I got an email from my friends in Arbor Day about their upcoming show at Cakeshop, and when I learned that they were opening for A Sunny Day In Glasgow, I was like, "WHAAA!?!? How could I not know about this??" Clearly, I am not on top of my calender... Anyway, I timed it perfectly so that I could watch Arbor Day's set, skip over to Joey's B-day bash at the bar around the corner for an hour (happy birthday joey!), and then make it back later for Glasgow, which is what went down to a T.
Arbor Day has always been solid show, playing ridiculously well-crafted pop music, that tips its hat to the Beatles circa Rubber Soul (back when they had horns, but not quite full-on psychedelic yet). The only thing I think was missing from the band was a George Harrison type (lead guitar, background vocals) and I kept on thinking up perfect background lines and melodies during their set and was seriously considering asking them if they needed another dude in the band, and maybe i will someday, but i digress...
Glasgow Photo courtesy of AskMeAboutMyInvisibleFriends
...I got back from Joey's just as Glasgow was starting their first song and the place was packed. I muscled my way up front and found some empty space stage right (cakeshop doesn't really have a stage, it's all one long basement with a bar, so I was literally like 5 feet from the band for the whole show =) My first reaction was complete surprise. Was this the same band?!? I was expecting some lo-fi, heavily-effected ambient electronica, like on their excellent album "scribble mural comic journal." But lo-and-behold, they ROCK! You may not realize it from their album, but their drummer is playing hard! And the majority of those multi-tap delay sounds (which sound even better live btw) come from their inventive guitarist (who coincidently looks exactly like my friend Grant). Seriously tho, everyone in the group was good. I liked how the bass player would drop out for a few bars and then come back in at the perfect time. And the singer was always melodic and laid back, just floating above the music. A lot of their song structure isn't the traditional verse-chorus-verse shit that is over emulated, which keeps it interesting... and I was really taken by how cool they were, like actually cool (some bands try to be cool (but usually fail miserably) and rarely is a band both cool and good, but they pulled it off, and without any attitude! Fuck, maybe I should move to Philly, a lot of my favorite new bands have been coming outta there...
1 comment:
oh man. i was already really upset i couldn't see them in seattle, but your review makes me even more upset! not to say your blog upsets me often... in fact it's quite great. it's just... they sound so perfectly like what i want them to sound like live... i hope i get a chance to see em in the next year! sunny day. not arbor day. but arbor day sounds cool too.
Post a Comment