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LIVE REVIEWS
EVE 6,
GOLDFINGER,
DYNAMITE HACK
July 6,2000
The Roxy ( Atlanta
Since releasing their salt-titled
album in 1998, the boys ol Eve 6 have
quickly grown up. Headlining an
evening al the Roxy with Goldlinger and
Dynamite Hack, the band took the stage
with an air ol arrogance and maturity
preceding them.
Despite three powei outages during
its performance, opener Dynamite Hack
demonstrated an edgier, punk rock-ori
ented contrast to its mellow single.
Alter the opening set. the crowd was
fully energized by the ska-punk outfit
Goldlinger. Admittedly, the maprity o!
the audience had come just to see
Goldlinger, which played songs Irom the
newest album, but threw in some clas
sics too. Topping oft its hard-hitting,
aggressive set, Goldlinger really stole
the show when the drummer stepped
out from behind his kit, stripped off his
pants revealing a lacy black thong, and
jumped right into his own rendition ol
Sisqo's ‘The Thong Song." complete
with inflatable props.
Bereft of his bass guitar, sporting
some new tattoos, and emitting his
sexual energy to a crcwd filled with
swooning girls, singer-bassist Max
Collins embodied the new image ol Eve
6. Throughout Ihe show, Collins
imbibed his energy from the screaming
girls and the Goldftnger-lovmg punk
boys that composed the mesmerized
audience. Instead ol milking Ihe hits
from its debut album. Eve 6 surprisingly
mixed in several tracks from the sopho
more release Homscope.
Siebels' turquoise hair—perfectly
complemented drummer Tony
Fagenson's newly acquired black and ^
red do. One of the most noticeable §
alterations to tonight's Eve G show,
however, was the guy standing towards ^
the side of the stage playing bass. Ever >
since Collins decided last October to *
drop his bass duties at live shows, a |
touring session guy was picked up But 2
the poor guy never got any recognition *
at the show, and only served so Collins
could grab his crotch a little more,
exhibiting his trademark extroversion.
Amidst the hit singles—‘inside Out,"
"Leech" and ‘Open Road Song" - the
guys tossed in new material including
"Amphetamines," “Nocturnal," and a
latest single titled “Piomise." After
closing the mam set. Eve G returned to a
room flooded with cheers to perform a
cover of “Leaving On A Jet Plane"
Despite the somewhat ditfermg
styles of the three bands, it was a hard
rock element that united the sets of Eve
G. Goldlinger, and Dynamite Hack and
each band demonstrated just that.
Leah Weinberg
SUNNY DAY REAL
ESTATE, NO KNIFE
July 15,2000
40 Watt Club
Saturday night found me and sev
eral thousand of my not-so-closest
friends from around the state waiting in
line at the 40 Watt Club to see a band
whose greatest achievement probably is
inspiring belter bands. Wnether they
came out of respect for the genre-cre
ating Sunny Day Real Estate, or out ot
honest appreciation for the group's new
music, the club was swamjjed with
people hoping to gel one o! (tip 200
last chance tickets being sold at the
door. Many of the faces in fine were
unfamiliar, there were lots of out-of-
towners, punk-rockers, and people who
just don't usually go to shows who
decided to make a special trip for this
one We were all getting in our last
couple of cancer slicks before entering
tonight’s “no smoking" show (appar
ently singer Jeremy Emgx can't hit those
high notes in a room full of second
hand smog).
Opening act No Knife, which I've
seen twice before, put on a solid set of
Jawbox-influenced post-punk rock. I
lesped the band primarily for ils will
ingness lo be quirky. The band's sound
is infused with off-kilter, spy-and-
horror-movie sounding melodies, which
throws a compelling monkeywrench
into the usual post-punk emo angle that
so many bands work so poorly. Another
cool twist that No Kmle pulls off is that
the two guitarists have a very trculy,
Fender guitar sound—almost reminis
cent of early Big Black—which offers a
stark contrast to the Sunny Day big
guitar sound. Whether the quirks make
for an effective whole is something that
might have to sort itself out on their next
record, but !'m just glad lo see an orig
inal band pump some potential life into
an often-slale idiom
I feel almost obligated, as the newly
appointed official Sunny Day corre
spondent for Ihe Flagpole, to say some
thing to balance out Ihe relatively unmit
igated praise I've heaped on them over
the last couple ot weeks, so here goes:
the show wasn't that great. It was the
tirst show I'd seen in a long lime with an
actual roadie, a big guy with greasy hair
and backstage passes around his neck,
who tuned all the guitars, checked all
the amps, pre-opened two bottled-
waters per band member, left two fresh
sweat towels on top of each amp. and
brought out new guitars after each song
That kind of freaked me out, but consid
ering the cacophony that spewed forth
from the audience the minute Jeremy
Emgk and company took ihe stage, it
was probably for the best.
