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August 29, 2005
The Wrens (0)
I don't get to go see that many live shows anymore. Part of it revolves around the fact that after staying up well past my bedtime, I still have to get up when the girls do (early!). It has to be a band I really want to see. When Jeremy told me the Wrens were coming to town, I was excited. I had their most recent album, The Meadowlands, and it is fantastic. But the real reason was because of how much Jeremy went on about last years show after they blew through town.
When I say that they came to town that is not quite true-- they came to Denton, a town about an hour's drive north from my house. The venue is one of the nicest live-show bars I've been to, Hailey's. They have about 30 great beers on tap, including my favorite American beer, Rogue from Oregon. I have only seen this on tap at the Rogue brewery in Newport. This place also trusts its patrons with actual glassware-- another first at the shows I've been to.
The opening band, Hogpig, was as horrible as their name suggests. The only saving grace of this Molly Hatchet remake was the three male groupies at the front of the stage. The one in a wife beater played his low-slung air guitar throughout the set, while his two friends alternated yelling "Yeah!" and "Hogpig kicks ass!". They did not kick ass…
The next band, The Jim Yoshii Pile-Up, was surprisingly enjoyable. It was interesting to see a group of musicians focused on each other. The lead singer sat in a chair and faced the opposite side of the stage. The other guitarists faced him or the drummer. It was almost as if we weren't there. Instead of being disengaging, it actually made the show more interesting.
The Wrens are described by allmusic as "One of the best bands with the worst luck." This band has had as much critical acclaim as you could want, but a number of factors have kept them from the success that their talent deserves. The biography on their site is tragic and funny, ending with the lines: "The Wrens throw drunken hoe-down to celebrate final completion of the Meadowlands. Party highlights include erasure of all Meadowlands multi-track master tapes." These 40-something band mates tour a few months a year and only on the weekends because they all have day jobs. They tour because they love it. They play hard for every show.
By the time the Wrens took the stage they were drunk. I don't know if the lead singer on about 70% of their songs lost his voice because they had been drinking all day, or they had been drinking all day because he had lost his voice. He tried to sing, and failed. They had the other guitarist sing lead on a couple of songs, and while it wasn't bad, it wasn't great. Then they went with plan B. They changed the set so that they played all of the songs the lead didn't sing. The songs they were expected to play, he would start and the audience would carry on when he couldn't. It was amazing how well that worked out.
The other thing about the show was the feeling of excitement due to its unscripted nature. At most shows, even the most seemingly unscripted moments, are planned. The feeling that you didn't know what would happen next was a rush. One minute the lead singer is struggling, the next he is pulling people on stage to bang on his synth and stomp around the stage. He threw beer on the drummer, threw his base onto the stage knocking a mic into the audience, and later swung from the rafters, literally.
One of the highlights of the show was a fantastic cover of Neutral Milk Hotel's "Two-Headed Boy". After they had left the stage, I was sure there would be no encore. I mean they had played a great show, but his voice was not working. Jeremy came out of the men's room and said that the band was coming back on. He had seen the lead singer rushing to finish up at the urinal and as he was hurrying out the door Jeremy asked him, "Is washing your hands to cool for indie rock?"
Great show, unlike any other I've seen.
Great Band.
The Meadowlands
Posted by Rich at August 29, 2005 3:09 PM
