Sloan - I'm Not A Kid Anymore

I know that I am supposed to want to rock out all the time, but you know, sometimes I'm OLD and TIRED, so these shows on weeknights get to me. Still, I HAD to go see Sloan. I missed them once and that just didn't seem right. The band tonight are OBSCENELY LOUD. SO LOUD I DON'T KNOW WHY THEY ARE SO LOUD. I am wearing earplugs and when I take them out it's SO LOUD I CAN HARDLY STAND IT. Why am I writing in all caps? BECAUSE IT CONVEYS THE UNCOMFORTABLE LOUDNESS. That complaint aside I've come to realize that Sloan should now only be heard live. Recent records, sure they've got their good points, but they just don't snap the way the band nail their songs live. Sloan open with the new single from Parallel Play, "I'm Not A Kid Anymore" - doubtless alluding to the fact most of the band is on the brink of their 40's now. Ah, but the boys make it look so good, don't they? Greying but fit, songs crisp and tight, even new songs which have not yet won me over on CD (and there are an inordinate number of them tonight) sound so much more compelling live. Oh Sloan, despite Patrick Pentland's terrible new haircut (kind of a asymetrical faux-hawk), I give in! Even though your last few albums haven't grabbed me the way Twice Removed, Navy Blues, or One Chord To Another did; live, you are still dreamy.

The only thing not so dreamy about this show is this idea the band had about having a fake radio station which broadcasts from their merch table to the club. Apparently their merch guy, talking about stuff was supposed to fill time when the band are changing instruments, but more often than not the band seemed to be waiting for the merch guy to start talking, only to have nothing happen and wonder aloud if he'd gone to the bathroom. Inter-band banter is far better than this (well, except when Merch radio played the Meow Mix ad from the 70's where the cat sings the song where all the words are "Meow" - that was pretty great), can we go back to that time honored model in the future?

The show was also unreasonably weighted with Andrew Scott songs, I don't know why. Lord knows that man is not only a hot drummer, but just hot in general, but still, I like him behind the kit best no matter what kind of eye candy he is.

Unlike the topic of his song below, I was just too tired to stay for the whole set. That's what it's like when you're not a kid anymore.



Sloan play I Can't Sleep at TT the Bear's
Audio is not so great, because they are SO FUCKING LOUD.

Download the new single "I'm Not A Kid Anymore" here, free from Stereogum.com

Cannanes - Keeping it Twee!

Well I certainly remembered The Cannanes from back in the day, so I was surprised to see that they'd come all the way from Australia to play at The Midway Cafe, a venue just steps from my home that holds about 30 people maximum on any given night. And indeed the maximum was pretty much reached as folks piled in on a Wednesday night to see the delightfully twee pop. Apologizing before many songs ("This next one is a long song, so if you have to go to the bathroom now would be the time"), The Cannanes do self-deprecation well, but the songs really held up well; energetic and sweet even sans a bass player. "He refused to come on tour with us," explained the singer during one of many rambles she credited to "Having done 5000 miles in a van to get here and everyone just wants you to shut up, it's so nice to have some people to talk to!" Adorable.

Show was opened by local Fall/Joy Division/Gang of Four cover band The In Out. Oh wait, those aren't covers... Oh well, I must admit that even though this band wear their influences on their dress shirt sleeves, I still dig their dark angular rock thing. Ain't nothing wrong with that...



Cannanes perform Asleep at the Midway Cafe (sorry so dark, it was dark!)

Sparks in London - Indiscreet as the wanna be

It's just by luck that my holiday overseas coincided with one of the coolest retro concert ideas I'd heard about it a long time, namely that the godfathers of American quirk, Sparks, were when I was in town, playing each of their 21 albums over a 21 night span at the Carling Academy in Islington. What luck since here in Boston, Sparks could maybe fill a room of 200 for one night (or alternately my living room for 5 nights), an idea they haven't bothered to pursue in at least 20 years. The irony of flying to another country to see a band from LA is not lost on me, but still, we do what we have to do to see the rock.

Carling Academy Islington isn't much like the venues I go to at home. The key difference being that Carling Academy Islington is in a mall. Like, next to The Gap and across from the Starbucks, there is the venue. Very weird. And weirder still is the fact that although it's been here for a decade or so (according to my London friend Douglas), the interior has hardly been fixed up; you know, like a nightclub might be? The ceiling is a mishmash of exposed wiring and pipes, but not a cool looking mishmash like the outside of the Pompidou, just a big ugly unfinished room. Thankfully, we can hardly see any of its ugliness tonight though because the place is literally stuffed to the brim with men between the ages of 40 and 59 (and an occasional friend) who have by all appearances been waiting since 1975 to see the band play their Indiscreet album tonight.

It's possible I've never been at a show this crowded in my life, nor one where literally everyone in the audience is singing along with every line to every song, but that's what tonight's show is like. And rather than that being as annoying as it sounds, it is actually deeply heartwarming. In front of me a man trailing grey curls pokes his balding friend and jumps up and down for every song while behind me a lipsticked young goth sips her drink and rolls her eyes, but for this moment we are all one in loving some Sparks.

On stage, the Mael brothers look older, and they should, what with the pair being somewhere around 60 the idea they're even on stage at all is pretty amazing. Better yet is that fact that they still both have a full head of hair (I'm old, we notice these things) and look rather (haggard yet) stylish. For a little over and hour the pair (along with a band that includes Steven McDonald from Redd Kross) really do kick out the jams. Of course for Ron this involves his standard stock still pose (some things never change) and for Russell a lot of traipsing about in a gangster-style pinstriped suit which makes him look quite dignified. Old rockers + suits = yes in my book. The album is played, as advertised, in order front to end, while video projections of the album's cover (showing the brothers having just escaped from a plane crash) spins behind them (except during Pineapple, when a picture of the fruit does the same). At the end of the night the assembled throng all sing a happy birthday to the numerous band members who are celebrating their special day in the coming week and then a chant goes up: "RON, RON, RON, RON" which provokes the stoic Mael to a turn at the mic, clutching it as the younger Mael clutches a dozen roses someone has thrown on stage. "We locked ourselves away for 4 months, and we had no idea how this would turn out..." "AMAZING!" a voice from the audience shouts. The Maels leave the stage and then return to say how it means so much to them that people are excited about the shows. Am I the only one in the crowd who is verklempt? I think not. Worth waiting 33 years for? Definitely.



Above: Sparks open the Indiscreet show with Hospitality on Parade
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