What You’re Going to Be Doing This Sunday, and Wednesday

Maybe it works because life, and music, is just repetition.  Maybe not.  But it works.

They do so much with so little, but every time they play, live, they leave something behind. 

They’re in town this week, this Wednesday (6/15) at Southpaw in Park Slope, Brooklyn (for ten goddamn dollars!).  I’ve written about this, and them, before, here.  I’ve even posted the same goddamn picture (by Matt Birhanzel).  It’s a great goddamn photo, and they’re a great goddamn band.  You should see them.  As much as is humanly possible.  Because compared to a lot of lit-fart flash-from-the-ass bands out there (lessee, at Webster Hall on Wednesday there's a sold-out Bloc Party concert...) they’re a goddamn pilot light.  Goddamn.

Don’t come back here Thursday morning, expecting some typically-verbose write-up about how the show was.  I’ve seen them something like a dozen times.  I saw them six times in four states, last year, and enjoyed every single show.  I’ll tell you now:  It will be awesome, and you should be there.

This time through the boys are doing something a little different.  Not touring behind any new material, and having heard diehard fans bitch about hearing the same core songs over and over, they’re opening up their catalogue and doing an “All Request Tour.”  This is not going to be folks-yelling-out-shit chaos, and it should NOT DISSUADE YOU FROM GOING IF YOU DON’T KNOW ANY OF THEIR SONGS.  This is how it works:

When you get into the boat/club, you pick up a “menu” (see below) and check off seven songs you want to hear.  Yes, there’s a box for write-ins.  Smart asses are free to put “Nader” or “Ross Perot” or “Freebird.”  You can vote for all the songs that have swears in the titles, if that’s what you want to do.  You don’t have to vote at all.

Backstage, a liquored-up Lucas will tabulate the votes and throw together a set list.  Yes, there will be more than seven songs in the set.

Here’s the form, with “X’s” by songs I’ll (probably) be voting at Southpaw.

Not that I’m trying to sway anyone’s vote, or anything.

Like every sushi menu I’ve ever seen, I’d like one of everything.  Two of some things.

The categories are very loose.  The “Maki-Mono” list is sort of a “hits” parade, the stuff that’s played at almost every show – and you want to hear “Fritz’s Corner” and “High-Fiving MF,” every time – but “Cooler Heads” is rarely played.  The “Chef’s Special” section is mostly sprawling jam stuff... though their best long song, “What Would You Have Me Do?” (lately truncated, hence my note) is in another part of the list. 

“Desserts” is all covers, and traditionally the band does one during the encore.  And when people ask me what Local H sounds like, well, influences help.  They’ve covered the Ramones, the Pixies, Cheap Trick.  And Widespread Panic.  And Britney Spears.

Maybe that didn’t help so much.

Okay, again:  They had one official radio hit, back in grungy ‘96, back in Nirvana’s wake, called “Bound for the Floor” (which everyone knows as “that ‘copasetic’ song”).  Their first CD, Hamfisted, is straight-up Bleach-worship.  They’ve been called “post-grunge,” whatever the hell that is; I suspect that’s ‘cause they outlasted the grunge days.  They’ve also been slapped with the “classic rock” label, but that’s just laziness.  They are loud, and sometimes fast (St. Claire gets compared to Animal from the Muppets), but not (despite the lyrics above) heavy metal.  It’s generally angry, testosterone-fueled stuff, and there’s usually a mosh pit... but “P.J. Soles” and “No Problem” are sad, quiet, sweet things.  And “Hey Rita” has a good country stomp to it.  And...

Fuck it:  You know what they sound like?  Rock and roll. 

See you there.

Sorry about the spotty updating, and I wish I could blame it all on the software upgrade Blog-City has been running, all week.  More, soon, and more often, promise.  Maybe.

Oh, and while I’m thinking about it, Daily Refill has the new Arcade Fire song.