This past week I found myself at two
different and unlikely venues for me to drag my carcass to. The
first was the dreaded Stage AE and the second was the Carson St.
address that used to house the Lava Lounge.
Sleater-Kinney was at Stage AE on
Saturday, 10/26/2019. As with every time I force myself to go to
this overly corporatized, yuppy, shithole of a venue, the bands that
play have to climb the steep hill of overcoming my negative
experience of entering the building for me to enjoy the music.
There's something telling about a
venue when the crowd waiting on line to enter the venue is bonding
over their shitty experiences at the place. Everyone seemed to have
had a story about the aggressive security staff and we all shared a
laugh at the door length sign of items that were forbidden inside the
venue.
It didn't help matters that there was
a football game earlier in the day. There were still tailgating fans
throwing up a day's worth of beer in the garbage covered parking lots
when us music nerds were showing up for Sleater-Kinney. Stay classy,
Pittsburgh.
The opening act was Joseph Keckler. He sang a short set of opera songs about taking too many mushrooms
and getting dumped, among other things. He closed out his set with a
cover of Screamin' Jay Hawkins' “I Put A Spell On You.” Joseph
Keckler was so delightfully weird that I was an instant fan.
Sleater-Kinney hit the stage and
quickly reminded me that they could wipe the floor with damn near any
rock band that I could think of. Over the course of their
twenty-four song set, the band sounded tight and looked like they
were still having fun playing in front of rooms full of people.
Given the unwarranted backlash over
the new record and the departure of drummer Janet Weiss, I'm not sure
if Corrin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein still feel like they have
something to prove in this new phase of the band but holy shit did
they ever level the crowd.
Even though the crowd didn't really
seem to have caught up with the new songs yet, those were the ones
that sounded the most impressive to me because they were able to
overcome the sterile PA and fill the room. The Stage AE PA seems to
neuter guitar sounds for some reason that I can't figure out.
I knew what to expect from the older
songs since I've been burning those into my brain for the past
several years but, much like every time I hear the song, “Jumpers”
still got to me. The opening lines of “I spend the afternoon in
cars/I sit in traffic jams for hours/Don't push me/I am not okay”
were enough to buckle my knees given the weight of my thoughts of
late.
. . .
On Wednesday night,
10/30/2019, I found myself at Cocktails From The Crypt. A seasonal
pop up bar that has a Halloween theme. This was for the annual
Submachine Halloween show with Venus In Furs as the opener.
According to my t-shirt, I
had not attended Submachine's Halloween show since back in 2010 when
it was at the 31st St. Pub and that may have been the last
time I was at the Pub before it closed. This was also one of the
rare occasions that I found myself on the South Side that didn't
involve my chiropractor.
The back room where the
bands were set to play was pretty tight but I found myself a spot up
front in order to get some pictures. That is, until Venus In Furs
fired up their fog machine and filled the room so I couldn't see
anything that wasn't a few inches from my face. I was able to get a
few pictures of the singer and the guitar players but there was no
way I got anything worthwhile of the drummer and the keyboard player.
The fog cleared out and
Submachine went off like a bomb. The revelers that were there to
experience the atmosphere of the Halloween bar were suddenly making a
mass exodus while those of us that knew what we were getting into
took over the back room.
It was later reported that
the band was so loud that they could be heard clear across the
street. I found an odd sense of pride in that especially since DJ
Fuckhead and whatever other hollow dance music has taken over the
South Side and can be heard pouring out of clubs at all hours of the
night along Carson St.
It was nice to see that
there was a large turnout for the show. Half the time people can't
be bothered to show up on a Wednesday night or any other night for
that matter. I guess after almost thirty years enough people have
figured out that Submachine celebrating Halloween is a show that
should not be missed. The band plays a longer than usual set and
pulls out songs that they don't normally play. They even played their
version of DEVO's “Mongoloid” which taught me many years ago that
there was more to DEVO than “Whip It.”
After helping with tear
down and load out, I got caught in a weird moment while standing on
the sidewalk. I was contemplating whether to head toward the car or
walking back across the street to maybe experience this thing called
“fun” that I have heard so much about. Needless to say, I called
it a night and eventually started walking to the car. This elusive
“fun” in social situations will have to wait until I'm not so
fucking weird.
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