Friday, November 12, 2004
Oneida, Devil Music, and Animental at Great Scott, Saturday November 6th, 2004
Okay, first off, not much to say about Oneida that hasn’t already been said here several times over. They’re damn good. As usual, by the time they played, I was pretty drunk, so the memory’s a bit foggy. They played a bunch of stuff, some new, some off of Secret Wars, but nothing too old. One song, a long dance-jam called “Up With People”, seemed maybe a bit too New York hipster, for my tastes. It was a bit more restrained than normal, not nearly as good as the Atlanta show, but still pretty good, overall.
Boston’s own Devil Music opened for them once again, and once again they were pretty excellent. My ELP comparison still stands, I think. Devil Music makes some urgent neo-prog-punk with violin, drums, and bass. To be honest I didn’t pay a whole lot of attention to them this time; I mostly stood in the back, talking and drinking and being an ass.
I did watch the first band, Animental, who reminded me of something like Dixie Blood Moustache. They were three hippie-looking art-punk girls wearing homemade animal costumes and sporadically making music during a performance art piece. Much of the music was interesting; they relied upon some electronics, half a drum kit, some effect pedals, and an occasionally strummed guitar to make some good, droning, tribal jams. In that regard they sounded slightly like Sunburned Hand of the Man. Mostly though they just rolled around on the floor, or walked around the audience staring at people. There was one section that crossed the line into precious, annoying ridiculousness (a la Dixie Blood), when the girl dressed like a monkey (or bear, or something) would pantomime animal behavior while explaining (through a mic in her helmet, I assume) what she was supposed to be doing. She’d act like she was picking berries and say, “I am picking berries.” She’d act like she jumped into some water and say, “I am jumping in the river”, etc., etc. This brief solo interlude possessed no entertainment value whatsoever, and in fact almost spoiled the whole deal for me. They had cd-rs packaged in a nice looking silk-screened sleeve, tied up with a ribbon. Their shirts were interesting, too. Unfortunately their “art” intruded upon the music a bit too much for my tastes.
Okay, first off, not much to say about Oneida that hasn’t already been said here several times over. They’re damn good. As usual, by the time they played, I was pretty drunk, so the memory’s a bit foggy. They played a bunch of stuff, some new, some off of Secret Wars, but nothing too old. One song, a long dance-jam called “Up With People”, seemed maybe a bit too New York hipster, for my tastes. It was a bit more restrained than normal, not nearly as good as the Atlanta show, but still pretty good, overall.
Boston’s own Devil Music opened for them once again, and once again they were pretty excellent. My ELP comparison still stands, I think. Devil Music makes some urgent neo-prog-punk with violin, drums, and bass. To be honest I didn’t pay a whole lot of attention to them this time; I mostly stood in the back, talking and drinking and being an ass.
I did watch the first band, Animental, who reminded me of something like Dixie Blood Moustache. They were three hippie-looking art-punk girls wearing homemade animal costumes and sporadically making music during a performance art piece. Much of the music was interesting; they relied upon some electronics, half a drum kit, some effect pedals, and an occasionally strummed guitar to make some good, droning, tribal jams. In that regard they sounded slightly like Sunburned Hand of the Man. Mostly though they just rolled around on the floor, or walked around the audience staring at people. There was one section that crossed the line into precious, annoying ridiculousness (a la Dixie Blood), when the girl dressed like a monkey (or bear, or something) would pantomime animal behavior while explaining (through a mic in her helmet, I assume) what she was supposed to be doing. She’d act like she was picking berries and say, “I am picking berries.” She’d act like she jumped into some water and say, “I am jumping in the river”, etc., etc. This brief solo interlude possessed no entertainment value whatsoever, and in fact almost spoiled the whole deal for me. They had cd-rs packaged in a nice looking silk-screened sleeve, tied up with a ribbon. Their shirts were interesting, too. Unfortunately their “art” intruded upon the music a bit too much for my tastes.
