Tuddd's Muddd

BOAT at Bell House [NYC Popfest], May 22, 2010

[pretty sure this photo is from BOAT's set at Cake Shop Summer '08, the first time I saw them live.]

  

    Been busy, so it's finally time for me to get this show review written/posted before I forget even more stuff that actually happened.  Welcome to the land of parenthetical/bracketed references!

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    On this fine weekend, I was lucky enough to be visited by Bricer and his wife, in town from DC.  [To paraphrase a great American, "there's nothing like spending time with your most cherished friends, pure and true."]  Anyway, said individs seem to have caught BOAT fever, which, as it turns out, is actually a pretty sweet affliction with which to be stricken.  A little personal BOAT history for y'all: I first heard these guys when p4k bestowed a flattering review on the band's Come On Let's Drag Our Feet album in '07.  [I was intrigued by the fact that despite not actually invoking the GbV name in this review, p4k managed to make the band sound like they had a lot of similarities (sonically) to vintage GbV.  This was before I realized that when it comes to pretty much any new lo-fi/underdoggish band, p4k manages to somehow write 'em up as though they sound like vintage GbV.  Anyway.]

    I liked the Come On Let's Drag Our Feet album just fine, underrating it somewhat at #35 on my Best Albums of 2007 list.  In 2008 BOAT followed with the Topps EP, which (again) was woefully underrated by me [again oddly at #35, when it should have been top 20 easy].  I had the pleasure to catch the band live in August 2008 at this show at Cake Shop, which was a fun time.  NOTE-- if you don't feel like clicking on those links, allow me to collectively sum up all of my BOAT reviews in one word: SCRAPPY.  And then in '09 BOAT put out their finest album yet, Setting the Paces, which ranked all the way up at #3 on last year's Best Albums list [check the blurb for a mea culpa on that one].  A fine collection of rockin' tunes, to be sure.

    Anyway, me n' Bricer's Saturday got off to a late start due to some good ol' fashioned late nite Friday shenanigans [if by "shenanigans" you mean locking ourselves in my room and geeking out re: music until about 6 AM].  We finally stumbled out of my apartment at about 3 PM Saturday afternoon, hitting up Taco Santana for some boisterously overstuffed chorizo burritos (or "choritos", mmmm) before enjoying to-go margs/softball critiquing at McCarren for a bit.  Headed back to my place/drank a tad more, then started out towards the PopFest/Bell House. 

    Wanted to take the G to Smith Street (reasonably close to Bell House) but of course the G wasn't running.  Threw in the towel wrt bussin' it over to Gowanus (fuck that noise) in favor of a cabbie who had no fucking clue where he was going/what can ya do.  Once at Bell House, we met up with Bricer's lovely wife and resumed drinking before determining that the bands preceding BOAT on the bill [whisper] sucked.  Fortch we were able to exit the venue briefly in favor of mealin' some splendid Vietnamese sandwiches at a nearby restaurant.  

    Got back to the venue and decided to check out the merch, at which point I was surprised that apparently a couple of the band members somehow *remembered* me [specifically my Tommy shirt, haha] from that August '08 show, which is pretty hysterical.  

    Shortly after we entered the performance space, BOAT singer/guitarist D. Crane handed out cardboard cutout face masks of the members of the 1988 Mets, which he proclaimed as his "favorite Mets team."  [Coincidentally, mine too... I actually own a Strat-O-Matic set from the '88 season and I may or may not have played and re-played several seasons worth of 1988 Mets games when I was a friendless teenager.]  I got a Mookie mask and Bricer got Gary Carter (see below).  Festive way to start the set, no?  [And appropriate considering the baseball fixation BOAT previously displayed on their Topps EP and on related merch (check out the "Fastball" tee and the hand-drawn baseball cards).]

    The first song performed was the totes awesome "100 Calorie Man," with a smidgen of GbV's "Motor Away" [YESSSSSSS!!!!] tacked onto the end, which started with singer/guitarist dude standing in the audience covered in lights.  Check out a video of that here:

[BOAT "100 Calorie Man" LIVE at NYC Popfest 5/22/10 from 'SUP Magazine on Vimeo.]

    As soon as this song was finished, equipment malfunctions ensued as it seemed a guitar had been inadvertently stomped on during a "leap" from atop the kick drum.  Quote from the stage: "we've been waiting for this show for so long, imagining what it was going to be like, and so far it's nothing like we imagined."  AWWWWWW!!!! So self-deprecating! 

