Cinematic Underground
If you ever try to pull off something akin to The Cinematic Underground, good luck.
This New York octet, fronted by former Coloradan Nathan Johnson, played an ambitious set Monday at the Bluebird – only it wasn’t the cohesive piece of performance art it was meant to be.
The idea: “Annasthesia, a tragedy told in three musical acts,” according to the playbill handed to concertgoers. And while the scope was impressive – varied instrumentation, extensive multimedia, DIY everything, including the drummer’s spotlight detail – the experience lacked glue, something to bring the songs and theatricality and overarching pretension together into one package that tells a story, or at least leaves a unified impression.
It’s no easy task. Ask Cirque du Soleil. But if you’re going to undertake such a large task, you must be able to handle it with a sincerity that outweighs the inherent unbelievability of something so theatrical.
One track worked in such a way, and “Bullet,” with its trash-can beating and blaring trumpet, is an example of how all these forces can work together toward a common goal. But most everything else came off as scattered or disingenuous, with a soundtrack that didn’t quite hold up its end.|Ricardo Baca
Kind of Like Spitting
Self-releasing records to a small audience suits Ben Barnett just fine. So when his Portland, Ore.-based trio Kind of Like Spitting played the Hi-Dive on Tuesday, he didn’t seem to mind the sparseness of the all-ages audience, or the fact that he had to play early because an opening band canceled its set.
Barnett tore through a lengthy list of songs from the band’s discography, including tracks from its days on Barsuk Records. This is a guy who once made Death Cab for Cutie’s Chris Walla declare: “I think the only rock show I ever cried at was performed by Kind of Like Spitting.”
Fans of guitar-driven power pop could see why. The delightfully mangled tones Barnett wrung from his hollow-body hinted toward a version of Big Star fronted by Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore. The technical, rollicking drum beats and supple bass sounded more Cheap Trick than Elliott Smith, to whom Barnett is frequently compared. By the time people got around to noticing the lyrics (clever) and vocal inflection (indie rock all the way), it made perfect sense why the big-haired hipsters in the front of the venue were freaking out, dancing their Chuck Taylors off to the gloriously bent melodies. |John Wenzel
Jai-Alai Savant
Is it possible, nearly 30 years after the English Beat first formed, to really create a new take on ska? Like any other genre, it can be done, though few will succeed.
And the 3-year-old Chicago/Philly band Jai-Alai Savant fails.
The group visited the Hi-Dive on May 12 with the intentions of spreading the good, ska word – only it didn’t. The group started sluggishly, but playing to an optimistic crowd. It wasn’t long before singer-guitarist Ralph Darden admitted his exhaustion from the long drives, but he needn’t have said a word. “We’re sorry we’re tired,” was written all over his band’s performance.
We were sorry too.
Elements of Jai-Alai Savant almost worked. Jeremy Gowertz is an amazing drummer. And while sometimes a track would poke its head out from underneath the jumbled muck, as in “Scarlett Johansen Why Don’t You Love Me,” the band never fully pulled it out. | Ricardo Baca
