Well, I'm stuck under several inches of snow wondering how the fuck I'm going to get to tonight's Blood on the Wall show in Brooklyn. I wouldn't be so worried about driving myself in if I didn't know from extensive experience that people drive like retards in the snow -- either way too fast or way too slow -- and it'd be just my luck that some coked-up guido in an Eclipse would knock one of my fenders off. Whatever, I'll probably just wind up taking the LIRR in and cabbing it from Flatbush or Woodside or something equally inconvenient.
But yeah, last night I began my shot at seeing five shows spread over five consecutive nights with Big Sleep/etc. at Mercury Lounge. Of course, I wound up getting in to the show late because of the unpredictably haphazard way that Mercury Lounge deals with set times -- it used to be the first band would almost always start an hour after the "doors open" time on the ticket or on the website or the time that the representative gives you when you call the box office. But no longer. I'm coming into NYC from a considerably greater distance than the average Mercury Lounge-goer, and call me spoiled but neither A.) getting there late or B.) getting there way early and standing around with my thumb up my ass are promising options.
So I wound up missing the first twenty minutes or so of Heavy Creatures' set, which is a shame. They play a decidedly retro brand of classic rock, fronted by two female vocalists (doubling on keys/floor tom and guitar, respectively). These guys had my head bobbin' and toe tappin' as they tore through an assemblage of nifty little riffs, plus their bassist was popping off some supercool John Paul Jones-esque melodies pretty much the whole way through. My only (minor) complaint is the stock criticism of bands that have simultaneously-singing dual vocalists: unless you're exactly hitting the same pitch at all times, the mistakes are magnified. But that's a minor quibble. I especially enjoyed how many of their tunes crammed seemingly unrelated riffs right up against each other back-to-back, making the longer songs less gassy. Fun band.
Up next was Priestbird, who I first saw last June on a great triple bill with Earth and Pelican. They've really switched up their sound since I last saw them, heading in a more folky/acoustic direction while ditching the double-neck entirely. (To clarify: we're thankfully not talking Devendra Banhart-type folk, but more "Going to California" mellow rock.) A few times they mentioned that they would be trying out songs written for their upcoming record during the set, which revealed much more of an emphasis on three-part harmony singing, not to mention they whipped out the mandolin for a song or two. They reached back to their previous album for the final song, bringing the house down with the drunken dinosaur stomp of "Smoke and Pain." I enjoyed their set but as a sucker for the more bombastic stuff I wish they'd varied the dynamics busting out the big guns a couple more times earlier.
Sian Alice Group followed, bringing their brand of subtle, understated post-rock over from the UK. Each of their songs were very pretty, even if the first couple of songs were marred by the vocals being criminally under-represented in the mix (and inexcusably so -- this was seemingly obvious to everyone in the room except the soundman).
The Big Sleep took the stage at about 11:30. This was to be the first time I saw them since they played at Knitting Factory in December on a bill that included Cheeseburger -- of the seventy-plus shows I managed to attend last year, that one was among the top five best -- awesome evening all around even if I got so fucked up that I missed my train back to LI and wound up stranded at Penn Station buying beers for homeless guys. Anyway. The band began their set with a slower number that included a kind of new-agey keyboard line, which, truth be told, I wasn't really into, and had me thinking, "I shaved my legs for this?!" Could it be that I had "misremembered" how awesome these guys were? But fuck that, the rest of the set consisted of powerful drumming, great riffs, tasteful bass playing and complimentary keyboard lines. Opening song be damned, The Big Sleep know how to rock.
Well, good news: apparently it's stopped snowing, so getting into Brooklyn tonight shouldn't be that big of a deal. I'll be at Yuppie Northsix tonight for Blood on the Wall, then Atlas Sound Saturday, Times New Viking Sunday, and Russian Circles Monday. Tuddd out.
