Dancing About Architecture, Vol. IV

June 24, 2005

Tonight’s Episode: Enon with guests Sparrow and Thunderbirds Are Now!

June 21, 2005 at The Casbah, San Diego

Before seeing this show, I already had two Enon albums and had been enjoying them, because it took me a while to ‘get’ them, if I have ‘got’ them even, and I dig that. So when they came to town, it seemed I had to go. Besides, I was under the impression that the Japanese female singer was one and the same as the singer from Blonde Redhead. Worth ten bucks just for that alone, nu?

The two opening bands were on tour with Enon. First, Sparrow, who I wasn’t really listening to at first; actually, I wasn’t even in the room. We finally wandered in, and I was surprised by the size of the band, given what had been coming into my ears through the walls. The singer sat center stage at his Yamaha keyboard. To his right was a backup singer with a tambourine, and to the right were two women seated with violins. The drummer was seated. The guitarist was seated, behind the violinists. It was a subdued look, and it seemed to fit them because it made me expect a subdued sound, which gave them room for upward mobility. The sound was more like – what did Chris call it? – Belle & Sebastian meets Quasi. I would add a New Pornographers pounding-quarter-note approach. But unlike the NPs, Sparrow lacked range. Every song was the same tempo, similar chord changes, and started and ended at exactly the same volume and intensity. It was obvious that the keyboardist/singer wrote all the songs, and was a talented guy with a limited set of songwriting ideas. This was obvious because I can relate. I could feel those songs being written, like sitting in front of the keyboard banging out chord changes, and thinking, I’m so hung up on the damn chords! Always looking for that elusive set of changes that packs one helluva hook. Look at Funkadelic; look at Talking Heads or the Beta Band or any walking blues: great songs with one goddamn chord. This guy, he had the catchy chords; problem was, they could have done more with them. And that’s just the songwriting. Look, if I had TWO violinists at my disposal, I’d do more than have them play UNISON WHOLE NOTES all the time! I’ve always had a liking towards complexity in arrangements. But this wasn’t just about being sparse, which I can get behind in a lot of cases, because the sound here was loud and full. It was just bland. I liked listening to this band; I even went home and picked out one of the catchier bits on my keyboard. A whole album, though, I imagine would be monotonous.

Between sets we went to the anterooms and were hanging out, expecting a long delay. But these bands – all three of them – were on top of things and didn’t keep us waiting more than a few minutes. So there we are, hanging out, and the next band starts out. We slowly wander in, and it’s loud as fuck. This must be the other band, Thunderbirds Are Now! [sic] There’s this short, slightly chubby blonde kid with big glasses playing guitar and singing, a tall Asian bass player, a drummer, and what the hell…? There’s this other guy with a keyboard and large setup of sequencers and samplers, throwing around a tambourine and his own body like he’d glued his feet to the blades of a giant blender on “whip”, or possibly “grind”. This dude had more energy than I had seen on the stage in a long time. He jumped down onto the floor, and jumped back onto the stage. He pulled the bottom of his shirt front over his face and sang through the shirt. He grabbed the mic stand and hopped up on the cabinets at the back of the stage and sang to the upper back corner of the stage. He tossed his head around like a salad. After taking that in I turned my attention back to the little frontman, and realized he, too, was flailing around like crazy. He put down his guitar, grabbed a pair of maracas and jumped up on some monitors and shook them at the ceiling. Check out the drummer – he’s covered in sweat. And the bassist, he was no slacker either. Damn, it was loud. It was around this time that I started to actually listen to what they were playing, and it was moments later when I realized we were in the presence of a band KICKING ASS! They were friggin’ great. I listened to the guitarist – he was damn good. Any sucker can strum; this dude was playing that thing like mad. I doubt he played in first position at all. It was all up on the upper frets, and tight and staccato with counter-melodies interwoven all the time. The bassist’s fingers were flying, too. Running, rhythmically counterpuntal bass lines. And crazy boy, in between the flailing he was hitting those sequencer knobs and his synth countermelodies, and his vocal harmonies were dead-on. The band is on French Kiss Records, which also boast Brooklyn luminaries Ex Models. On the website, they describe this band’s resurrection of ‘70s and ‘80s punk, and compare Thunderbirds’ sound to Pixies, which is an accessible comparison and in some ways accurate, particularly in the way the guitarist had that high, tight sound like Joey Santiago. But me, I thought I was watching a combo of The Ex and my favorite old DC band, Nation of Ulysses. A particular brand of ‘70s and ‘80s punk, that would be. The really odd thing was, when I went to buy the album and talked to crazy boy and the frontman, they were both these really low-key, even slightly effeminate guys with high speaking voices. I knew the album could never capture the intensity of a live set, but the fact that you can play it below 200 dB, if you want, allows the subtlies of their songs to come through. Not to mention the lyrics, which are actually pretty decent. These guys are for real.

By the time Enon came on, I felt like I’d gotten the shit kicked out of me. Enon played to their albums, at least the stuff I recognized. The trio are all veterans and played like it. First the singer (yes, from Blonde Redhead – I forget her name), controlled the samples while the other dude, John Schmersal or something, covered guitar and they both sang. She later switched to bass, while he switched between guitar and sampler and sequencer. This band has always been a disciple of Sonic Youth, and their new stuff stays in that vein. It makes sense, this three band tour. Enon has two personalities: the Sonic Youth avant-rock persona, obviously the brainchild of Schmersal, and the Japanese New Wave pop persona, which comes from the other band leader. Their songs generally fall neatly into one of those two categories, and the opening bands kinda fit that (Sonic Youth, faithful disciples of The Ex…and so the Great Wheel turns). What keeps this band interesting is that each of their songs seems to come from something you’re very familiar with, but has gone in a weirder, more twisted direction. Again with the Sonic Youth. They did a twisted New Order song, a twisted Nirvana song, and a twisted BeeGees song. They just know how to take those foundations and bring them to places you never thought they would go. Her Tokyopop voice sometimes cracked on stage whereas it’s straight in recordings, and Schmersal’s voice was a little less polished, too. But I wanted a shot of Enon, and I got it. They played a fairly short set, even with the encore (why do we have obligatory encores now? Just play a longer set!). I haven’t picked up their new album yet, although the new songs sounded interesting enough to make me want to.

It was one hell of a Tuesday night at the Casbah. If this tour comes your way, check it totally out!