Tuddd's Muddd

Good shows in NYC, June 8th -12th, 2008

It's been awhile since I did one of these, and since today's too hot for me to consider actually accomplishing much of anything, why not fire one of these bad boys back up.

By the way, Friday night's Holy Fuck show at Music Hall of Williamsburg was probably the best show I've seen so far this year, only rivaled by the first time I saw them in March and the incredibly awesome Pelican/Priestbird/Austerity Program at MHOW last month.

As always, thanks goes out to Oh My Rockness, without whom I'd have to spend a shitload more time researching venues/show times than I already do. So, let's get started, shall we?

Sunday, June 8th

Jamie Lidell at Bowery Ballroom:

why I'm not going: It's just too hot to listen to some dude crooning. There's no way I'd be able to make it through the whole show without petulantly storming out.

These New Puritans with School of Seven Bells and Effi Briest at Music Hall of Williamsburg:

why I'm going: I know nothing about These New Puritans, but I've seen School of Seven Bells twice (once at Mercury Lounge opening up for Sam Fogarino's side project and once at Terminal 5 on the Blonde Redhead/Raveonettes bill) and I dig 'em. Their electronic jungly thickness really is well suited to smaller rooms so we'll see how their shit holds up. I saw Effi Briest open up for the Kills at Southpaw a couple of years ago and they kind of reminded me of a more gothy Sugarcubes.

Gnarls Barkley with Battles at Fillmore/Irving Plaza:

why I'm not going: this is a MySpace Secret Show, and apparently you have to jump through some hoops to get tix to this. I saw Battles twice last year and got a full aerobic workout each time, so yeah, I'm on record as absolutely adoring Battles' live show. Gnarls Barkley I just don't get.

Monday, June 9th

The Young Knives at Mercury Lounge:

why I'm probably going: These guys are often compared to The Futureheads, whose boisterously energetic debut album I loved -- it was my 4th favorite record of '04. Of course, 2006's embarassing News and Tributes saw The Futureheads trying to shoehorn themselves into more pensive, mature, and ultimately boring territory. Having not heard The Futureheads' new record yet (or, for that matter, anything The Young Knives have ever done), I'm obviously hoping things wind up more "Carnival Kids" than "Thursday."

Tuesday, June 10th

The Breeders at Webster Hall:

why I'm going: well, I bought tix to this show before I heard Mountain Battles, which, truth be told, is a pretty crappy album. I'm pretty indifferent to Pod and like everyone else in the world I think Last Splash is fuckin' awesome, but the new one just sounds burned out and exhausted. Not terribly psyched about this.

XYZ Affair at Music Hall of Williamsburg:

why I wish I was going to this instead of the Breeders show: Oh My Rockness describes these guys as "Weezer meets Queen meets Ben Folds (but, you know, better). Sounds right up my alley. Sigh.

Wednesday, June 11th

Swervedriver with Dirty on Purpose at Bowery Ballroom:

why I might go: Swervedriver's on their reunion tour and although my knowledge of them is based pretty much solely on their MySpace page, I'll probably check them out. Dirty on Purpose is another local band that has the word "dirty" in their name ("Dirty" is the new "Crystal" is the new "Wolf" is the new "Black"!) who I've been meaning to check out, so that's a plus.

Thursday, June 12th

Bang Camaro with The Giraffes at Bowery Ballroom:

why I might go: I saw part of Bang Camaro's set earlier this year at Music Hall of Williamsburg, at this show although because they made the fatal mistake of following the mighty Cheeseburger's set I drunkenly stumbled out without getting much of a feel for Bang Camaro, so maybe I should give them a second chance. And as far as The Giraffes, I caught them at Bowery Ballroom sometime last year, and they kind of reminded me of Faith No More meets Les Savy Fav, with a lot of beer-throwing, which was kinda neat. From what I could tell these guys have a pretty insane local following.

Swervedriver at Music Hall of Williamsburg:

already wrote about these guys. Move on.

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I'll try to complete this week's show some time when I can figure out what the fuck is wrong with my HTML skills, and why the new TypePad compose screen is such a piece of dogshit. Till then, Tuddd out.

