It’d be stupid to try and distill the Saturday show at The Yard into a few paragraphs- this wasn’t a careful selection representing the most exciting music bubbling over the American d.i.y. circuit, it was basically the All-Star team. If you didn’t feel a vague sense of aleatoric dread equivalent to a surprise eclipse, we can’t blame you, but for those who go to as many shows as we do, the whole thing felt a little dream-like.
I’ll make a few notes, since we all love lists:
- Juan retold a filming session he had with Crystal Antlers the other day on a 40-story midtown building, in which the Antler’s frontman jumped on the ledge and used Juan’s shoulder as the only support between him and the pavement. The live show reflected that sort of vacant, performative explosion. Otherwise known as badass.
- Abe Vigoda might be the most promising act of the whole lineup, given their youth and the innovative melodies and counter-hooks they’ve drummed up with their latest batch of songs. Also they may have half-deafened my girlfriend. Her left ear is still buzzing two days later.
- Vivian Girls played some of their songs twice as fast as I remember them from just a few months ago. Their recent five week tour solidified their musicianship to the point where they all looked like they were having fun.
- Someday there will be Ponytailheads (Ponytails…), who will follow the band from show to show, trade bootlegs, and develop a language that deals exclusively in maritime squeaks, gurgles and whoops. This will not get them closer to conceiving of Molly Siegel’s vocals and their bootlegs will not make them better at the guitar, but hopefully it will replace the Phish set with one that can deal with distortion guitar and good taste.
- Oneida +Knyfe Hyts = Krautfunk drone odyssey 2008
- Hardcore is best performed by fattening balding dudes. Serious. It gives it a necessary being after having already been invented by scrawny skinheads in the 80s.
- I have never heard Shy Child sound so much like a noise band. Playing through Todd Patrick’s PA System means hearing them louder than I’ve ever heard them before (second place decibel levels probably go to Mercury Lounge, which is like comparing a Mini Cooper to a (bio-diesel?) Mac Truck). This means that all of their razor-sharpened synth lines managed to bleed together into a rather awesome, sometimes amorphous stream. They should do it more often that way.
- Soiled Mattress and the Springs played a funeral dirge for their own band that included fireworks and fake flowers. We’ll post a video of it soon.
- Etc.
Also, if you were at The Yard, these are two things you probably missed:
Down the street:
The greatest show on Earth:
