Diary of a Superfan: Oneida, Friday August 29th, South Street Seaport

This post serves two purposes: It is a short (cause the concert was short) concert review of the Oneida show I saw last night. It is also the introduction to my new series, Diary of a Superfan.

I would consider myself a superfan of several bands. Oneida is definitely one of them. How do I define a superfan? I guess several factors are important: purchasing every piece (or at least make a good effort as we'll discuss when I get to Acid Mothers Temple) of recorded music by the band in question, no matter how irrelevant redundant or bad, attending concerts as frequently as possible (for example: seeing a band two nights in the row when their tour hits your town/state, or in the case of local bands, seeing them every chance you get), and knowing irrelevant details about the band like what kind of instruments they use, the first, last names and aliases of band members and clothing styles/mannerisms.

I am definitely an Oneida superfan. While I didn't start listening to them until I purchased their 2003 release Secret Wars, I have been a very devoted listener. I have purchased every album/single/ep I could find, including their awful and not easy to find first album that isn't really an Oneida album (only one of the members of the current lineup plays on the album). And while I only saw them in concert once when I lived in Austin, missing a second chance because of a severe bout of depression that sucked the joy out of just about everything except sleeping, I have seen nearly every single Oneida show in New York since I moved here in the summer of 2006.

I'm sure there are people who have seen Oneida more often (like this guy Dave that I see at nearly every show who's actually played in the band a couple of times), and people who love Oneida albums more than I do (for instance, I find The Wedding to be a mostly dull affair, but I've been told that there are people who regard it as something of a masterpiece), but I am not claiming to be THE superfan. Merely a superfan.

And why am I such a superfan of Oneida? God, I don't know where to start. I guess the short answer is that I think they are one of the best rock bands around today. And except for a few shows where they were clearly phoning it in, Oneida puts on one of the most consistently entertaining and interesting live shows around.

Unfortunately, last night, they weren't given much of a chance to do this. Oneida's set was very short. They took the stage at 8:30 and were off shortly after 9 (I think New York has pretty strict noise ordinances for outdoor shows. At a place like The South Street Seaport which isn't even close to apartment buildings, this is kind of ridiculous and infuriating) thanks to two openers that outlasted their welcome and then kept playing for ten minutes. While eating dinner, my girlfriend and I could hear Endless Boogie. At a distance, they sounded pretty good. But I'd seen them up close once and remembered nothing but mindless blues-rock soloing.

After Endless Boogie was Raphael Saadiq. This was probably the most miserable forty-five minutes of my life. Well that's an exaggeration. Most of the time we wandered around the area. Not only was Saadiq's soul music especially dull, but the guy didn't even have a good voice. Unfortunately, when we came back around the time we thought he'd be done, he was STILL PLAYING. And then after hearing people cheer he said something like, "Do you want one more song?" and I couldn't stop myself from yelling, "no!" AND THEN HE PLAYED THREE MORE SONGS. In case you can't tell, I was very angry and upset that the headliner's set got cut short and rushed because the openers played too long.

So how was Oneida? Well they only played two songs. One was Pre-Teen Weaponry, their new three movement album. The second was "Double Lock Your Mind". Pre-Teen Weaponry was especially strong last night. I've now heard it live three times, and last night's rendition was clearly the strongest. Kind of wish that version was on the album to be honest. The first two parts were stellar as usual, but I especially noticed louder and stronger guitars for the second. I could also hear Jane sing (I couldn't the last time). The third part is usually the most frustrating, and I tend to endure it more than I enjoy it, but at one point last night they actually got a pretty strong riff going. Hopefully they'll do more of that in the future.

Bobby had a new keyboard with him, and it was definitely way too low in the mix. I'm hoping this was a problem with the sound system and not his new equipment. This was especially problematic during the final part of DLYM when only Bobby and Millions (drummer for those of you that aren't familiar) were on the stage. Otherwise, it was a great but way too short performance. Not one of the memorable ones, but I don't blame them. They didn't have enough time to play, and the metal fence six feet in front of the stage didn't do much to encourage intimacy. And the bald douche guy introducing the band and talking about what a "crazy" night it was really grated on my nerves. River to River does a really good job of making me want to pay to see live music. Maybe it's all part of some sort of plan.