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| Thursday, March 12, 2009 12:17 PM |
| Late Night Concert-Going |
 by Fëanor |
Tuesday night, poppy and I headed over to World Cafe Live to have dinner and see Throwing Muses. Poppy's a big fan of the band, and of its lead singer/lead guitarist/mastermind, Kristin Hersh. But I'd never heard of Throwing Muses or Kristin Hersh until I met poppy, and since then, I hadn't really listened to much of their music. So I dumped everything I could find in our iTunes library by Throwing Muses, Kristin Hersh, or her other band, 50 Foot Wave, onto my iPod Monday night and gave myself a crash course during the day on Tuesday. I really enjoyed what I heard, especially from 50 Foot Wave, so I was pretty excited by the time we finally drove on over.
Parking was a bit tricky. We'd been led to believe by the website that there was easy access to a lot, but due to poor directions and even worse signage, it was difficult to find. When we did stumble upon it, we discovered it was very small and already full. There was parking on the street nearby, but it was only for four hours, and we were too early for that to be any good for us. Luckily, poppy remembered another lot down the street from WCL that worked. It was a bit expensive, but at that point I was happy to pay any price to be able to put the car somewhere; parking in the city always makes me really tense.
Our dinner upstairs at WCL got off to a bit of a bad start thanks to the fact that all of the waiters and waitresses were convinced our table was not in their section, but eventually we got some food and drinks and our mood improved considerably. Then it was downstairs to the concert hall to grab our awesome mezzanine seats, get more drinks, and, eventually, dessert! It's the rare concert venue where you can enjoy a great view of the stage while sitting at a table eating chocolate cake.
Three bands played that night, and all three were three-pieces made up of a female lead singer/lead guitarist, a male bassist, and a male drummer. In fact, two of the bands had exactly the same people as the lead singer and bassist! That's because Kristin Hersh's other band, 50 Foot Wave, was the first opener. It's cool when you can open for yourself. Anyway, 50 Foot Wave totally rocked. High-speed punk insanity. The drummer was particularly amazing, but it was just great stuff all around. Next up was the New Jersey band Screaming Females. While they were setting up, a short, boyish woman in a red dress with her bangs completely covering her eyes came on stage with a tackle box. She set the tackle box down and began removing small box-shaped gadgets from it, attaching them to a long board. I quickly learned that she was the lead singer and she was setting up all her guitar effects pedals. And she used the hell out of them, too. Every song was basically just a showcase for her incredible virtuosity on guitar. She was amazing. Blazing hard rock/punk with lots of screaming, and insane guitar solo after insane guitar solo. The whole band looked really young, the lead singer especially, but she was clearly the most talented one on stage. The bassist and drummer certainly weren't bad, but the drummer looked like he was moving in slow motion compared to the guy from 50 Foot Wave, and nothing the two of them did was anywhere near as breath-takingly impressive as the lead singer's guitar antics.
By the time Throwing Muses came on, it was getting pretty late and I was pretty exhausted, but the band eventually managed to wake me back up and get me bobbing in my seat again. Throwing Muses is a bit slower and more thoughtful than the other bands that played, and I'm always going to like the louder and faster stuff better, but I still enjoyed their set. Overall I probably liked 50 Foot Wave's set the best. Regardless, it was a great night, and definitely a change for us; it's pretty rare we go out to a concert together late at night in the city. It was like reliving the irresponsible adolescence I never had! |
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