I hate the Walkmen (but give much non-hate to the rest)

Like they say (somebody, somewhere): Two outta three ain’t bad.

(Photo credit: Susan Z. Elgin)

In the context of the Mission Creek satellite show last Thursday in Davenport, two outta three were frikin’ fantasmo. It’s just too bad that the third (the crap in the middle) sucked so so so so so hard.

White Rabbits, which our other fine DI spies were unfortunate to miss, were an energetic group — somewhat of dark yet spry insano pop complete with two drummers, two singers, and a hotly tickled piano. In short, these are things I like. Despite only having one album to extract from — the wonderful debut, Fort Nightly – White Rabbits pulled off a one band hat trick (white rabbit out of a hat?!?!?! Get it?!?!!?! It doesn’t even make sense in this context and whoa!!!!!) with the likes of “The Plot,” “While We Go Dancing,” and “Kid On My Shoulders.” Seriously: when a band can revive itself after an amp decided to inconveniently die, and play perhaps its best song (“Kid”), that’s saying something. In inspired me to get up from my padded chair and join the maybe 15 others dancing. And subsequently made fun of by a friend in Dbag mode (thanks, John C. S.). But it was worth it, and let’s hope these fine men go far.

In other news, The Walkmen blow. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever been standing up, excited to hear a reputable band, and feel after half a set that I really just wanted to go to sleep. I think they were drunk, I think the lead singer (I don’t even care to Wiki his name) was a third rate Julian Casablancas wannabe, and the songs almost always dragged when they should have done something, anything at all!, but suck. I hate them, and my iPod is happy to get rid of them.

Spoon? Well, they’re Spoon. Perhaps you’ve heard from other folk that they didn’t play “The Way We Get By,” “Small Stakes,” or a number of Gimme Fiction singles. Consider this: with the show they gave, this seems exciting in retrospect. If they pull a decades-old song from nowhere, a killer Clash cover, and my favorite Kill the Moonlight song, “Stay Don’t Go,” onto the stage, stop whining. Simply the one-two punch of “The Ghost of You Lingers” (miraculous live) and “You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb” was worth the night. Yes, the two encores could have been enhanced by one mega-encore, and maybe they could have played just half of “The Way We Get By.” It’s pretty repetitive anyway (but in a good way… I guess).

Keep the peace, as I hope ya’ll already do.

~Paul