Los Angeles, CA – 06/11/09
I don’t know if it’s because I’d been working for what felt like five years straight without a day off and I’d just come to the realization or if it was because I was extremely tired, maybe both, but the Handsome Furs were transcendent.
The Monolators opened for them and weren’t. They played their Queers-esque songs too fast and didn’t seem like they practiced much. They also seemed to have no dark side.
The Cinnamon Band were more interesting – they were like the Jayhawks if everyone except the drummer and guitar player had contracted swine flu and croaked and the 2 remaining members were on the “memorial tour”. The two of them drank Tecate after Tecate the entire set and sang esoteric songs about growing up in the South. The drummer seemed like a maudlin drunk. However, they had some good drawling harmonies and some of the songs weren’t too bad.
Then the Handsome Furs began setting up and it became immediately apparent that like baseball there is a stratum in music – some people are born to play and others are doing it because they just really want to. Dan Boekner was born to fucking rock.
I listened to Big Black intermittently in High School mostly because they had the angriest lyrics of all-time. That was the only other rock band that I’ve heard where a drum machine was featured as the entire percussion section. Yes, there’s been the Postal Service and others, but no one has rocked out like Big Black, until Dan Boekner bought his first Alesis.
There is a definite William Gibson vibe to Handsome Furs; the feeling that if you walked outside the club it would be drizzling a cold acid rain on a population of androids and their leather-clad human masters. It’s an interesting counterpart to the mostly anti-technology/sad-state-of-modern-culture lyrics but the drum machine, the synth and the odd movements and coked-out appearance of his wife made for a decidedly post-apocalyptic evening.
Alexei Perry is certainly playing a part on-stage but if there’s even a shred of reality in her appearance and actions then she’s definitely a drug-user and probably borderline-schizophrenic, which is probably why I find her attractive. During the show she alternated between grinding her teeth, licking her lips and rubbing her nose and making weird jaw contortions. Dan didn’t seem similarly afflicted, just like he’d been up for several days and now really needed a nap.
In between songs Alexei would run around the stage and do big butterfly thank-you’s with her arms – she’d put her hands on her chest and then throw her arms out to the audience. During songs she would stand on one leg and pirouette and then other times do Muppet-esque dancing with her arms while attending to the drum machine and synth. I wouldn’t be harping on this if it wasn’t such a compelling sight. The tableaux made you really want to go hang out with both of them after the show. You felt like Dan would be sitting in a chair in an old dingy hotel room with a bottle of whiskey and a cigarette while Alexei was in the bathroom snorting cocaine cut with comet so you could really feel the burn. He’d then make some offer like, “if you want to fuck her tonight go ahead, I can’t get it up anymore.”
That’s obviously an exaggeration but I’m not kidding, there was a palpable sense of danger and enlightened decadence that they exuded. But oh yeah, the music was good too. They only played one song off of the first album, Plague Park, the rest being songs from the relatively newly released Face Control.
Having heard the first two bands, and a lot of other mediocre bands at other shows and on records, it helps to make plain the fact that in many ways true talent is a natural phenomenon, is born. While the other bands were sincere, probably practiced more than the Handsome Furs and had some good songs, it was like a different kind of human had landed when the Handsome Furs started in on their set.
And this wasn’t even the best that I’ve heard them play. They seemed tired and a little crazed, but they still played an incredible set of modern music, music to watch the world crumble to.
It is day one at Coachella with my opening acts being Conor Oberst followed by Crystal Castles and Leonard Cohen, nothing against any of these acts but by 9:00 I had not fallen into a musical zone. To explain the musical zone further, you may want to see the video I took of a man at the Grails show about three months ago or watch Gilbert’s description. Being slightly disappointed about having not experience this moment of bliss yet I laid down in one of the three tents at Coachella. I spotted Jody from Whenyouawake and we chatted for awhile and then parted ways with me hoping to find something new. I looked at the lineup sheet and saw A Place to Bury Strangers was playing at the Gobi Tent in 10 minutes. I had seen this name before but knew nothing of the band other than it has a great name. I wandered over to the 1/4 full tent just before the band started. In front of me were two goth chicks who seemed very excited about what was about to go down.
