Let’s all just choose to forget about yesterday’s shameful post, okay? I’m sorry for embarrassing myself so thoroughly; I don’t know what I was thinking. Maybe if we all concentrate really hard we can wipe the memory of that-which-we-do-not-speak from our collective consciousness.
Instead, I’m going to talk about live music. I have a pair of tickets on hold to see Spiritualized open for Nick Cave in September at the Hollywood bowl. It’s been almost exactly ten years since I first watched Jason Pierce and Co. open for Radiohead at Radio City Music Hall. It was one of the first concerts I ever saw that wasn’t held at Sesame Place or the local JCC. Although I was just 14 at the time (the show was a week before my fifteenth birthday), I had no idea just how important and influential Spiritualized would be to me over the next decade. In fact, thinking about that night in Manhattan got me thinking about the whole mess of awesome opening acts I’ve seen in my life, many of whom deserve some recognition for being better than the bands I actually paid to see. And since today is Friday, it is only fitting that I do so in the standard top-ten format. To challenge myself, I’m going to list ONLY bands that I did not know of before they took the stage, and only bands that I instantly enjoyed. Although I loved seeing The Besnard Lakes open for The Unicorns, I knew who they were because Jace recorded Ian and I in his studio. Similarly, it might sound cool to say I loved seeing Blonde Redhead open for Foo Fighters and the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1999, but the truth was I walked away hating them. In fact every band sucked that night.
Oh, and if you want to know the worst opening acts I’ve ever seen…they are too numerous to count (Bleu, Lit, Moldy Peaches, Virginia Coalition, Her Space Holiday, and many more come to mind). The Worst Concerts I Have Ever Seen would be a good place to start.
Honorable Mention: The Frames – The only thing I knew about The Frames before I saw them open for Calexico on the band’s 2003 tour was that their guitarist Rob Bochnik used to work at Electrical Audio. I didn’t know (or really care) what they sounded like, so I approached their opening slot at NXNW in the suburbs of Philadelphia with fresh ears. For an accessible pop/rock band, The Frames put on a wonderful show. Glen Hansard had great stage presence, and the the band was really tight. I don’t remember the name of the last song they played, but it was a slow-building epic that solidified my appreciation of them. [Listen to “Disappointed”]
10. Earthless – I went to see my first show at the Echoplex here in LA just to see Titan’s set, but Earthless rocked so loudly and so intensely that I walked home convinced that I had originally intended to see them and not Titan. I was in no way prepared for the heaviness of their wild psychedelic sound. I think they played one song that lasted twenty-five minutes and another the lasted ten. I was amazed and horrified by the sheer volume. Thirty seconds into the first overblown jam I tried to remember if I’d ever heard anything that loud in my entire life. All I could come up with was being front-center at a Boris show a few years earlier. [Listen to “Lost In The Cloud Sun”]
09. Titan – I think both Brooklyn Vegan and the Knitting Factory NYC blog linked to my review of this show (Titan/Pearls & Brass/Boris). I wrote that Titan “melded space-rock with the cooler, psychedelic elements of prog-rock. At times they sounded like Harmonia or Cluster. Unexpected as it was, it was very cool.” A month or two later I read about Titan on an Aquarius e-mail list and didn’t realize that I’d already seen them. Z had to remind me one night when I said, “Let’s go see Titan!” that the two of us already had. By the way, Pearls & Brass were also fucking incredible that night. They were like Blue Cheer. [Listen to “Terry Riley Is Playing At My House”]
08. Black Dice – When I saw Godspeed You Black Emperor for the first time at Philadelphia’s tiny Starlight Ballroom, people were angrily shoving their fingers in their ears to stop the abrasive noises. I walked around in front of them for a few minutes trying to figure out how exactly they were creating such weird sounds. The only thing that turned me off that night was how both the dudes were wearing baseball caps. No one ever suspects a pair of Merzbow-influenced sonic experimentalists to be wearing a fucking sports cap at a concert. In hindsight, I kind of dig them more for it. [Listen to “Cone Toaster”]
07. Sunburned Hand Of The Man – All I knew about Sunburned before I saw them (along with Prurient and somebody else) open for Wolf Eyes in Boston a few years ago was this picture Ian had sent me. Why I instantly loved them was not so much a product of my happening to see them for the first time during the very beginning stages of my own free-fall into the world of experimental rock music, but simply because they were fucking freaks. The dudes from Wolf Eyes were Freaks, sure, but it was a more calculated, posturing-kind of freak. The nuts in Sunburned are literally weird, off-putting freaks, a collective of guys who remind me of that one dude who chats you up at a party and you cannot find a way to ditch. But shit, do they ever put on a great show. Oh yeah, and I met a sort-of Internet girlfriend at this show. But that’s another story for another time. [Listen to “Skulled”]
