As it turned out, the weather proved little impediment to me making it out to the show. There were surprisingly few cars on the LIE (especially for a Friday) which was nice but I still ran into several spots (near the Grand Central and on the BQE) where for some strange reason nobody was going over 40 but whatever, a fairly smooth ride in.
I wasn't in as great a mood as I should have been for this show: first off, I was feeling kind of sick and lethargic all day, not a good sign considering that this was to be only the second of five (hypothetical) consecutive nights seeing shows. Grrrr. Also my new, obscenely expensive computer started crashing and freezing again and I spent another two hours on the phone with the retards at Dell technical support who had me running diagnostic tests that would wind up lasting nearly fifteen hours. (That's the main reason I didn't get to start this entry until a day late).
After parking next to the school on N. 6th and walking through the sludge up to the venue, I was "greeted" by the as-always useless and downright rude Music Hall of Williamsburg staff. (Seriously, fuck these guys). It was freezing cold and I asked the door guy if I had to wait in line if I already had a ticket. No response, other than a blink. Um, OK. Not wanting to press the issue, I went to the end of the line and waited... until a few minutes later the same guy made an announcement that was totally inaudible to the back half of the line, which is where I was standing. "Sir, could you repeat that?" I called out, but of course this dickhole was too cool to oblige a response.
(By the way, if this show review winds up devolving into a "Why Music Hall of Williamsburg Sucks" article, so be it. I fucking hate that place.)
By the time I made it inside (and bought a green Blood on the Wall tee shirt for $12, yay), I was in absolutely no mood for the opening act, which was a guy twiddling knobs and creating a melody-free, meterless cacophony. Much of the crowd seemed to be as puzzled as I, but one girl was headbanging along to this mess as though she knew something that everybody else didn't. I wasn't surprised when, mid-set, she did an about-face and booked out of the room, presumably to hop in front of an oncoming bus.
As usual, my back was fucking killing me so I decided to sit down for a minute before being accosted by another security goon who told me in no uncertain terms "no sitting." What a stupid fucking rule. Now, I can imagine if an artist is performing at the time, or if the room is filling up with people, the security wouldn't want you sitting. That's perfectly reasonable. But no, it was setbreak and there were less than 50 people in the fucking room (I counted). Nice of this asshole to take time out from his usual routine of knocking over liquor shops and stealing hubcaps to work at MHOW.
Second act, Cause Co-Motion went on and they were both fun and funny. They're a bunch of kids singing energetic indie pop/punk and having an infectiously great time while doing it. The drummer's "kit" consisted of a floor tom, a snare, and a single undersized cymbal (that's right, no kick drum) which was hilarious considering that he was sitting down and basically running in place throughout the set. Somebody must've replaced the bassist's decaf with regular because he was hopping and rolling around the stage throughout their entire set. Nothing Earth-shattering, but you could do a lot worse for an opening band.
I made my way to the front of the stage and played a few rounds of pinball before noticing that the singer from Panthers (another great Brooklyn band) was standing close by. Normally this wouldn't have been terribly notable but I uh, "hung out" with the poor dude at a Cheeseburger show last year where I got drunker than I've been in forever, probably creeping the guy out with my geeky knowledge of his band. (After I saw Panthers open for Witch back in March '06 I was convinced they were the best band in the world for a few weeks and, in true dork fashion, even sought out the bandmembers' previous musical projects.) Anyway, after a couple minutes I said "what's up" or something before suggesting "and let's never speak of it again," which was met with agreement.
Blood on the Wall was up next, and although I knew pretty much what to expect (I loved their set opening for Dinosaur Jr. back in August '06) I've become considerably more familiar with their catalog in the interim -- their new album, Liferz, is my most listened-to new album of '08 (according to iTunes) and their previous effort, Awesomer is no slouch either. They started the set with "Stoner Jam" and ambled their way through an hour-or-so worth of bouncy garagey punk so shambolic that the wheels seem ready to pop off at any point, although they never do. Four songs in, they lit into ironic smack anthem (uh, I think), "Junkee Juliee," my favorite jam of theirs, and all was right in the universe; all thoughts of my malfunctioning computer, impending sickness, the shitty weather and the useless thugs that make up the MHOW staff had disappeared. Aaaahhhh.
The set continued in like fashion, and the crowd seemed to really love it -- at least where I was, up against the stage, people were bopping and fist-pumping and drinking and rocking the fuck out. Of course, a few people got a bit overzealous and chucked empty cups onstage, but who gives a fuck, this is a rock show, right? The band didn't seem to mind, so no harm no foul, right? Ummmm... apparently not. Mid-headbang, the same jagoff that reminded me of the "no sitting" rule tapped me on the shoulder and through clenched teeth accused me of leaving a couple of empty beer cups on the edge of the stage. Of course, I wasn't drinking and they weren't mine but I salute this intrepid soul's brave one-man campaign to rid the room of empty beer cups. Fuckface.
By the time the band finished off their encore with "Acid Fight" the crowd had been sufficiently rocked, and, as a member of said crowd, I retreated onto N. 6th Street towards my car. Fun fun fun show, but, uh, guys? If you could do it at Mercury Lounge or somewhere less douchey next time it would be great.
