gnarly
saturday, 9/15, 8:30 pm : galaxia sampler @ the historic victoria theatre in the mission
when i walked into the theatre it was not what i expected. everyone was sitting quietly, in theater-seats, staring at a movie screen showing a black and white disoriented slow motion art film. it was extremely dark, and no one moved. on stage, the two members of The Photographic sat on opposite sides of the screen, producing an incredible amount of sound for a guitar/percussion duo. the music was intense – way more intense than the film deserved – and i was sad that i was late, as shortly after i arrived, their set was over.
my friends eric and sarah were on next with their band Gojogo, who, despite their fairly substantial fanbase and regular radio play, never quite seem to draw a crowd, perhaps because they are rather hard to define or describe on a flyer. this time, however, the crowd LOVED them: they received an incredible amount of applause both during and after the set, and many audience members wanted an encore. unfortunately, due to the quick-paced timing of the whole show, they weren’t allowed to play any longer than scheduled.
following them, a 5-man band began setting up, all wearing ill-fitting vintage-cut suits and looking a bit like they’d seen all that Weezer video about Buddy Holly one too many times. 2 guitars, a trumpet, a double bass and drums: potential for many things. the announcer introduced the act by saying “you all are about to get your shit fucked up” and used the word “gnarly” to describe their sound. i was excited. i like having my shit fucked up by innocent-looking indie-rock bands. what would they play? surf rock? i was especially excited about the trumpet. they started out, and i waited for it to get beyond what sounded, to me, more or less like really good elevator music. don’t get me wrong; they were great musicians: excellent timing, clean transitions, tight composition. but gnarly? this didn’t even approach Bitches Brew kind of gnarly, even though i think it tried, and despite the fact that the musicians on stage were bobbing about as if they really WERE fucking your shit up and looked really into it, the audience was motionless. i’m impatient and i had somewhere else to be anyway, so i left. as i exited the building, there was some kind of build up in the music that garnered some applause from the audience, but i have to say: that was the most misleading introduction to a band i’ve ever experienced. either that, or my definition of gnarly is way off.
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