Yesterday I awoke at dawn for work. I had a hard night’s sleep. After work I rushed home and called Ian. We drove into the city early and went to both of the Manhattan Academy Records locations before grabbing a slice of pizza and beginning our walk over to Avalon. Hoping to miss the first two opening acts, we even went so far as to stop at The Virgin Megastore to see what kind of crap they were pawning on the masses. Too bad we didn’t show up a few hours earlier–I hear Nick Lachey was there, probably either signing autographs or moping about his wife.
We got to Avalon while the first act was setting up. I picked up a copy of Pelican’s March Into the Sea EP and talked to Trevor for a few minutes; he was pretty shocked when I asked if his solo record was the project he was working on with Jet’s friend Jason (I wish I remembered his last name). At first he said, “Oh, no that’s just me,” and then after thinking about it for a moment he said, “Wait–how do you know Jason!?” So we spoke for a few minutes about mutual friends of ours and Trevor lauded Jason’s music and talked about wanting to release Jason’s new album on his label. He took off and I turned around to see Yoda (Mono guitarist) and the sound guy pointing at my Louisville t-shirt and smiling and nodding at me. I tried to ask what was up, but he doesn’t speak English very well.
MGR was the first act, it’s the side/solo project of one of Isis’ guitarists. It’s basically drone/feedback stuff. It was nice for twenty minutes, and twenty minutes was plenty. The second band was called The Life and Times and I can’t say I enjoyed it at all. Ian and I went to the bar. Towards the end of this second band’s set we made our way to the front right of the stage so we could be in front of Taka, Mono’s other guitarist.
SETLIST
1. The Flames Beyond The Cold Mountain
2. A Heart Has Asked For The Pleasure
3. Lost Snow
4. Yearning
5. A Thousand Paper Cranes (intro)
6. Moonlight
First off, I need to take umbrage at the sound at Avalon. Last month I was there for the Destroyer / Magnolia Electric Co. and both acts sounded fine. Last night the drums (especially the snare and kick) were horribly mic’d and, at times, the guitars were awfully muddy. It was most noticeable during the two opening acts, the first two-and-a-half Mono tunes.
Mono came out and absolutely deafened me. Taka’s guitar amps (Fender Twin Amp and Marshall JCM head/cab) were right at ear level. During the first song of their set, when he made the first movement towards his Danelectro Fab Tone and the A/B box to switch from the Marshall to the Fender, I was blown back a few inches by the magnitude of the sound. I watched closely at how he utilized his delay/reverb (since neither amp has built-in reverb) and his picking style. Oh yeah, and marveled at the loudness. So good. The highlight of the set was “Yearning,” which turned into a full-on, relentless aural assault.
Pelican’s set was also very good. I thought they performed much better than the last time I saw them (last summer). They opened with “March Into the Sea”, and after that I don’t know the names of the other songs. I like the more ambient aspects of their songs–when they utilize their effects to break-up the metal riffing. The early portion of their set was marred by technical difficulties. Also, I don’t particularly like their drummer. He plays with little-to-no emotion and with the exception of one song he pretty much hit each drum on the same beat. I’m not quite technically advanced enough to know if there is a proper term for that, but he kept the same time on the snare as the hi-hat. Oh yeah, and the double-kick drumming was pretty bad, too. Other than that, it was a good show. They played softly compared to the other acts. Pelican sounds better on record.
