Sunday, April 04, 2010

post art hop show review

so, i tried to write up a review of the post art hop show on friday, but blogger was down and i was unable to get it done. now, as the weekend comes to a close, i've got a chance to reflect and write a little about the show.

i didn't feel like driving, and neither did the other person i was sure that was going to the show, so i pitched the idea of walking. we're two strapping young(ish) men and spend a lot of time walking in our neighborhood. however, tokyo isn't quite in our 'hood, but it's not really that far away. i mean, i've walked it in the daytime, and i've ridden my bicycle down there once at night, but i hadn't walked it. it's funny how your mind tricks you on somethings, i almost completely forgot an entire block in the walk. so, by the time we reached tokyo, we were a little warm despite the chill in the air.

since we walked, we arrived around 9:45 and the first act was already on. it was scheduled to be local punk group it'll grow back, but instead it was just their frontman, josh tehee on an acoustic guitar. i had a bit of a difficult time getting into josh's set because it seemed they were still working out the sound system, and proper micing of the guitar. even though i didn't get into the music, i had a good time chatting with josh after his set. he's a funny dude, and i tweeted, "Josh tehee is the poop. funny, talented and an all around nice guy."

after josh was done, it'll grow back came on stage and started to sound check. the first note was so crazy loud that we decided to step outside for a bit. we actually listened to most of their set out there, and it was still pretty loud. for the last few songs we went back in and i made ear plugs out of paper towel to cut a bit off the top. my ears thanked me the next day. i'll be honest, i'm a bit unsure about trumpet solo. they are obviously talented and enjoy what they're doing. but the metal doesn't quite do it for me, and i have a bit of trouble getting into/deciphering the lyrics.

next on stage was the band spider problem, up from the l.a. area. they had a sort of low fi, garage punk sound. i had asked eli from rademacher about them the night before and he said they were good, and that the lead singer was usually rolling around on stage or half naked. there was no half naked, but definitely a lot of stage antics like climbing on stuff, jumping into things, smacking other members of the band. whatever, i was really into the music. it was loud and fast, but very enjoyable. (and yes, i did fashion another set of earplugs from a paper towel for their set as well.) i tweeted about digging the show, and i saw several others from the show had done similar things. i even plunked down the $5 for a cd.

last on the night was our hometown heroes, rademacher. this was my first chance to see them playing with r.c. of el olio wolof on bass. here's my tweets from the show, "holy isht. #rademacher is super dope with radioactive cauliflower on bass. and I'm going 2b deaf tomorrow from all these bands." "if youve ever seen rademacher you need to see rademacher again." "rc reminds me of shel Silverstein. I think it's the beard." the funny thing about the last tweet is that r.c. is a big silverstein fan, and when i mentioned to him he seemed rather happy, and rattled of some silverstein poetry. it was a great cap to the night. seriously, rademacher is as musically tight as i've seen them in a long time. r.c.'s skill on bass is easily observed, and it was great to have malcolm back playing guitar. the songs popped, although there were a few slip ups along the way. but hey, new line ups take a little time to iron out all the creases.

a cab ride later, i was back in my neighborhood and home.

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