    Anyway, I'm not sure if Bricer caught the "Motor Away" tag (probably not, he fucking hates GbV) but the knowledge that BOAT was possibly going to jam out on some Pollard classix (they've apparently been covering "Tractor Rape Chain" recently) prompted him to shout "NO GBV!" which was apparently/puzzlingly misunderstood onstage as "NO DVD!"  The set continued in rollicking fashion, with many songs from Setting the Paces, and a few others.  It's been a few weeks here so you'll pardon my fuzzy memory, but here's a roughly ordered list of songs I think they played:

"100 Calorie Man" [with "Motor Away" jam]
"We Want It! We Want It!"
"Friends Since 1989"
"I'm a Donkey for Your Love"
"Prince of Tacoma"
"Four Beds for Boat"
"Interstate 5"
"(Do the) Magic Centipede"
"The Name Tossers"
"With a Girl Like You" [Troggs cover]
"The Name Tossers"
"Lately (I've Been on My Back)"

    Which leads me to still yet another GbV reference.  Back around the time when Bee Thousand was about to establish Guided by Voices as Indie Godhead of the Month in the early-to-mid '90s, the band played a legendary show at a CBGBs showcase which was said to shock the audience with just how ballsy and rockin' the set came off, in a manner that was diametrically opposed to their shambling recorded output at the time.  Seeing BOAT live at this point in their career just highlights how much more they manage to RAWK than one could've guessed from their earlier stuff.  Here's a couple more examples from the show:

  (I'm a) Donkey for Your Love

and

[BOAT "With a Girl Like You" Troggs Cover LIVE at NYC Popfest 5/22/10 from 'SUP Magazine on Vimeo.]

    Great times, excellent set, plenty of songs about debt, and worthwhile souvenirs (yup, Gary Carter on the left and Mookie on the right):

 WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

[go here for a download of a BOAT set recorded by WNYU.  Thanks to the BOAT blog for that one.]

Re: Bricer

"I think she is sickening the way the talks and acts around her nephews, etc. - calling him Bricer, etc. I bet her family barely tolerates her."

-Oh doG, they're singing. Upon closer inspection, poor Bricer looks like Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie. Easy on the blush, kid.

Sandra Lee makes me so sad. Her food is disturbing and her nephew’s name is “Bricer”. Even the word “Semi-Homemade” sounds like it’s about two Christmases away from blowing its own head off.

The kid “Bricer” that is playing in the sand in the background of the video was clearly hobbled by Sandra before shooting the video.

 her show is hilarious, she made *a* drink for one person, it have about 15 ounces of different types of hard liquor, after she mixed it she poured into one brandy snifter. I laughed my ass of and my daughter was dying and wondering if she was going to shotgun it because her nephew "The Bricer" was coming over.

Wince at Sandra Lee's annoying habit of calling her nephew "Bricer." Laugh at the kid trying not to roll his eyes at her. I made this in anticipation of the arrival of my favorite nephew in the world! Bricer is just the best and he and I always have a wonderful time together. Unfortunately, he took one bit of a cookie, made with this dough, and put it back down again. I know this bot like the back of my hand! For Bricer to refuse something, it HAS to be bad tasting... I took a bite and found out what the problem was. I think the excess food coloring and cheap packaged dough make for a bad combination. I did my little Bricer a favor and prepared him something from scratch! He put that little smile on his face for me and he and I went snow sledding! We had a great weekend!

I love Giada, but we have a game we play with our friends. Every time she says the word “creamy” we take a shot of Bailey’s or whatever. By the end of her show, we are all plastered. She is gorgeous in a over-the-top way, but when she says “creamy” or “crunch” she makes a fist with her midget-like gnarled fingers. Have you seen that? Sandra Lee, we play the same game with her show when she talks about her nephew “Bricer.”

Dear Sandra Lee:

I dislike you. First, you seem like a cold, calculating, icy, stupid Republican. But that's not really why I dislike you, even though I imagine you're super sweet and fake to all the homos on the staff of your show, while believing that they're going to hell... I also imagine you going off to church on a Spring morning in a bright floral dress... in a hat. (Eeeech.)

No, I'm "over" hearing you talk about your family. Why does your stupid family have to be in every show? But it's always your SISTER'S kids.

What's wrong with you and your husband? Why don't you have kids?

I'll bet you're barren. You're the lady whose insides are rotten.

You're dumb and lazy. Your recipes are stupid, and Bisquick and canned salmon isn't the answer to everything. And no one cares about Bricer or Sandy or Michelle or Alexis or Becky or the rest of the Aryan brood of children that follows you around while you make crappy chocolate lollipops out of that shitty melting chocolate they sell near the strawberries in the grocery store.

And enough with the Tablescapes, 'kay? I'm not about to go spend $100 (at least) on crappy table baubles. And I spend my money on unwise things. I imagine someone with a 1) famliy and 2) budget isn't going to go running to Michael's and the Container Store every time they have someone over for dinner.

Sandra Lee: You suck.

Love,

Me.