Photo courtesy of BrooklynVegan
The band opened with a sonic beat down, heavy guitar with effects unlike anything I have ever heard before; like My Bloody Valentine except with a drummer from Deerhunter. The drums were infectious, rolling into one another with blissful osculations of the cymbals being smashed. Playing behind the band were videos of 16 seconds loops of something from a snuff video. Notably a shot of pale woman with black lingerie and a hand (maybe her own) rubbing the outside of her thighs. The moments that transpired have been what I see when I blink from that day to this. Psychedelic drums, with My Bloody Valentine layered guitars, and vocals of Joy Division. The lyrical structure differed greatly from Joy Division in that they were not long, drawn-out poems but more paralleling the 16 second video clips; short, repetitive verses about the darkness which resides in love. The words and tone combined to remind me of being in love in a large metropolitan area where there is only loneliness in the dark alleys of the night. It was as if I was living in a small New York apartment strung out again with the electricity have not been paid and the only light were dim, melted down candles on an empty nightstand by a dingy, worn down bed. There was utter pain at the sound’s core yet release from anger due to the energy of the musicians expression.
The band ended with two songs played without pause. The ending of the first closing song is what is played in this video I took, with the full length of the final song captured as well. The bands video in the background at the end reminds me of Diane Arbous’s final photo shoot of people from a psyche ward doing ring around the rosy. I was completely shattered by this band and I hope you take the 9 minutes and 23 seconds to experience just a taste of A Place to Bury Strangers. I have been thinking about flying to New York in mid-May just to see them again soon. This band alone was worth the entire price of admission to all three days of Coachella.
(if you get bored then skip to minute 3:55) Preferably watch this in the dark alone.
I mean who does that with their guitar during a concert. Incredible. I have since come to find out that the lead singer/guitarist make effects pedal for a living so the effects I was hearing where truly unlike anything.
They were so good i swear i almost cried.
if this doesn’t get you right away, move into 1:40 or 2:30 minutes.
As a side note – i first heard of Deerhoof when i saw them play before the Akrons in NYC on New Year’s Eve. Cemented by Saturday’s show, they are officially my new favorite band. It’s great to have a new favorite band with a 10-year back catalog!
Maynard. Dirty. Dark. Sacrilegious. Perverted. and Maynard.
I’m seeing Puscifer play at the Nokia this Saturday. Let me know if you would like to attend. If you are unclear as to who/what Puscifer is, wiki it
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YouTube Direkt
At night one of three at the Steve Allen Theater, there were times I thought I’d have to flee. This was the third(ish) time I saw Akron perform. I say (ish) because the first time I hardly remember due to reasons involving awful sound and intense heat. The second time I remember vividly, but it was a tribute show and they played only a few songs, none of which were their own.
Night one grew particularly intense when Miles taped a microphone to a metal folding chair and took drumsticks to it while Seth played some sort of flute and Dana… I don’t even know what he was doing. The combination pierced through my eardrums and picked at my skull until it reached my defenseless brain with its claws out. They did something similar on night two and it ripped my mind, tongue, eyes, everything… out and my body stood there with its innards watching beside it transfixed by sound.
I was nothing but nerves. All my insides exposed. I would have cried if forced to speak. And then they slowed, and softened. They sang about the sun or sadness, something soothing.
With my demons exorcised, they lulled me in with them to that space where I don’t have to think and I was overwhelmed by the feeling that somehow everything was going to be okay. They broke me down and built me right back up, over and again… no pain, no gain?
But what makes Akron so different from any other live musical experience, because they were/are/will always be, is the following which I will try my best to describe though I know it will only give a suggestion of what I really felt as words are only painfully inadequate symbols of ideas:
I had a moment watching Miles sing when it occurred to me that while nothing about our existence makes sense, the very truth of that allows us to make of this what we want. People, places, time, events are all orbiting around us waiting to be dove into. To be swam around in. Mixed together. Jumped back out of. There are layers we cannot see beneath this one and we can peel it off if we choose to.
And that is what it is about live music for me.
Akron Family – “Woody Guthrie’s America” from Capt. AKAK on Vimeo.
**** I was under the influence of nothing aside from Akron/Family… seriously ****
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be sure to check out Capt. AKAK at minute 4:12
(help me if this link doesn’t work, capt.)
Rocketship, The Ropers, Lilys, Velocity Girl, Stereolab, and now The Pains of Being Pure At Heart (SLR 89, released February 2009).
I also miss watching Are You Being Served and Eastenders on Friday nights (courtesy of KOCE), but we’ll save that for another post. Or not.
Instead I decided to bore you all with about 500 words of what most of you will call hippie bullshit.
