"Angel of Destruction, the Angel of Redemption's Got You Beat"

"Get ready Virginia, We're gonna kick your asses!"  So quoth Marah's facebook page.  Boastful and confident, to be sure.  No way they can kick anyone's ass in a place called Jammin' Java in NoVa!!  There can't even be a remote chance of that happening, right?  I hate being wrong- ask any girlfriend.  But, jesus, in this situation I welcomed the possibility.  Well, not to worry kids!  I went to see Marah 12/15/2010 and my body and ears were still sore from the asskicking they laid upon me.

I really dislike shows on weekdays because it's so damned hard to find someone to go and, to be honest, work sucks the next day.  But, I was able to convince the ever trusty Andrew B. to miss an ornament party, and RM wanted to make it as well.  They made the trip all the way to what would be my first show in my nemesis state of Virginia. 

To start the evening, Richard Bauchus opened.  His set was brooding, slow, and unapologetically depressing.  Andrew made a comment that a guy with just an acoustic guitar just doesn't do it for him anymore.  I don't necessarily agree, but if there is just a guy with a guitar, he better be pretty damn sincere- Mr. Bauchus did not strike me as such.

Next, we got to the Rock Show.  Jesse Malin and the St. Mark's Social came out and opened with a pretty good rock song- "Burning the Bowery"- which is what my soul desired.  He then slid into quite a few songs that couldn't help but sound the same with the same tremelo guitar solos and "Whoas" behind his vocals.  He then proceeded to namedrop everyone from J.D. Salinger (he wrote a song called "The Archer" about Salinger) to Bruce Springsteen.  However, he redeemed himself, in my opinion, by doing an awesome, AWESOME, cover of "Bastards of Young."  Jesse Malin isn't bad by any means- in fact, he's fairly good.  But, he just wasn't memorable.  I would say only 3-4 songs were impressive.  Regardless, he did a much better job of getting the crowd ready for the upcoming rock of Marah!!

Now it was Marah's turn to turn it up!  To everyone's festive delight, the set was started with a bagpipe version of "O Holy Night."  The bagpipes then gave way to an electric banjo wielding Dave Bielanko and the rest of the crew.  They took rock'n'roll exactly where I love it- fast, loud, and sweaty!  By the time the first couple of songs were done, Dave Bielanko was drenched in sweat and goading the band (who were completely capable) to keep up.  As a side note, Marah had asked for requests via Facebook.  Yours truly requested the remarkable songs "Angels of Destruction" and "Freedom Park."  "Angels of Destruction" was the first song they played from the choices and I could not have been happier.

Next, Bielanko and keyboardist Christine Smith did a couple of softer numbers including a song off of their newest, bruised album Life is a Problem.  The song aforementioned is "Within the Spirit Sagging."  Listening to the slower songs was quite an experience.  I mean, this is a band that lives and breathes by rock'n'roll.  To be able to take on the slower songs so beautifully is quite the testament to this band's ability and songwriting.

Now, back to the Rock Show.  The next set of songs were incredible, in-your-f***ing-face rock songs.  Midway through this set, they invited a kid of about 14 years old to play guitar on "Roundeye Blues."  They were in a "wish granting" mood due to the holiday season.  It was an awesome experience for the kid and he was pretty damn good as well!  Now we were getting closer to the end and here it was- "Freedom Park."  At this point it was hard for anyone to stand still!  What energy, charisma, and will to kick rock'n'roll ass!

There were a few Christmas songs sprinkled throughout the Marah set, but the full-fledged Christmas music (not quite traditional) didn't start until Jesse Malin joined Marah on stage.  This was a pretty good time and it was a hell of a time to see these rock'n'roll personalities really get into the holiday spirit.  I'm not huge on Christmas music, but if everyone played the Christmas tunes I heard last night, I think it would be a completely different story!!

So, was Marah's Facebook comment boastful- yes.  Was it completely vaildated?  HELL YES!!  It took a few days before my ears and body finally got over the full-fledged assault.  Marah, you are one of America's unsung rock heroes.  Please, please, PLEASE keep doing what you are doing and make the return to D.C. very soon!  I already need you back in my life!

Streakin' it

I'm realizing that I am just not someone that can listen to 20 different artists a day and like them all. I'm streaky, listening to only a few artists at one time. Unfortunately it leads to a lot of burn out.

