I saw me some ex-Unicorns
So...even though I made sure to whore out last night's show on pandas, none of y'all bitches came out. Suckers. It was an awesome show.

To recap, there were 5 bands playing - cadence weapon, busdriver, sunset rubdown, frog eyes, and islands (in order of appearance). Doors apparently were at 630, so I'd missed the first two bands when I got in just before 9.

So Sunset Rubdown is setting up their shit. if you're familiar with how first ave is run they have a big projector playing movies etc on a screen they lower in front of the stage. Tonight it was old-school batman (with tights, superimposed "smack" "kapow" "smash" in fight scenes, fully made up joker, the whole bit). Irrelevant, really, but I thought it was fun.

...So Sunset Rubdown plays. If you're not familiar, this is a side project of the keyboardist from wolf parade, with some other musician-y people from montreal/toronto area I guess. I...um...streamed their album a bunch in the last month or so, and I kind of really like it. More like - I like certain parts of certain songs a whole lot, but am ambivalent about a good chunk of the record. Something like that, anyway. They're good in concert, I think mostly because they only had time to play their better stuff. Oh, and the second keyboard player was super cute. go here and scroll to the bottom. or here. or here from her old band. (I think that may be too much looking at her on the internets already - I may already be in the realm of borderline stalkerdom.)

Anyway...If my cousin was there he may or may not have told her she was...

"Bright."
"Oh...thank you, but how do you know?"
"I guess what I mean is that you just... exude light."
"Thank you, that means a lot to me..."*

I think the band lead/keyboardist had a mustache too, but it was kind of hard to see because he was more or less making out with the microphone. I'm a fan of mustaches, as you may have seen before.

So that was a good show. Frog Eyes was up next - but I took off after sunset rubdown finished their set to go grab some Luce (hadn't really eaten since lunch at this point, had to work late). Had some delicious chicken/jalapeno/tomato pizza. I got back about halfway through Frog Eyes' set...which ended up being a good thing, as I couldn't stand them. Before I go into more detail, I should probably say I rarely get into bands by seeing them live - I have to know their music first, then see the live show. So...attempting to search for adjectives here...frog eyes was somehow simultaneously restrained and spazzy. As in - their frontman had a very specific stage persona, and it was obviously very well rehearsed, but it was out of control without being physically so. Very....twitchy, maybe. I guess my biggest complaint aside from that was the music didn't seem structured enough

and the guy from wolf parade/sunset rubdown was in this band too, on keyboards as usual.

So then it's Islands' turn up. Since the Unicorns' show way back when was pretty sparse with just the three of them on stage, I kind of expected the same from Islands despite some denser production on the album... nope. seven people on stage, complete with matching (ish) outfits. Somebody posted a bunch of pics to flickr already...see for yourself. It seemed like everybody played more than one instrument; I saw the violinists playing keyboards, recorder, and oboe at various points during the set. They were both pretty impressive, lots of energy on stage (both of them in the background here) in addition to their talent - it was obvious to me they both had extensive training on the violin. The bassist, however, really didn't seem to fit - he was one of those guys who probably came from a funk background, and hadn't really gotten used to the concept of the bass not being a core instrument... definitely too much showmanship from him. Didn't work well with the rest of the band. And his bass was ugly...who buys a bass that looks like this? oh - right - bassists in a funk band. Do me a favor and slap the next person you see with a bass like that, ok? Trust me, they deserve it. though...not as much as this guy. an 11-string bass? is he serious?

Nick Diamonds had quite the stage presence, as well as some very...colorful hi-tops. he even rolled up the pants to show them off. Curious. I'm not going to bother recalling the song order, or even the number of songs they played - although I was completely sober (I think I enjoy shows more that way)...

Notable moments were "Don't Call Me Whitney, Bobby", which sounds like it might have originally been conceived as a song for Th' Corn Gangg - Cadence Weapon and some other guy made guest appearances, and made me wish I hadn't missed their set - just blew me away. I gotta hear me his album too...

They finished the encore with Swan though, which ended up stretching to 10+ minutes.After the band finished the "normal" song, they all kind of filed off stage and left Nick with his guitar sitting (dejectedly?) strumming the three chords of the last part of the song. He kept this up for at least 2-3 minutes before the "multi-talented asians" decided to return and accompany him with some improv violin parts, which ended up fitting perfectly. a good end to a good show.


*Actual snippet of conversation (not verbatim, but close) between my cousin and a good-looking girl at a restaurant in Uptown.
- posted by vcmc @  5/17/2006 09:54:00 PM