Cheeseburger at Music Hall of Williamsburg, February 2nd, 2008

    I'd be surprised if many people have seen Cheeseburger live as many times as I have; if my math is correct (unlikely), this was the 6th time I've seen them in the last 9 months.  Last time I saw them was in early December and I wound up singing a bit during "Easy Street" which makes sense because I've screamed myself hoarse to Cheeseburger's album (number 6 on my "Best of '07 list") so many times that I wouldn't be shocked if I know the lyrics as well as the members of the band.

    I'd been looking forward to this show for awhile, and, as such, began drinking Sparks heavily on the way in.  Although the majority of the time I've seen Cheeseburger live I've been sober, fuck that -- the plan was for me to take the LIRR in to Woodside and meet up at Loud and Fat's apartment at 8 PM, where we'd meet up with BJ (AKA "#6") and get hammered before heading over to Yuppie Northsix for the show.  Long story short, this didn't happen and I wound up waiting for L+F to get back to his place for over an hour (it was fucking freezing cold).  But this dark cloud had a silver lining; BJ had brought a bottle of vodka and I knew that the wasted hour meant I had to get drunk, and fast -- Cheeseburger was hitting the stage at 10 PM.

    After beers and a few rounds of vodka shots we headed over to MHOW and got inside after 10.  I snuck upfront and pinned myself against the stage as the band came out, starting into the riff to "Tiger."  BA-NA-NA-NOWWWWWW..... BA-NA-NA-NOWWWWW... but the singer was nowhere to be found, so they stopped.  A bit anticlimactic, yes, but this break in the action gave me the chance to pound another beer. 

    Finally, they got their shit together and came out, starting into "Tiger" again, but this time the singer came out wearing the tiger suit from the song's accompanying video.  Pretty funny, even if the suit only lasted till the end of the song.

    The rest of the set was pretty standard Cheeseburger (read: rock with your cock out awesomeness) and I gave my dorky-ass best shot at lobbying for another shot at the microphone by screaming all the words to "the classics" ("Money for the Heart," "Let the Good Times Roll," "Do You Remember,"  "Derby Day," and the three new ones: "White Denim," "Suzie," and the one whose name I can never remember.) The band was in fine form, but I have to say I've become accustomed to a bit more danger at a Cheeseburger show, either in the form of crowdmembers rushing the stage and diving headlong into the drum kit or giant pinatas filled with gummy cheeseburgers conking people on the head.  (I crumpled up my empty beer cup and halfheartedly threw it towards the drum kit but no one seemed to notice.)

    Eventually a well-wisher/n'er do well somehow got onstage (remember, I was pretty hammered so I don't remember exactly what happened) and donned the tiger suit, hopping around like a retard and harassing the band members.  Finally, the band lurched into "Gang's All Here" and I got the mike long enough to scream "Divorcee!" from the second verse.  All was right in the universe.

    Post show is a bit hazy.  I went up to one of the guitarists, Eric, and congratulated him on another great set, and he responded by complimenting my enthusiasm and buying me a beer and talkin' some shit for a little while at the lobby bar.  Pretty cool.  I was unimpressed by the headliner (Bang Camaro) so BJ and I stumbled off to a nearby bar.  It was at this bar that the bartender issued me perhaps the oddest, most passive-aggressive ultimatum I've ever gotten, requesting that I slide a couple of seats down from where I had been sitting, assuming that BJ would follow and thus be out of "harassing distance" of the mediocre white trash whores a couple seats away.

    Eventually we wore out our welcome and they refused to serve us anymore, so we headed to another bar to meet L+F, where, predictably, a small fight broke out.  Next thing I noticed I had my hands around some guy's throat gently telling him to "calm the fuck down" but L+F and BJ were nowhere to be found.  [EDIT: as it turned out, they had been kicked out of the bar and were waiting out front.]  Who knows what the fuck really happened.  Really, who cares, too.  Eventful evening all around, and had I not woken up as sick as a dog from being outside so much at the beginning of the evening, I'd say all went fairly well.

     Meal ya later.  Time for whackies.