06. Growing / Sightings – I saw both these bands open for Comets On Fire in June of 2005. The three acts combined for one of the best overall shows I’ve seen in the past five years. Growing were the first drone-based band I ever knew, and I have them to thank for my introduction to…well…just about every drone-based act I now cherish. Sightings were incredible just because they looked like how I envisioned the football team from my high school would look in ten years, but they were disgustingly cool noise rockers. Growing, “took the stage and did just what my friends and I do in my basement when we play really slow and stoned, but way better.” Sightings “took the stage and their sound was entirely scrambled. You couldn’t make much out, really. Abrasive dissonance at its best.” I think I literally described their sound as, “frying eggs.” Awesome. [Listen to “Anaheim II”]
05. Grandaddy – For some reason when I was 17 I decided I wanted to see Coldplay at Radio City Music Hall. God, were they awful. Grandaddy opened and fucking blew me away. The first song was “First Movement/Message Sent id#5646766”, and that is still my favorite Grandaddy song. Thankfully, this concert was held during my bootlegging phase, so I have Grandaddy’s set recorded. Maybe someday I’ll share it. It’s quite beautiful sounding. The only other thing I remember about the show was Ian reclining almost horizontally in his chair trying not to be noticed as he smoked a joint. Ha!
04. Jackie-O Motherfucker – I guess I’ve written about this one at least twice before in “Treasures From The Collector’s Slum” posts. For some reason I just chose to see Godspeed You Black Emperor at the two Brooklyn shows rather than the two Manhattan shows. It might have had to do with my class schedule. Anyway, I got to see Jackie-O Motherfucker instead of Black Dice for the second (and third) time(s). Both of their sets were really cool in a haphazard free-form way. Although I didn’t appreciate them then as much as I do now, the band certainly made a strong, positive impact. Also, they’re not above sparking a bowl and passing it around to the audience. You might want to see them live if smoking free weed is your thing. [Listen to “Jugband 2000”]
03. White Hills – It wasn’t until I returned home from the Blues Canyon/White Hills/Titan show at Lit Lounge that I fully grasped what I’d just witnessed. When I was reporting for The Tripwire website each week on my favorite new releases, I actually wrote down White Hills Glitter Glamour Atrocity before I’d ever heard it. Why? Because the Aquarius e-mail list made it sound incredible. Anyway, at the Lit Lounge show (record release party for Titan), White Hills put on a jaw-dropping performance that still excites me when I look back on it. It was below zero outside, there were maybe fifteen people in the club, and for forty or fifty minutes it felt like I was tripping in space. I told Dave Weinberg (guitarist/vocalist) after the show that I hadn’t seen anything that good in years. He singlehandedly restored my faith in the guitar solo. White Hills has gone on to claim “album of the year” honors on this very blog. So, I’d say they were a good opening act. [Listen to “Live on WFMU”]
02. Nina Nastasia – I wasn’t the least bit interested in Nina Nastasia on the night of my first Shellac concert. I couldn’t care less. I was too excited about the headliner to even worry about the supporting act. Still, she took the stage that first night and almost brought me to tears. She had her full band with her; I remember being transfixed for long stretches of time on her string section and her voice. She’s since become my absolute favorite female songwriter — one one of my all-time favorite songwriters period. I often tell people that if I could choose a band to enlist as my own backing band, it would be hers. They were perfect that night, and she has been perfect the handful of times I’ve seen her since then. Oh man, what a voice. [Listen to “Ocean”]
01. Spiritualized – I think they win the best opening act I’ve ever seen because I remember this concert as the greatest I have ever seen. I was just a week shy of my fifteenth birthday, seated in the 10th row on the floor of Radio City Music Hall, and witnessing two of my favorite bands in the prime of their careers. Spiritualized had just released Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space, and Radiohead — of course — was touring to support OK Computer. It was the last show of the tour, and each band played their hearts out. All I really remember from Spiritualized’s opening set are the blue stage lights that never wavered or changed and the band’s loud, loud, loud electric blues. They opened with “Cop Shoot Cop” and closed with “Walking With Jesus”. Radiohead played for an ungodly amount of time, and included several rarer songs like “The Trickster” and “Polyethylene”. They closed with “Lurgee” and “Street Spirit”. Some kid in the row in front of me left crying. I think he might have been high. Okay, it was definitely the best show I’ve ever seen. [Listen to “Walking With Jesus”]
