke landed. She looked visibly nervous. He struck her up in conversation later and she was very sarcastic towards him. At some point I answered a question for him kind of in a mum, hushed tone, and he repeated it aloud. The girl said something like, “Are you two a comedy team or something?” and I decided I’d had enough of trying to socialize for the night.
Big Bear didn’t sound all that interesting, it was like a very heavy rock band with a singer who sounded a lot like Geddy Lee. Ilya said that the Coke Dares should team up with Big Bear and call themselves Coke Bear. We talked about what their album art might look like for a few minutes. Ilya got another drink.
Ilya’s co-worker Michele showed up just as Oneida’s set was starting. They opened with a hard and modal groove that was basically the same note for about eight minutes. I think it was “Sheets of Easter”. Ilya was thrashing around and making an ass out of himself, a ritualistic freak-out that lasted for the majority of their set. At times, it was distracting, but in a funny-yet-pathetic way.
Somebody on stage mentioned that the band Oneida was actually on vacation, and that those performing tonight were called “The O Team”. At least once, maybe more, they said, “This is a song called (insert song title here) by the band Oneida.” There was a lot of humorous banter, and lots of “dude!” and “sweet” remarks. The tracks from The Wedding sounded great, I didn’t recognize much else but it sounded great. Good enough for me to go back to Each One Teach One and Secret Wars for more listens.
I’d tell you about the remainder of last night’s exploits but this isn’t the online diary of a Lower East Side scenester, and I don’t want to come off like one. I’ll leave it to your imagination.
