Last night it was Qui / Burning Brides at the Echoplex. I enjoy the fact that I can walk there. What a feeling. Who would have thought exercise and live music could occupy the same space? Well, I guess if you listen to a live recording while you’re at the gym…whatever, that’s not even remotely the point right now.
The first two bands of the evening were nothing to blog about (HAHA! Oh my God, I’m totally going to use that expression about everything from now on. Just think about it: “Hey Evan, did you enjoy the dinner?” “Well, parents-of-my-hypothetical-girlfriend, to be honest it was nothing to blog about.” How incredible is that? You should start using it too! Let’s make it happen, people!). I don’t even remember their names. The first band was all posturing and terrible songs. The second band was a bit better, they were heavy and had a decent song or two. I don’t remember.
Qui. Great musicianship, silly banter, intriguing sound. It’s definitely something new. I don’t know if references are enough to explain the sound, so I’ll try to describe it as accurately as possible. Guitarist plays humbucking guitar through nice fender amp for very meaty sound. Throws heavy fuzz atop when gearing up his tone to freak-out proportions. The drummer switches between more avant-style rhythms and standard beats. The first song, which I believe was called, “I Love You” was one of the strongest of the set. There was another one later in the set that was a huge swelling and expanding noise orgy, complete with David Yow slamming his microphone down in disgust and writhing around. During the first song he threw his pocket change down on a monitor for some reason, and dove into the crowd; the cord of his microphone caught around the stand and caused it to fly a few feet through the air. I’m pretty sure no one was hit. For me, the highlight was the intense cover of “Willie The Pimp.” Those were truly magical minutes. At the conclusion of their last song, Yow told everyone to stay tuned for Burning Bridges. Ha!
Burning Brides. They were very slick. A little too slick for my liking, but they had a few very catchy, good tunes. They projected clips of old movies and concert footage behind them. The drummer smoked a joint on stage. That’s not really anything new, because the Burning Brides and their love of all things marijuana are very well documented across the Internet. In fact, at one point, the singer/guitarist turned around and noticed the projector was showing a Nirvana concert. “That’s a really rare show,” he said. “I’m lucky I have it on DVD. By the way, who wants to smoke pot with us and watch DVDs after the show?” The crowd roared. That might have been my favorite part of their set.
I took a few more pictures, and I’ll post them on my main site whenever I get a chance. In the meantime, here’s a 90-second video of “Willie The Pimp” as performed by Qui. I’m sorry for the awful sound quality, but it was pretty loud where I was standing.
