Allen Zadr's Journal: Weekend Music Report

Yeah, so there I was at 8:15PM standing in the entrance of The Fine Line Music Cafe, where the doors were to open at 8, except a hand taped sign on the door reads, "Private Party, Closed until 8:30". Grumble, grumble.

I note that besides the name, Fine Line Music Cafe has neither food or coffee. They have liquor, and music. Then, the band I'm actually there to see, Action vs. Action, plays last. Great for them, they are getting more popular. Sucks for me.

Warm up and between sets music was brought to us by D.J. Cheap Cologne, who is an interesting character himself. He played some stuff from his "Double Black Album" (which is the same idea as D.J. Danger Mouse's Grey album, except this mixes in Metallica instead of The Beatles.

Anyway - yeah Prince music, and lots of it. Shauntae' started it off, and she did an excellent job, for a girl (that is for a girl singing songs meant to be sung by a girly man). She quite fittingly did "How Come You Don't Call Me". My only complaint is that she tries to hard to "act sexy", which - for me - is a total turnoff.

Second set was by Tagine. Despite Alex Moreno being in a horrible pink shirt/white leisure coat Miami Vice getup, they also did a decent job doing "Little Red Corvette".

Nathan Miller came out, and was not impressive - in any way. He did, however, completely trash the song, "Nothing Compares 2 U", to the point where my wife did not even recognize it.

The New Congress was a no show, and a very unusual act stepped in last minute. Jack Brass Band came out. These folks basically look like High School marching band rejects. They bill themselves as a New Orleans style brass band. Two huge sousaphones, Trombones, Trumpets, Saxaphones, and even chest mounted drum kits. The big surprise here is how great a job they did on "Delirious". Unexpected, to say the least. When they came out, I was laughing, as they left, I was wanting more.

Next up was Leroy Smokes. Someone nearby me joked, as they came out on stage, "Oh my goodness! A black man doing Prince songs!?" This is a Hip Hop type group that reminded me of RUN/DMC back in the day... but, of course, doing Prince... "Sexy MF" was most memorable. Then, one of the keyboardists did a medley of several prince songs, and was great to hear. He did a great job - but I have no idea who the keyboardist is... I got the distinct feeling that he wasn't a regular part of the band.

Finally, Action vs. Action came on. I'm a fan, so you probably don't need my views there, instead I'll give some description... They have a tendancy of being laughed at as they enter a stage, maybe not as much as Jack Brass, but laugh, people do. Bairnt, the bass guitarist, wears a pilot's crash helmet, and Ben, the lead singer, has what he calls a "rock stick". As far as I can tell, it doesn't do anything. It certainly isn't plugged in, but he does "pretend" like it's a guitar or something. He's got all these repeating finger movements he does down the neck... but it doesn't have any strings. Ben also sports a full overgrown beard like he just returned from Deer hunting (he always looks this way), and as such seems unlikely as a front-man, yet there he is.

Hey-

[janeowit]

Do you like The Hopefuls [2024records.com] , formerly known as The Olympic Hopefuls? Because they really seem up your alley in a grown-up-intelligent-funny-matching-track-suit-wea ring way. You used to be able to stream their cd on purevolume, but purevolume has been acting up. So I would suggest visting their myspace page [myspace.com] and listening or downloading one of the four songs they have up, of which my favorite is "Drain the Sea". C'mon... peer pressure!!! If you hate them, you hate them, let me know so I can suggest something

Re:Hey-

[Allen Zadr]

First, I've heard the song, "Motobike" before. I don't know where (maybe on The Current), but I've heard it - and I thought it was catchy. So, that song (the last of the one's I've heard) got the added benefit of familiarity.

Overall, they would probably be much better live (most bands are). Of the stuff I've listened to, I think "Imaginary" is the better of the songs. "Drain the Sea" is very quirky - I'll give it that - but it didn't groove with me. The songs, while not wholesale alike, all feel si

Re:Hey-

[janeowit]

They play Motobike on the current, and Let's go on Drive 105 pretty regularly.

They are really great live, extremely energetic, and professional. Which is a big difference compared to a lot of the bands I see. I guess I really don't mind when a lot of songs sound the same as long as I like them. Because I have as huge variety of bands to turn to, I don't really need each band to provide that diversity, although it is a plus.

I am not sure why I like drain the sea, maybe because it reminds me of they might

Re:Hey-

[Allen Zadr]

Interesting, so they are, actually, popular ... well almost.

You may also note that you may feel free to Email with odd musical references. I allow said address to be public because I actually enjoy recieving Emails.

Re:Hey-

[Allen Zadr]

Though, I don't enjoy spelling receiving correctly.

Re:Hey-

[janeowit]

They were on the cover of city pages in September after they won artist of the year at the Minnesota Music Awards. And according to the website (although I haven't fact checked it) Let's Go was featured on The OC. But I don't consider them popular because, well, know one seems to know about them, attend their concerts, or connect the song to the band. That whole name change thing didn't help either.

Would you think less of me if I told you I was afraid of email?
(Cause I kinda am. I'm also really anal abou

Re:Hey-

[Allen Zadr]

Well, I'm weird (I like to think, mostly, in good ways). I heard a song, and remembered it. Clearly, I need to hear more of what they have to offer - yet - I also have a fear...

See, I don't buy things online. I'm a trained computer geek, and I don't buy things online. I don't Ebuy, I don't NewEgg, I don't even BestBuy.com or BN.com. I'm not afraid of Identity theft. I'm not afraid of credit fraud. I'm afraid that when I get the thing that I ordered, it won't be exactly what I expected, and then I

Re:Hey-

[janeowit]

It's a quirk, just a weird little thing about me. There are a lot of weird little things about me, many that contradict themselves, including my dislike of email, but enjoyment of posting in online forums. It's like that line from Clerk's that I change a little bit to allow me to quote more often, "I hate people, but I love gatherings, isn't it ironic?"

Also note that I am not trying to force bands onto you, I just happened to think that this band, with whom I am excited about because they are playing two s

Re:Hey-

[Allen Zadr]

Force?

Who said force? ...Checks comments...

Nope, didn't say force. I said threat, which (I'll admit) was too strong a word, and was based upon these words:

so I can suggest something else.

Basically - I love music. I play piano. I wish I could play many other things. I have a desire to collect instruments, so that - by being surrounded by them - I will suddenly learn to play them (as I don't have time to actually dedicate to learning how to play anything (including piano) really well.

So, m

Re:Hey-

[janeowit]

Who said force? I said force. Because I know people who do that, and I don't want to be one of those people. "You HAVE to listen to this band?" "You didn't like them? Then you HAVE to listen to this song of theirs?" "You HAVE to see them live before you can judge them"

Ok, I'm done now.

Re:Hey-

[Allen Zadr]

Jane,

Here. Have a cookie.