On-again, Off-again : Scamper reunites & Harris splits up, Mid East down, 4/18/09

You'd think, given that they're one of my favourite bands and considering how crazy emotional I got over their split, I would have been in hyper-excited-fangirl mode for the one-set reunion of Boston's "local rock heroes," Scamper. Don't get me wrong, I was excited. But not...overly so. It's difficult to describe, other than to say that the build up to their first last show was so intense that anything less than that just won't register.

The show itself, friends Harris' last, was a mish-mash of players and sounds. The Men were originally supposed to play, and then dropped out, leaving the penultimate spot to Scamper. Members of Harris noted that they wanted Aloud, who played at Scamper's last show, to join in as well, but they were booked for the night. Jericho Trumpet's (featuring Harris frontman Mike Nastri's younger brother, Matt) all-instrumental set was followed up by a mild punk band whose name I can't recall at the moment (but I'm sure somebody will remind me of it). And then a dose of powerpop followed by Harris, who meld pop and rock to sort of defy any sort of convenient label.


Reunited and it...okay, whatever, you knew that was coming.

It didn't even hit me until "Coughing Up Roses," well into their set that, "Oh, right. Scamper. Yeah!" An utterly bizarre feeling, comparing the last time I'd seen them a year before, ready to cry during "Barcelona" (true story - drummer Mike said post-show that he couldn't watch me because I looked so darn miserable) to bouncing around and cursing the lighting for being sucktastic. Perhaps if they'd been headlining, had allowed themselves more time and more songs, the feeling would have been different, but probably only slightly so. Aptly quoting 10 Things I Hate About You : "I know you can be overwhelmed, and you can be underwhelmed, but can you ever just be...whelmed?"





I was, however, blown away by frontman (co-frontman? what do you call it when there are technically two dudes singing?) Keith's performance. Seriously. There was a power, grit, and emotion to his singing (and playing, by extension) that I personally had never seen before. Granted, I've only ever seen them live four times. But he went from "guy I don't really know fronting one of my favourite bands and doing a rather good job of it" to "veritable rockstar" in the blink of an eye. He was the one to watch and further cemented the fact that this is not, and never was, a fluff pop band. The fact that he is no longer fronting a band is fucking criminal, truly so.


Dude to watch.

As for Harris, I honestly can't comment too much on their set because I've never been terribly familiar with their music, though that was the third time I'd seen them play and now I'm thinking maybe I should have familiarised myself with their catalogue because that was a band that deserved to be far more popular than they were. Sure, they played a two-hour set, which is slightly mind-numbing if you don't actually know the band's material, but they were an incredibly good band, defying labels and genres as previously noted and playing with an enviable energy and vibrancy throughout the long set. The indie music world is a far less rich place now that they're gone.

(Also, they kept playing new songs they'd recorded just before splitting up which was hilarious 'cause it's like, "We’re breaking up! Here’s a new song!")



A really terrible picture of a lot of people onstage during Harris' almost last song.

At the end of the day (or set, whatever), Harris refused to do an encore...and (predictably) did one anyway, excusing themselves for a moment so they could actually figure out a song to play that they all remembered (presumably because they'd already played all their other songs). Maybe that's similar to calling quits and then playing your second annual last show. Maybe Harris will be back to dance on another band's grave next year; the way things are going, I wouldn't be wholly surprised. Then again, maybe these aren't really graves. Perhaps this is just the ultimate on-again, off-again relationship.

.....

If you're interested in hearing some of Harris' newer stuff, which they recorded shortly before deciding to call it a day, you can hear it at their 'Space.

No word (that I've heard) on what Harris' ex-members will be getting up to now, but Brendan Boogie-formerly-of-Scamper continues to play with his band, while former cohorts Nate and Mike have recently (re)launched a new project, officially titled The Future Everybody.

Fangirls On The Road, Day Eight : Port City Music Hall, Portland, 3/13/09

Ad inifiTim. Har har, I'm so clever, I'm making that joke all over the place.


