So at the tail end of a pretty fucked up weekend, I managed to pull myself out of the fetal position long enough to get out to a show. I had originally planned on heading to the Oxford Collapse acoustic jam/Q and A session at SoundFix, but I couldn't think of any questions to ask other than "why isn't 'Search Party' on the new album?" and "why don't you play 'Burno' more often?" Plus I've seen Oxford Collapse three times already this year (including this set) and although they're certainly fun as hell live, they've got a show coming up at Glasslands later this week as well as a show at Mercury Lounge in late September. So I'll catch 'em again.
Pulled on a pair of me fav'rit trousers, hopped on the J and walked up to Cake Shop 8ish... the sign mentioned "doors at 8, show at 8:30" so I wandered nearby for a few rounds of well-whiskey-shots-with-PBR-chasers at a beverage purveyor down the block. When I finally got in to Cake Shop, I wound up talking with the drummer from BOAT for awhile, which was cool. He mentioned that they were excited to *finally* be playing New York, and I bought a copy of their debut CD. I enjoyed their last full length, Let's Drag Our Feet (which in retrospect I probably underrated a bit by having it at #35 on my Best Albums of '07 list) and I'm eager to hear their new Topps EP, the 7-inch of which apparently comes accompanied by hand-drawn baseball cards with a design reminiscent of the '86 Topps set. Pretty great, no? I quickly scanned the evening's setlist and noticed one of my fave BOAT songs wasn't present. When I inquired after its absence, the dude from BOAT mentioned that the opening band would be covering that song during their set; apparently BOAT staged a "cover our songs" contest on their website, and said opening band had rocked their particular cover sufficiently. (I won't mention which song it was just in case you're planning on going to the Boat/Creeping Weeds/My Teenage Stride show at Union Hall tomorrow night. Wouldn't want to ruin the surprise.)
Had another couple beers and the openers, Creeping Weeds (from Philadelphia) took the stage. They were okay, but nothing really set them apart from the literally hundreds of midtempo, MOR opening bands I've seen over the last several years, like The Weakerthans, the Bon Savants, or, say, Cheyenne or whatever. The highlight for me was the aforementioned BOAT cover which closed the set.
By 9:30 BOAT took the stage and the drummer's pre-show description of the live BOAT experience being "scrappy" fit like a glove. Before they began playing, they handed out shakers (aww!) made of plastic cups filled with macaroni/rice and sealed with duct tape, which came in handy on quite a few of the upbeat, jittery numbers they treated the crowd to. Very, very fun with the highlight for me being "Come With Me We'll Win," which was introduced as being "a Who song," to which I responded with a positive "woo!" only to remember that I was the dork wearing a Tommy t-shirt. Hah, fair enough, I deserve it. The songs were delivered with a boyish enthusiasm that compliments their natural bashfulness quite nicely. Nope, these guys aren't jaded in the least and they generally gave the impression that they were just happy to be there, thank you very much.
So yeah, if you're interested in fun, funny, goofy pop songs, check these guys out tomorrow (Wednesday) night at Union Hall. Wish I were going but I'll probably be heading to Southpaw to see firsthand if Earl Greyhound is as great as everyone's said. Rock onward.
