Friday January 9, 2009 at the Bowery Ballroom: Camper Van Beethoven!

I always experience a bit of worry when going to see a musician or a band that is several decades past their best work. Camper Van Beethoven released an album in 2004, but it kind of felt like a weirder Cracker album, and doesn't hold up to Camper Van Beethoven's best work. But I'd never seen CVB or Cracker (yes, I actually like Cracker), so I decided I would have to give them a chance.

Fortunately, all of my fears were totally groundless. Camper Van Beethoven played a pretty comprehensive set that included favorites from all of their albums. Sure, there were a lot of songs I would have loved to hear that they didn't play (Abundance, Surprise Truck, Sometimes, Jack Ruby, She Divines Water, etc.), but this is almost always the case with bands like CVB that have dozens of great songs. There was very little talking between songs. David Lowery told one not-very-interesting story to introduce one song, and other members of the band mentioned other concerts they were playing. But that was it.

While the band was not especially energetic, the audience was clearly having a blast. I am always reminded of the age of these groups when I arrive and notice that I'm one of the younger members of the audience. Pretty much everyone there looked like a middle aged former hippie. There was some great air guitar, bass and drums played. As much fun as I was having, I just couldn't match the excitement of those around me, and I didn't try.

For me the highlight of the set was "Interstellar Overdrive" which closed out their set. Much less noisy than the original Pink Floyd and CVB versions, it still had some pretty solid guitar playing in the middle. I was also really excited to hear "Circles" played live, but it just wasn't as good without the backwards vocals. There really wasn't a weak moment in the set.

Anyway, NYC taper has a complete set list as well as a recording, so just go over there if you need that stuff. The setlist I picked up as well as NYC Taper has "White Riot" listed, but I definitely didn't hear that played. Maybe it was some unrecognizable version...

Wednesday December 31, 2008: Last show at the Knitting Factory-- Akron/Family, Deerhunger and Dirty Projectors

Dirty Projectors

Deerhoof

Akron/Family



Well those are the only bands that we got to see. There were at least 7 other bands, but we didn't see anything that wasn't on the main stage, and we missed Megafaun because they played at 8:30 and The Knitting Factory didn't open the doors in time for people to get into see them. I'll never understand why clubs do that.

So first up were The Dirty Projectors. I think I may have seen them open for Jarvis Cocker. At least one song sounded familiar. But this was much worse than I remembered hearing at that show. Basically the first two thirds of their set was awful and nearly unbearable. The Dirty Projectors basically seem to be at war with melody and rythm. And that's fine. There are lots of bands that play songs without any followable tune that I love...well maybe just a few. But the way these guys (well 2 guys and 2 girls) did it just grated on me. And the weird vocals would be fine if they merged with the music better, but instead they were way up the mix and super grating. Especially one song that was basically only sung by the lead male singer. But at the end things picked up. The last two or three songs were actually quite good. One was a briskly paced number that showed off some pretty strong guitar playing. And another featured a very noisy freakout at the end. I started their set bored and annoyed, but by the end, I was fine with it.

Then Deerhoof. I like Deerhoof alright. This was the third time I've seen them. The first time, the band got lost on the way to the venue, showed up about an hour late after people had been given refunds and sent home and played a 20 minute set that was actually quite impressive. Since then they've grown up a lot as a band and gained a much larger fan base. And a rowdier one too it seemed last night. For a variety of reasons, I was not in the mood for a lot of pushing, shoving and crowd surfing. So that really put a damper on things for me. And to be honest, I ended up more focused on that than much else. I liked Deerhoof alright. But I've never found much of their music very memorable. I find it hard to come up with anything to dislike about them, but the goodwill I have towards the band doesn't really extend much to their music.

And then the main attraction. To be honest, I felt kind of ripped off. This was my first time to see Akron/Family perform as a three piece, and it was kind of a drag. They were joined by a woodwind section for most of the set, and members of Megafaun came out periodically to add guitar/bass or extra percussion, but they were not featured as members of the band as they had been in the past. Raise the Sparks suffered when Seth's guitarstrap came undone, and there wasn't another guitarist to help pick up the slack. And the sound just wasn't as full as I've been used to at Akron/family shows.

But if the band had been as together as I'm used to, I would have been less disappointed. But their set was about a half hour shorter than the last 3 shows of theirs that I've seen. And to be honest, it was the first Akron/Family show I've seen in years that did not offer me something new and exciting from the band. From any other group, this set would have thrilled me. But coming from these guys (who last fall put on possibly the single best show I have ever seen), it just felt like a giant letdown.

Here's the rough setlist:

Auld Lang Syne
Lake Song
Turn on Your Love Light
New Song
New Song
Crickets
New Song
Raise the Sparks
Ed is a Portal

The new ones aren't that new by now, but I still don't know the titles.