Credit to Rachel.


Oh, the last of the confetti.

Before we arrived at Port City Music Hall, I looked up the show online and found it was listed as "chem-free." "What the hell's a 'chem-free' show?" I asked. Apparently "chem-free" means "we're not serving alcohol because this is an 18+ show instead of a 21+ show." Oh, that's fantastic. Although venues should be warned that when there are bands involved, there's really no such thing as a "chem-free" show.

Anyway. Pre-show, Rachel and I ran into Dan Konopka of OK Go in Subway, of all places, wherein he let us in on the fact that OK Go was planning to play a big prank on openers Longwave. A "have a pizza delivered to your friend's place when they didn't order one"-sized prank. Actually, that's exactly what they did:



It would have been a better prank if I'd gotten some pizza, though.

At the end of Longwave's set, Dan and Damian both joined them onstage for "Life Is Wrong":



Please note that the first minute of the video is them getting their shit together. It's also a really good argument as to why one shouldn't wear all white onstage. When we caught up with Steve during OK Go's set, I pointedly asked, "Why are you dressed like Jesus?" I don't think he got it.

And so, it ended. OK Go played their set, we hung around and rubbed elbows for a while, absolutely no celebratory drinks were had (curses to "chem-free"!), and Rachel and I headed home the next day, stopping at one of New Hampshire's several rest-stops-cum-liquor-shoppes - something which, given the lack of drinks the night before, we maybe should have done on the way up instead of the way down. Ta da!

Now, who wants to give me a job as a tour manager? Anyone?

Fangirls On The Road, Day Six and Seven : Pearl Street up, NoHo, 3/11/09 and the 'Dise, Boston, 3/12/09

Let's combine two posts into one, since I'm getting tired of writing about this (as fun as it was) and I don't have much to say on either account.


Damian at Pearl St. up, 4/06

I was shocked - SHOCKED! - to walk into Pearl St. just as the show started to find about three-quarters of that night's audience already assembled. SHOCKED. The last time they played there, merely half the audience bothered to show up for the opening act. Then again, the last time they played NoHo was about three years ago, in April 2006, well before "Here It Goes Again" hit, so maybe I'm just all jaded and what-not.

Aside from messing up halfway through "Last Leaf," the only really memorable bit was a random audience member yelling out, "TAKING WOODSTOCK!", a film about - you guessed it - Woodstock in which Kulash is set to appear as a "fucking hippie," as he would put it. He tried, unsuccesfully at first, to show the crowd a picture via drummer Dan Konopka's iPhone:


Yeah, that didn't work so much.

When the mic cameras came back on during their three-song encore, we were afforded a better view:


Okay, that's a little better.

.....


OK Go at the Paradise Rock Club, 1/06

Not much else to say, so, onward, then. I was super-psyched to see the band play at the 'Dise, which has been renovated since the last time I saw a show there three years ago, and, holy crap, it is so much smaller than I remember it having been. It is a teeny little box compared to what I had in my mind.

Conspicuously absent were openers Longwave, to be replaced by Boston-based Hooray for Earth. I wasn't completely taken with their performance, but apparently they are friends with OK Go drummer, Dan, who joined the crowd, jaunty cap and all, to watch their set (and subsequently accosted both me and Rachel. True story.). The show was an amusing affair, to say the least, as my friends in attendance took it upon themselves to make snarky comments and yell things at the band whenever possible. Best line of the night:

"PLAY IT AGAIN!" - Nate
"Did you just yell 'play it again'? That's the second time in three days someone's said that." - Damian
"I JUST BLEW YOUR MIND." - Nate

They're the best.

