It seems that the rather large and ever growing annual San Francisco Noise Pop Festival, one of the cities largest music events has come, showcased and gone without me even catching one show out of a multitude of different offerings, from the great funk/soul/rock traditionalists The Dirtbombs to the highly sensitive often harrowingly bad live, queen of indie rock simplicity, Cat Power. There were some other fine acts I’d have liked to take in but generally with all the hoopla surrounding Noise Pop, I opted for trying my luck at catching them in the future, preferably in a non-festival, hassle free way when perhaps every show didn’t present a huge scramble for available tickets, and one wouldn’t have to endure the nattering of Indie-er-than-thou guys and girls out-cooling each other with their inane and unsolicited barbs of in-the-know indie rock trivia/opinions, what guest lists they’re on for the rest of the fest or anecdotes about being at the very first or the only good Cat Power show ever. It all reminds me of a Gang of 4 show I went to years ago where I overheard two guys hitting on two girls by boasting their music knowledge in discussion and one of the girls just kept interjecting the same sentence endlessly, “…. I like Bad Brains music because it crosses cultural boundaries.” I wanted to strangle her. There’s a big difference between seeing a show where the crowd is there because they like the band and are thrilled to be catching them live and seeing a show that for many attendees is one stop on an intensive week-long list of shows that serve as another place to be seen to earn yet another feather in the cap of one’s indie-rock fan credibility. Maybe they will get laid. Girls like guys who show an interest in sensitive personal song-stylings with minimal or precious soft analog accompaniment packaged and sold by earnest obscure non-commercial indie labels. There were a number of acts I would have liked to catch but many were sold out and I chose to avoid the tedium.
An event more to my liking was last Thursday at The Eagle Tavern for yet another installment of their popular and ever-growing live music night. I got their in time to catch three different bands including Gravy Train!!!!, whom I’d been waiting to see for a long time based on their hilarious and filthy new wave synth driven release The “Menz” EP, a four-song disc that opens with an ode to drinking 40 oz bottles of malt liquor and heading over to the high school “to find a me a bitch, a young virgin switch” or “make him kiss my gash before I fuck his tight ass,” with a promise of “if you make your momma cry and I’ll give you some of my St.Ides.” How could one not love such ribald sentiments from self proclaimed rap-bitches calling themselves Hunx, Chunx, Funx and Drunx? A visit to their very complete and quite funny website at http://www.rapbitches.com will give you loads more information on the group, like the release date of their upcoming full length album and their history and group manifesto. Judging from the assembled crowd, large and very responsive, Gravy Train!!!! are already a growing pop phenomenon. Dressed in sequined hotpants and black t-shirts the members took the stage, the synth program kicked in , the fog machine sputtered and the group exploded into synchronized lewd dance moves reminiscent of high school P.E. calisthenics crossed with the nasty girl moves of Prince’s Vanity 6. From jumping jacks to doggie-style and some impressive high kicks too , the filthy dumb fun of it all really got the crowd going. This was a party out of bounds, dirty freak-ass fun, and they sustained that feverish level all they way to the end, moist and heaving and the crowd ate it up then they were off to the patio for a cigarrette.
Next up was a group called Veronica Lipgloss whom I’d never seen before. There’s was a more straight up rock set, drums, bass and guitar, edgy and loud and captivating enough but towards the end of their set the vocalist kind of started baiting the crowd with some simple questions regarding the Eagle. It was something like, “How many of you like the Eagle?” followed by another question that I didn’t quite understand completely but sensed a hint of malcontent was being expressed. The subject was quickly dropped in favor of reminding the crowd that a few individuals were still in police custody over the recent demonstration that turned violent outside the community center. I was perplexed so I asked my friend Malcom, who knows more of this crowd than myself what exactly was being addressed here.
He seemed to know immediately what was going on, and it had to do with a show at the eagle about a month ago where the person in charge of setting up equipment and sound for each band, asked someone who had commandeered the microphone and was ranting about something to hand it over so he could continue set-up for the next band. When the person refused, Doug, without whom these live Thursdays would not be possible, took the microphone away and ejected that person from the club. This apparently stirred up some ill-feelings with a small group of people who cried macho mistreatment, anti-drag queen, etc, trying to politicize an issue that was more personally motivated, casting an indifferent cloud over a very accommodating community venue, or rather trying to.
I thought it was particularly ungrateful and ironic that a performer in a relatively young band use the stage that hosted their performance to try to stir up more ill-feelings over this erroneous accusation that the eagle is anything but accommodating, and friendly and fair and has provided a venue for many bands that in truth might not have a great deal of options when it comes to playing live in a place as ideal and fun with an emphasis on a community that revolves around music. By bringing this up I don’t hope to fuel this would be conflict, no one needs to have “dialogue” about it or “process” through it as a group. It’s in the past. Why should Thursday at the Eagle be anything but fun and most importantly about the music? Save your counter-cultural dogma for the real enemies.
The final act of the night was The Vanishing, the sythesizer, drums and saxaphone driven trio who are forging their way into a realm of music that could be described as Gothic Disco. Their first release a four song EP called In The Bat Haus is a very impressive debut, a dense, layered and scary soundtrack for your favorite nightmares, it’s foreboding atmospheric quality so present you don’t just listen to it as much as walk into it. It makes me crave the release of their first full length due out in May called Songs For Psychotic Children. In the past, most bands or music that might be considered Gothic have always come off to me as kind of silly and dorky, but the Vanishing have effectively creeped me out. What’s odd about that is their sound isn’t totally gloom and bloodstains, in fact judging by their new material, which they mostly featured in this set, it was among these darker qualities, quite danceable and driven. Vocalist and sax and keyboard player Jessie Trashed formerly of The Subtonix, looks perfect with her black Louise Brooks hair and dark eye-make-up and she seems to become a more captivating performer with every time I see her. Someone in the crowd screamed “Jessie I want to have your baby,” to which she replied “Eewww, babies are gross!” That’s when I began to think that to some extent this whole goth influence was possibly a bit more tongue-in-cheek than I thought, that and the fact that the band seemed to be having fun as they played, not wistfully fantasizing about overdosing on belladonna. I was also very impressed with the drummer, a good tight player and the sound mix I thought was particularly good, showcasing the band’s enveloping murky quality, a sound that’s much more than that one dark scary tagword implies. The crowd was in intense motion throughout the set, rivaling the free for all reaction inspired by Gravy Train!!!!. This was a great set, satisfying on many levels. Watch out for future shows by The Vanishing