I don't know who posts all this stuff to You Tube, but I thank them just the same. How else would I ever get to see footage like this? One of rock's true eccentrics, Don Van Vliet (aka "Captain Beefheart") from a French TV broadcast, 1980.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Swervedriver Returns
Swervedriver have reformed and already lined up a few 2008 dates. My favorite of the UK "shoegazer" bands of the 90's, they leaned more towards driving guitar rock than their peers. They lost a bit of steam by the point of 1998's "99th Dream", but I'm looking forward to finally getting to see them live.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Flat Duo Jets
"No band has ever replaced the Flat Duo Jets as my favorite"
-- Neko Case, from the liner notes of Two Headed Cow
The first weekend I was at college, a freshman clueless about music (high school favorites had been classic rock, metal and AC/DC), I went to see "Athens Georgia Inside/Out" at the old Lyric Theater on Main Street in Blacksburg, VA. I can't quite remember why I went to see this movie, but I think it had something to do with getting into REM at the time. I've probably seen and completely forgotten a thousand films since then, but I can still remember sitting there absolutely awe-struck by the footage of the Flat Duo Jets playing on the porch of a frat house. I'd never seen a band play so intensely. I wish the footage was somewhere on YouTube to show you, but it's not. It started a lifelong love for me of the old rockabilly that inspired the FDJ's.
Fast-forward a few years when I got the chance to see them live. It was at the old (now razed) Bayou in Georgetown underneath the Whitehurst Freeway. I was on Spring break from college and talked one of my best friends, Pat (also on Spring break) into heading down to see this band he'd never heard of. I have to thank Pat for always being open to my music picks, even when it started out like this night did.
Getting to the Bayou relatively on time for the show, there was no one to be found there. We were told to come back later, so when out for a beer elsewhere. Returning later, there was only a handful of people, so Pat and I grabbed a table in the back. A band called the Impotent Sea Snakes was opening. Smoke filled the stage and we saw the shadow what looked to be a giant moving around behind it ('Dude, is that guy on stage like 9 feet tall?!'). With the smoke clearning, the giant turned out to be the guitarist on stilts. I have trouble describing what else was going on on stage or the moritification at having dragged Pat down to see this show (god knows what he thought the Flat Duo Jets were going to be like at this point!). Events on stage included one member in a kilt grilling hot dogs for the audience (yes, there was a full gas grill on stage), a transvestite dancer, an artist painting a canvas that he would later saw in half with a chainsaw, and a two foot long rubber dildo. By the time the show was over, the seven or so of us in the audience were all just sitting there in open-jawed astonishment with uneaten hot dogs on our tables.
An attempt to clear the stage was slowly made, a drum set and guitar was brought out, and then nothing. Where were the Flat Duo Jets? About fifteen minutes later, the doors at the back of the bar flew open, and in stumbled Dexter and Crow. Dex seemed to be wearing a bright orange prison outfit. They staggered through the 'crowd' and across the dance floor to the stage. Without a word, they proceeded to absolutely blow the roof off the place. By this point, I had a couple of their albums, but the songs they were playing were unfamiliar to me. Mostly instrumental songs, played at maximum volume with Dex's back turned to the audience-- no acknowledgement whatsoever that anyone else was there, just total intensity. At some point, members of the Sea Serpents made their way on stage, much to Dex's displeasure. I remember his taking a running stab at one of them with the point of his guitar while still playing!
This remains one of the greatest live shows I've ever seen. The memories of it were all brought back by the recent release of "Two Headed Cow", the soundtrack companion to a documentary about the Flat Duo Jets, left dormant for many years and finally completed in 2007. The soundrack, released last month, captures the Jets in their prime.
-- Neko Case, from the liner notes of Two Headed Cow
The first weekend I was at college, a freshman clueless about music (high school favorites had been classic rock, metal and AC/DC), I went to see "Athens Georgia Inside/Out" at the old Lyric Theater on Main Street in Blacksburg, VA. I can't quite remember why I went to see this movie, but I think it had something to do with getting into REM at the time. I've probably seen and completely forgotten a thousand films since then, but I can still remember sitting there absolutely awe-struck by the footage of the Flat Duo Jets playing on the porch of a frat house. I'd never seen a band play so intensely. I wish the footage was somewhere on YouTube to show you, but it's not. It started a lifelong love for me of the old rockabilly that inspired the FDJ's.
Fast-forward a few years when I got the chance to see them live. It was at the old (now razed) Bayou in Georgetown underneath the Whitehurst Freeway. I was on Spring break from college and talked one of my best friends, Pat (also on Spring break) into heading down to see this band he'd never heard of. I have to thank Pat for always being open to my music picks, even when it started out like this night did.
Getting to the Bayou relatively on time for the show, there was no one to be found there. We were told to come back later, so when out for a beer elsewhere. Returning later, there was only a handful of people, so Pat and I grabbed a table in the back. A band called the Impotent Sea Snakes was opening. Smoke filled the stage and we saw the shadow what looked to be a giant moving around behind it ('Dude, is that guy on stage like 9 feet tall?!'). With the smoke clearning, the giant turned out to be the guitarist on stilts. I have trouble describing what else was going on on stage or the moritification at having dragged Pat down to see this show (god knows what he thought the Flat Duo Jets were going to be like at this point!). Events on stage included one member in a kilt grilling hot dogs for the audience (yes, there was a full gas grill on stage), a transvestite dancer, an artist painting a canvas that he would later saw in half with a chainsaw, and a two foot long rubber dildo. By the time the show was over, the seven or so of us in the audience were all just sitting there in open-jawed astonishment with uneaten hot dogs on our tables.
An attempt to clear the stage was slowly made, a drum set and guitar was brought out, and then nothing. Where were the Flat Duo Jets? About fifteen minutes later, the doors at the back of the bar flew open, and in stumbled Dexter and Crow. Dex seemed to be wearing a bright orange prison outfit. They staggered through the 'crowd' and across the dance floor to the stage. Without a word, they proceeded to absolutely blow the roof off the place. By this point, I had a couple of their albums, but the songs they were playing were unfamiliar to me. Mostly instrumental songs, played at maximum volume with Dex's back turned to the audience-- no acknowledgement whatsoever that anyone else was there, just total intensity. At some point, members of the Sea Serpents made their way on stage, much to Dex's displeasure. I remember his taking a running stab at one of them with the point of his guitar while still playing!
This remains one of the greatest live shows I've ever seen. The memories of it were all brought back by the recent release of "Two Headed Cow", the soundtrack companion to a documentary about the Flat Duo Jets, left dormant for many years and finally completed in 2007. The soundrack, released last month, captures the Jets in their prime.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