11:58 pm: Seth, Miles and Dana (the AKAK themselves) take the 400 sq ft stage along with the breaded tree men of Megafaun and a brass quartet (including a flute-playing midget) The stage is set for the entering of the New Year. There is a heavy smell of freshly smoked grass, but I am just blazing the excitement. A part of me does not really believe that I am where I am. My ponderings of the past year’s experiences are halted by the countdown. Fuck Times Square. Fuck Dick Clark. I cannot believe how many people really thought I would fly to NY for that clown act. I am here: to be capitulated; to be with my people; to share in a moment of beauty; to hear a sound that might remind of a purer time. I have always felt that Akron in some way has connected me back to the land, reminding me of that spirit I felt in a river in Texas, the clarity of a time out by the lake in Montana, or standing atop a mountain in Oregon surrounded by 200 year old pine tree. In this tiny venue on the 74th block of Leonard Street, there is a view of the world seen through the eyes of your own precious moments. I find myself amongst the believers who know the majesty of the musical spirit.
Akron/Family jump starts the festivus with Phenomenon. Miles—who has decided to wear his “Hey man, I want to party with you shirt” again—is trying to convince everyone in the place to yell at the top of their lungs. The song closes with a surprising layered shoegaze moment, leading into their recently-revised live version of Lake Song.
Akron/Family : Lake Song – 12.31.08 NY Knitting Factory from Capt. AKAK on Vimeo.
(Ebee and I both agree that the live version is great but might be too Latina. Why fix the original if it is not broke.) Nonetheless, you can obviously get a feel for the raw power.
I first heard Untitled I at a live Akron show at a wine cellar in Visilia. I was about 6 inches from Seth’s guitar. His fingers are little soldiers of God’s army. I had my eyes closed for nearly the whole show. Yes, that is how brightly they radiated. Just close your eyes.
Akron/Family – Untitled I @ NY Knitting Factory from Capt. AKAK on Vimeo.
(Amendment to the orignal post….I have been re-watching this video over and over; sheer exquisiteness. I mean how great is it at minute 3:30.)They have revamped this song since I last saw them. Adding some meat for the new album is my guess. Awesome.
Raise the Sparks makes me want to hug a tree and scalp the white man all in one motion.
Akron/Family – Raise the Sparks – NY Knitting Factory from Capt. AKAK on Vimeo.
This song I just decided to call Primordial Sound. Miles looks as though he is trying to force the darker side of his soul into the microphone. Neat, huh? (Mom don’t watch this)
Akron/Family – Primordial Sound – 12.31.08 @ NY Knitting Factory from Capt. AKAK on Vimeo.
The set closes with the original three side hugging each other, repeatedly singing “Last year was a hard year for such a long time / This year is going to be all ours.” Although in many ways this was not my truth I sang along with everyone. The harmony of a Akron + the crowd family is a sound no one should miss during a lifetime.
Tonight (as well as all other nights) Akron/Family broke through the lines of genre and dogmatic categorization, existing in a vast universe of purple mountains that ring of clarity and sharpness. There style is one of unbridled passion, laced with spontaneity and thickness. They are the reason everyone should be protestant when it comes to music; hear with your own ears. Akron is the broad highway.
As the night closes, I remembered of how their set began with the lyrics of Phenomenon stating /some might not think this is the right sound/; I more fully understand that this is not for everyone but it is for me and that is ok.
I wish anyone who just read this was there with us. John, Ebee, Naia, Laura, guy who only listens to live music and I held down the fort for you though. (Dan I can’t believe you left to caught the train.) We only live once and I would not trade the moments shared with you and them for anything. The forever binding spirit of AKAK.
I bought their album “Friends Opportunity” about a year back and was wholly unimpressed. I found it kind of annoying to be frank, so I was not that jazzed about the performance. Next thing you know I can barely keep my hands steady from the energy being pelted at my corpus callosum. The crowd was being set on fire by the guitars of John Dieterich and Ed Rodriguez ripping along side the heavy crescendos of Greg Saunier. I had heard their shows were a sight to behold from a friend who saw them at the LA Natural History Museum. I dont know why I doubt people. I feel as though I am failing to describe the essence of the show….but in a sentence, it was heavy yet hyper and my brain tripped over itself repeatedly in anticipation of the next riff from John. I wanted to jump, kick, scream and throw my camera into the wall. Instead I MTFU (thats for you Stone Junkie) and let the vibes run their course.
The video camera is right next to the drum (obviously), so sorry for the sound quality. I am asking for two minutes of your time today, just watch the first video from start to finish. FYI if you know the names to any of these songs I would greatly appreciate help.
This is where the term “Holy Toledo” came from.
Deerhoof : Dummy Discards A Heart – Knitting Factory from Capt. AKAK on Vimeo.
The crowd was restless and my camera was being shifted in a wave of sweaty manliness. Listen to the guitar at 1:13 if nothing at all then heard me yelling.
Deerhoof : The Perfect Me – NY Knitting Factory from Capt. AKAK on Vimeo.
No idea why the quality sucks on Youtube but I am out of upload space for the week at Vimeo.