So, to make up for the lack of inspired commentary / interesting journalism, here's a video of OK Go performing "A Million Ways" live, on electric. No, not dancing, and none of this acoustic bullshit they've been doing for the past few years. This is the way this song is SUPPOSED to be played, and I'd been waiting since their sophomore effort, Oh No, was released in 2005 to hear it live like this:



In possibly the singularly most fangirlish moment in my history (maybe - I've done some really fangirly things in the past), I literally screamed when they started playing this in Philly. Clearly I am 23-going-on-14.

Fangirls On The Road, Day Five : Toad's Place, New Haven, 3/10/09 + more new songs.

What a weird venue. For those who haven't gone to Toad's Place in New Haven before, the venue space is split in two by a barrier (complete with barrier guards), one side for the over-21s and the other for the unders. I suppose the whole idea is to prevent under-21s from drinking, but I heard that they had the same set up BEFORE they got shut down for a few years due to underage drinking. So I guess the moral of the story is that you really can't stop underage Yalies, after all. (We were also treated to witnessing an irrationally irate guy arguing that his under-21 girlfriend should be allowed to exit and reenter the venue so they could get "pizza." Clearly this kid doesn't go to too many shows, or he'd realise that not allowing underage kids to reenter is standard procedure pretty much everywhere nowadays.)

Anyway, notes on the show itself are pretty short - nothing new to report, other than the fact that I got a plum spot sitting on the edge of the stage, and thus didn't have to elbow people away from my spot.

So, let's look at the rest of those new songs, shall we?


"Last Leaf"

In my post about the kick-off show in Philly, I noted that this cache of songs seems overwhelmingly more emotional than last time around, and this song is a prime example of that. Witness Damian Kulash doing something he's never done before and singing a totally earnest love song on stage. On acoustic. All by himself. At the TLA show, in fact, he introduced this song by more or less pleading with the rest of the band to keep it on the new record. (We were later assured that it will be recorded, but I think it would fare better as a hidden track or a b-side, to be honest.) It was an endearing moment; it has to take a lot of guts to stand in front of a crowd and beseech the other guys onstage to keep a song because it means that much to you.

Unfortunately, Damian's introduction to the song changed from "Please? Guys?" to "I'm a sarcastic asshole blah blah here's me playing a song" pretty rapidly, which ruined the charm somewhat. It's an incredibly sweet, simple effort nonetheless. Oh, and here's an amusing video of him messing up about halfway through (around 1:20) at the Northampton show:




"This Too Shall Pass"

Rachel decided early on that this was her favourite of the new stuff (and while I like it a bunch, I'm pretty partial to the funk of "White Knuckles"). Recklessly joyful, it's the anthem for all those times you've second guessed yourself or let someone else get the best of your happiness. My band director always used to tell us, "This, too, shall pass," and that's all I can think of when I hear this song. Wise words, indeed.


"Skyscrapers"

Until it was pointed out to me as otherwise, I swore the first line of this song was "Stop screaming screaming screaming" (It's not. It's "Skyscrapers, please forgive me."), and I wanted to say, "Damian, please never take your own advice." (But I can't say that now, because that's not what the lyrics are. I am half-deaf in one ear, please be quiet.) The falsetto and accompanying screaming that kicks in about three-quarters of the way through the song harken back to the OK Go-before-they-were-OK Go tracks of Appendices and, most recently, their cover of the Pixies' "Gigantic." The whole old-influences-and-sounds-coming-full-circle thing is something I thoroughly enjoy and hope they continue to pursue. This song was one you really had to see in Philly; that night's performance (being the one in the video above) was the best. (Portland's was excellent but marred by the introduction of an echo, which did the song no favours. Drop the technology, boys, and let the vocals do all the work.)

ETA : Also. If you watch that video, start paying attention to the tubular bells right around 1:55. Suddenly, at 2:00, they'll be conspicuously missing and then suddenly reappear again five or ten seconds later. At that point, Andy Ross broke the gavel he was using while playing, which was hilarious, because he just stared at it like, "...what the fuck?" And then we laughed. Loudly.

A few more pictures from New Haven can be found here.

