One thing I will say about Fresno is you guys know how to party. On the night of 6/19/10, I got my world rocked and my eardrums annihilated at Audie’s Olympic by A Place to Bury Strangers. That show was fucking fantastic. The anticipation and excitement from the crowd was palpable, and the bands definitely delivered. Anyone in the crowd that night could testify to creaming their pants in delight, but I must disclose my exceptional authority on the subject because I went to see them the very next day in San Francisco. I should have known this was going to happen because I’m from San Francisco, and I’m a total whore for live music, but I was so blissed out on the intensity of the night before that my memory of the notoriously paralytic SF crowds had completely escaped me.
The opening band in Fresno, Quiet Americans, I actually loved. Being relatively new to the area, I quickly learned that Eli Reyes is the Jack White of drumming here, being on the roster for what seems like 24251435 bands (more specifically, Rademacher, Fay Wrays, Quiet Americans, PA Harper, Love Pollution, and probably more). If my memory serves me correctly (which is extremely debatable) this was my first show in Fresno, and it definitely was my first time seeing this guy in action. I have to admit that I was completely astounded by his demonstration of prowess as well as his stage presence – quite the feat for a drummer. Even Jay Space (drummer for A Place to Bury Strangers) couldn’t achieve that kind of bearing. The Quiet Americans were so impressive that they actually up-staged the following band, Light Pollution.
At first listen, Light Pollution, a Chicago based band, sounded noticeably inferior to Quiet Americans in terms of song composition and sound in general. I actually spent the most of their set outside giving myself cancer. Contrarily, in SF they actually killed it. Talking to band member, Jed Robertson, (total DILF, btw) outside of the Rickshaw Stop where they played on Sunday with APTBS and Weekend (listened to one song and left to get cigarettes and food – sound was so awful I didn’t care to stay), he theorized that the sound guy at Audies “wasn’t on their side.” Totally plausible, seeing as they sounded almost like a different band at the Rickshaw, and a much better one for that matter. I gotta say, they charmed the shit out of me that night. And their wall-of-sound/shoegaze vibe even managed to breach the skepticism spurred by the night before.
And then, what can I say about A Place to Bury Stangers? Hailing from New York to kick everyone in America's asses, they started the set fucking my ears up in the best way possible and ended it with some good ol’ guitar bashing and general debauchery. The setlists were mostly the same between SF and Fresno, and honestly, they put on an equally amazing performance in both places as well. They are an undeniably good band and their sound (I’ll go with Joy Division meets My Bloody Valentine) is a recipe for a great live show. Couple that with consistently good sound quality (they tour with their own sound guy), and you should get the same fucking phenomenal experience, right? Nope. The one distinction was the crowd. I can’t even tell you how much trying to be cool will fuck up a show. It was like night and day. I’m not sure if concert goers in SF arbitrarily stumble into shows without knowing who the band is, resulting in this stunned look of bewilderment; and if so, why wouldn’t they be moving, at least a bit, when listening to live rock n’ roll, for fucks sake? I mean it was baffling. Everyone there was like a perfectly put together indie mannequin. I felt robbed of a legitimate rock show. If you were at Audies, you couldn’t deny the energy circulating in that tiny club. I was drenched by the end and my neck hurt for days afterward from the head-banging and jumping. The Rickshaw stop isn’t all that much bigger but damn, it felt completely void of that excitement and spirit that live music is supposed to induce. Jay Space mentioned to me afterward that it’s always the random little places where the shows are fucking rockin. While most people may not agree that Fresno is all that random, I think we can all agree that at least Fresno knows how to fucking have a good time.
No comments:
Post a Comment