It's been a monumentally dry summer for gigs (okay, excluding the enormo pop stadium bands that wheeled through. Bah, I still wish I'd seen the REM/National/Death Cab circus).
Still, for months now, nothing has grabbed me and made me want to hang out by the side door, knock on the tour bus window and lick the bassist...;-)
At least the silly season for gigs has hit once again. It's September and EVERYBODY knows that from September until the first week in December, the good bands are back on tour. They've grown fat and demanding from the summer's Yurpean festivals and they're now dithering about whether to hit the studio or...you know, just keep touring. Autumn is an excellent time for gig-age in Vancouver and pretty much all major cosmo NorthAm cities.
So why am I worried?
Tons of bands are heading this way. Tons of good indie bands. The cool kids with fans that have ironic mullets. The flavour of the mini-moment. The darlings of the NME (this week). But anyone I'm really, really retardedly excited about? Mooo, nothing yet. I haven't had a good drool in a long time and I'm bored.This past Sunday, I even found myself admiring Dave Sitek from TV on the Radio's glasses as he spent far too much time with his guitar and sequencer and avoided all audience eye contact. Boo. Read my TVOTR live review here. (And help contribute to my "get me a new camera body and zoom cos I need it so mutha-truckin' badly" fund ;-)
And Saturday night's Mogwai/Fuck Buttons gig? It's not like you can stare wistfully at Mogwai and then think "ahhh, there's a sexy band'. Sexy, dark, enormously loud and droney music? Yes. Fanciable? I'm thinking...erm, NO.They still blew the stacks out the venue windows and were - as usual - rather mesmerising. Feel like reading a Mogwai review? Okay.
I'm also awaiting word on whether I get review passes to this weekend's Spiritualized gig. Should be good if I do but I'm losing hope daily as I've not yet heard anything. Songs in A&E is fucking awesome and Vancouver will make, what, the FIFTH city I'll have seen the band in?
But that was eons ago and I find it tiresome having to chase people down who only remember you if they're prodded to remember you, you know, those five times in....anyway, not sure I'll buy tix if I don't get passes so digits crossed. Here's what I thought about A&E..
I've also plowed through and reviewed Primal Scream's latest recently. Struggled with that one but it's grown a bit less moldy with each passing day. Still can't get over the handclaps. Clicky the linky for the review.
So who's going to be the band that gets me really excited? Not a bloody clue. But I hope they come soon. After having front row seats to the Cure this past May, and giving great massage to the lovely and harmless Louis XIV boys (honestly, Jason Hill's hair smelled SO nice!), having a 10-year-old loose end get tugged when Mike Doughty came to town, meeting Howlin' Pelle from The Hives and getting hopped up on happy juice when Hot Chip exploded all over the Commodore Ballroom walls...well, plain old indie bands just won't hack it.
Like I said, it's not that there aren't a million cool little bands coming, and Dan and I just caught wind of a possible TINY venue DJ set by Moby in November (sent to make up for the fact that I'm missing Nick Warren AND potentially my Icelandic DJ friend who I haven't seen in 10 years, who may be touring with Sigur Ros, because we're in the UK and there are no good bands playing WHILE we're in the UK...)
But the bands I adore and implode over? Where the hell are you?
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