Fangirls On The Road, Day Three : MHoW, Brooklyn, 3/8/09

Credit to Rachel.






Credit to Rachel.

So while the rest of the blogosphere is updating the who, what, when, and where of SXSW, I'll just sit here, at home, in Jersey, and write about a tour that happened a week ago. No, I'm not jealous of any of you at all.

Of all the shows I was going, the New York date at MHoW was the most-anticipated, with the probably exception of Boston. Unfortunately, OK Go's performance was a notch below the two nights prior - something you wouldn't have noticed had you not been present at those other shows. But being as that was my case, it was a slight disappointment. Oppenheimer and Longwave were spot-on as usual, in any case, and guitarist Shannon Ferguson was back onstage with the latter, affording us an opportunity to yell, "WELCOME BACK, SHANNON" as obnoxiously as possible. Making the frontman laugh into the microphone from the balcony is an accomplishment.

Oh, Damian talked smack about me onstage. Witness:



And it was Andy Ross' 30th birthday, which meant the inevitable sing-along:





And, of course, the best line of the night:
"PLAY IT AGAIN!" - random dude
"Did you just yell 'play it again'? I have been heckled in my day, but I have never heard someone yell 'play it again' before." - Damian

Day four will feature the rest of those new songs I talked about last time, so hold tight. More photos (all like, five of them) can be found here.

Fangirls On The Road, Day Two : OK Go at the Recher Theatre, Towson, 3/7/09 + some new songs, part one.

Credit to Rachel.




I don't like confetti.


Emily, your dad's here.*

OK Go's set (and Longwave's and Oppenheimer's as well) at the Recher Theatre ran pretty much as it had the night before in Philly, minus a lot of the silly mistakes the headliners had made on opening night. With the added bonuses of having an even younger audience than the night before AND having an INCREDIBLY drunk girl (along with her equally drunk boyfriend) in attendance who took it upon herself to yell "FUCK PHILADELPHIA, WELCOME TO TOWSON" at every opportunity that presented itself, much to the chagrin of everyone else in the room. Also, despite being a small place (and my Small Venue Snobbery is well documented**), the Recher Theatre kinda', well. Sucks. In a "this lighting isn't terribly good" and "you can't get a glass of water" extortionist sort of way.

That being said, the energy was way up during this show, and I think it was the best performance of the week, given the freshness of the material and the fact that the Touring Bug hadn't seem to settle it quite yet. After the show, frontman Damian admitted that the band had gotten all of their other influences out during their first two records, and all that was left was Prince, and that while OK Go was never really an angsty band, record number three (tentatively titled Help Is On The Way***) looks be even less so than the first two.

So, speaking of this new stuff I keep going on about, let's look at some of the new material.

"Shooting The Moon" - The perpetual opener featured Tim on a big bass drum, Damian on acoustic, and the band jamming away in a lovely outro which is unfortunately missing in this totally acoustic video (courtesy of "Intern Joe" at WMMR Philly). (Also, embedding is disabled, so you're just going to have to be unlazy and click the link yourself.)


"White Knuckles"
This might be my favourite of the new stuff. Honestly. After they played this at the TLA, Damian asked, "Can you tell we've been listening to Prince?" Yes, Damian.




"I Want U So Bad"
This song makes me weak in the knees. (And I thought I was past the weak-in-the-knees phase. Guess not.) The bridge pretty much does it. The second vid is of better quality, although, tragically, only a clip.


"Back From Katmandu"
We've gotten a taste of this song before; here it is in all its live glory. Also, cowbell + double-necked, double-stringed guitar with capo on seven? Interesting.

More new stuff in the next post, otherwise you wouldn't want to read them.

More photos (although a rather tiny amount) can be found here.


*Midway through OK Go's set, the venue made an announcement to the tune of, "Emily so-and-so, please report to the front of the venue." The entire band stopped and looked around, completely stunned, with Damian asking, "Did they just make that announcement in the middle of our set...? In case you didn't catch that, Emily, your dad's here."