Fall and Winter have been dominated by the Hold Steady, Lucero and the Henry Clay People. Summer was Arcade Fire and the Roadside Graves; spring was the Mountain Goats, My Morning Jacket and the Weakerthans. Its how i operate; its not perfect. At a certain point i get tired of the bands and move on to other ones. Eventually, i look back on past bands and realize how good they are and have them re-enter my rotation.

Anyway, we are coming to the end of the line. My girlfriend is going crazy with my repetition of Hold Steady lyrics, and doing the voice of the lead singer from the Henry Clay People just doesn't feel the same in 2011. I need to decide what comes next, and was hoping for some help from the blogging community. My leading candidates are the Gaslight Anthem, the Avett Brothers, Spoon, and maybe, just maybe, the Drive-by Truckers.

The very overdue "Extra Lens" post

On October 20th, Johnny, Jshay and I went to see the "Extra Lens" at the Rock and Roll Hotel. Before the show, I offered to write the review of this show. Here we are in January of a new year and I am finally fulfilling my duties. Anyway, to more important things: the band and the show.

Bruno and Darnielle: The Extra Lens is a two-man band consisting of Franklin Bruno and John Darnielle. Bruno is the frontman of Nothing Painted Blue and a visiting professor of philosophy at Bard. John Darnielle is the voice of The Mountain Goats and the author of "Black Sabbath: Master of Reality" in which a 15-year boy in a psychiatric center explains how Black Sabbath acts as a special agent to alien races, explaining to them his society and culture. Oh, and Darnielle’s also a vegan. So yeah, I understood why Johnny bet me that more than half the people in the crowd at this show would be wearing glasses.

But hey, I wear glasses and John Darnielle is the man. I discovered him and The Mountain Goats a couple years ago and got hooked on their albums “All Hail West Texas” and “The Sunset Tree”. Darnielle’s lyrics are brilliant and he has a voice you’ll learn to love if you give it time (just like Craig Finn of the Hold Steady). I saw the Mountain Goats at the 9:30 club a year ago and was really surprised at how good of a live show they put on. For such a cerebral band, they had the venue electrified with songs like “This Year” and “No Children”.

The Band: Darnielle is a self-proclaimed bad guitar player so he decided to hook up with Bruno, who plays guitar and piano, to record a couple of albums. The first album was recorded under the name the Extra Glenns and the best songs (in my opinion) are “Going to Marrakesh”, “Baltimore” and “Memories”. The second album, which came out just as we saw them in concert, saw them change their name to the Extra Lens. My favorites from this album were “Cruiserweights” and “How I Left the Ministry”.

The Show: I was pumped to see John Darnielle at such a small venue after last seeing him at the 9:30 club. We got to the Rock and Roll Hotel about 20 minutes before the music began, and we took in the crowd. Fewer four-eyes than Johnny predicted. It was my first time at the Rock and Roll Hotel and I liked it. Pretty basic setup, seemed to be about twice the size of the black cat back room where we saw the Henry Clay People.

John Vanderslice opened the show solo.

I had heard Vanderslice through the NPR Tiny Desk Concert series and enjoyed him with his band. His solo act was underwhelming; but it was a tough spot for him, playing solo in a big crowd of anxious Mountain Goats fans. However, I think Vanderslice, who produced several Mountain Goats albums, was just helping out Bruno and Darnielle on their short tour. He would later come out and play guitar and piano briefly for the main act.

After Vanderslice, Bruno and Darnielle took the stage.

They were rusty, not having played together in a long time. On several occasions, Darnielle was playing the wrong chords and had to be corrected. His energy more than made up for his mistakes. Darnielle is fascinating to watch up close, and you can’t really look away. Dressed in all black, frantically playing guitar, he belts out lyrics like:

the day of reckoning is coming


faster than anyone here realizes


and our love is like jesus, but worse.


even though you seal the cave up

where you've lain its body,


it rises! it rises!

Bruno and Darnielle ripped through most of the songs from their two albums. Some members of the crowd yelled at Darnielle to play the Mountain Goats, to which he said “sorry, that’s a different band”. But it wasn’t really. Just as Darnielle is the Mountain Goats, he was the Extra Lens. And most of the songs that we heard at the Rock and Roll Hotel might as well have been on a Mountain Goats album. The real departure for Darnielle was the last song they played, “Memories”, off their first album. The song had Bruno playing piano and Darnielle singing about his failed attempts at seducing a woman. During the song, Darnielle grabbed a camera from a girl in the audience and took over as her videographer.

Thankfully, she posted it on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIfebbC73tI

All in all, we had a really good time at the show. Any time you get the chance to see a band led by John Darnielle in concert, I highly recommend it.