The three core members of the
group were accompanied on-stage by
bassist Nick Macri ol Heroic Doses and
a gu itari sl/keyboa rd i sl/vocal i st whose
name I can’t remember. The sound was
absolutely masswe There were otten
three overdriven guitars going at once,
along with Will Goldsmith's impeccable
timing and Jeremy Emgk’s upper-ieg-
ister soaring. I was impressed with how
well the singer pulled oft Ihe often dra
matic vocal flights
The set list was identical to what the
group played in Atlanta (one of Ihe
crowd members from Atlanta actually
antagonized Emgk halfway into the set,
catalyzing a coy smile and an apology
from the frontman: “We forgot how lo
play all those other songs") and there
was definitely an element ol routine in
their stage presence. Rhythm guitarist
Dan Hoerner beamed through the whole
set, marching in place like the stoned
bassist tor some dub reggae group,
which I think subtracted more from the
show than anything else. Many of the
songs come off as serious, deep stuff,
but Dan looked like he was playing
songs about “one love" and the joy of
Rastafari.
In the end it would have been
impossible for Sunny Day lo live up to
the hype that grew in its wake as honest
young musicians picked up the pieces
of its sound and put it back together in
strange new ways It's gotten, somehow,
to the level of near-celebrity, and the
band's shows are probably much more
compelling for audiences who don't go
out to see band' like Fugazi and Hot
Water Music put it ailon the line every
night.
It’s odd that “breaking" a record
means selling it to audiences who don't
generally care enough about music to
know a good record, or a good show,
Irom a mediocre one, but it seems that
this was exactly the kind ol audience
Sunny Day had in mind.
Brandon Butler
GRANDADDY,
BRIGHT EYES,
ISOBEL
July 18, 2000
TTie 40 Walt
What was probably the best show
I've seen al! summer started out with a
set from the much-needed Isobel. I say
“much-needed" because the shoe-gazer,
slo-core thing that it does so well is vir
tually non-existent in Athens, despite
the vitality and popularity of bands like
the Moiave 3 and Mogwai. It was easy
to forgive the band for starting out a
little loose considering ihis was its first
show in Athens in months, and the
audience, while incredibly supportive,
was also much larger than most Athens
bands face in their first five or six
shows.
Perhaps relieved by the crowd's
enthusiasm. Isobel moved into a set of
shimmering, lush, and beautiful music
with confidence after hesitant first steps
The group closed with a loya 1 and
rockin' version of Neil Young's "Hey
Hey, My My (Into The Black)’ and left
this writer with much hope for these
unusual new faces in Ihe Athens music
crowd.
Isobel was followed by Ihe Athens-
connected act Bright Eyes, whose efforts
have been supported by former Drip-
sler Andy LeMasler. Bright Eyes'
smger/songwr'ter/fronlman Conor
Oberst is a really young guy and his
angst would definitely belie his age if
his stature didn't Fits of shakmess,
occasional headbanging (while sealed
and playing an acoustic guitar 1 ), and
other melodrama were sometimes an
acceptable part of the show, sometimes
a distraction, and sometimes downright
silly-looking, ye! Bright Eyes still man
aged to crank out some precocious,
impressive folk rock. There were serious
nods to Modest Mouse tor the vocal
affectations and Neil Young for the
acoustic country-rock vibe, but the
bridging of those two influences, no
matter now shamelessly, couldn't help
but be mterest.ng.
I know wny Grandaddy is a rock
critic's dream: the band's music just
begs to be written about There’s a
theory that classic literature is literature
that provokes Ihe most criticism,
evinces the greatest contradictions and
provokes the greatest controversies
That I find myself comparing a bunco of
bearded rock and rollers from California
to classic literature is a clue lo the kind
of eftect this band can nave on you.
The group took the stage with two
huge racks of keyboards and other
strange noise-makers, one keyboardist,
one drummer, one bassist, and two gui
tarists. one ot whom sang and fiddled
with the larger, stranger stack ol musical
technology. Mixing slower, somber bal
lads with up-tempo Soft Bulletin-esmie
pop orchestral songs, Grandaddy
moved gracefully from mood to mood,
often in the same song. While computer
bleeps and bloops are becoming almost
cliche in new music, Grandaddy mixed
them in minimally and tastefully with
heavily distorted, sometimes My Bloody
Valentme-ish guitar rock
I caught myself smiling throughout
the set at each new twist, every song
surprising me with something more
dignified than novelty but not quite as
stuffy as experimentation. I had a blast
and I think Grandaddy was flattered by
the crowd's enthusiasm These guys
came out ol nowhere (well. California,
but I'd never heard of them), breezed
into town, and blew my socks off. 1 hope
I get to see them again.
Brandon Butler
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