**Actual conversation that occurred during the course of the week:
"Are you one of those girls who, as soon as a band gets big, you don't listen to them anymore?"
"No, I just don't see why I'd want to see a band with 4,999 other people when I can see you with 399 other people."

***Or so I've heard, but I can't for the life of me find the link...

Fangirls On The Road, Day One : OK Go at the TLA, Philly, 3/6/09

Hello, all (those of you that are reading this, anyway). Again, sorry for the lack of serious posts - I've been superlazy as of late about actually sitting down and listening/paying attention to stuff.

Anyway, don't really expect any "serious" updates for the next week or so, either. My friend Rachel and I are currently embarking on what she likes to call a "fangirly roadtrip extravaganza!" and I'm just calling "we're following OK Go around on their tour for a week." Yessir, we are.


Your guides, Katy and Rachel.

So for the next seven days or so, expect updates from up and down the east coast as we follow those former-treadmill kids as they get their bums back onstage with some new songs (finally).

Day One : Philly

Let's meet our players.




Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer are from Ireland, or so I've heard (and their accent pretty much confirms that). I've actually wanted to write about these dudes for a while, as I saw them open for TMBG at the TLA over a year ago and was really taken by their set, but obviously that didn't happen. I will do that eventually, once I get to hear them a few times and pick up their record. Suffice to say that they were adorable onstage, with poppy, short songs (which is good, as I generally have the attention span of a gnat), filled with robot-voiced synthesizers and broken drum sticks and an airhorn solo. (Yes, an airhorn solo.) I'm excited to see these guys several times over; I think the crowd, mainly made up of pubescent girls, appreciated them.


Longwave

I've met various members of Longwave at varying points in time, but have never actually seen the band live. They were short guitarist Shannon, because, as frontman Steve put it, "He's going to be a daddy any second now." Aww. Friend Keith joined them on guitar as well. A much slower, more rock-oriented set than the one before, I'm not sure it caught on quite as well with the teenies and fangirls, but Steve is wicked adorable and I sort of just want to hug him a lot for that.







OK Go

I've written about OK Go several times before, about how I was super-into them a few years ago and now, not so much, partly because, I dunno', I maybe grew up a bit, partly 'cause I was a little bored. Ya' know, the usual. A band you love doesn't do anything new for a while, and you start to move on to greener pastures.

I think I'm sort of in love with them again. It was patently the opening night of the tour, with mistakes like frontman Damian fucking up the lyrics to his own songs and one Andy Ross breaking the gavel to his tubular bells. There were also a whole bunch of new instruments and gimmicks, such as the aforementioned bells, a large bass drum, handbells (poorest technique ever, but I was in handbell choir in college, so I appreciated it), and a double-necked guitar. And it was sort of difficult to determine where in the set we were - is this the middle? The end? The fake end? The encore? What's going on next? They were trying everything out, so. Understandable.

All of that aside, the new cache of songs sounds phenomenal. Somebody's been listening to Prince a lot, I can tell you that. But more than that, they are somehow much more...emotional. Damian, God bless him, seems to have turned down the "sexy rockstar" thing a bit in favour of a more humanised version of himself, something which, judging by the solo love song he played (and pleaded with his bandmates to keep on the record), seems to have a lot to do with being married for going on three years now. And that's refreshing and interesting to see. Bringing in a whole new set of odd instruments can seem gimmicky and then just pretentious if not done right (indeed, I said to Rachel, "If none of this works out, I'm gonna' laugh." Sorry, lads.), but they did play them right, in the right amounts, for the right songs at the right times. That takes planning and thinking.

Also, I'm definitely past the "droool" phase, but man, if that "I want you so bad I can't breathe" song didn't make me fucking weak in the knees.

So am I excited? Yes. Very. It's a step in a very good direction for them, and I'm eager to see how the rest of this test run goes. Fingers crossed for them.


More pictures are here.