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Slint at the Great American Music Hall
Mar. 11th, 2005 | 06:34 pm
For those of you who have tickets to see Slint if and when they come to your town, here's a word of warning. The dudes from Louisville have absolutely no personality or stage presence to speak of. They come on stage, play about 12 songs and leave without even the most perfunctory acknowledgement of the crowd's presence. Aside from the drummer, who's one of the best I've ever seen, it was like watching corpses play music. Even during the most rocking parts of songs like "Nosferatu Man," they stood eerily still, strumming their guitars without an ounce of passion or even the smallest sign of happiness. If they were enjoying being up there, they fooled the hell out of me.
That said, I'm still glad I saw them. I'm not really sure if it was worth $25, but I'll still say I'm glad I went to the show. I guess you end up paying for the mythic status of the band. You know, the whole coming back 14 years after disbanding with just 30 shows under their belt thing. Steve Albini, who's a friend of the band members, said in a recent article on Slint that he was disgusted that they hired a manager and hooked up with Ticketmaster/Clear Channel for the tour. He also said that despite his disgust, the opportunity to hear the band play their songs is something he wouldn't blame people for jumping at the chance to witness.
If you focus only on the music, the show was fantastic. As I mentioned earlier, drummer Britt Walford is just amazing. I think I watched him and only him during a lot of the show. I'm not a musician, but it doesn't take a genius to recognize how good this guy is. And he hits hard...really fucking hard. They played almost all of Spiderland and it was pretty much a perfect replication of the album. In a live setting, the impact of the tempo changes and rhythmic complexities is even more amazing. The coolest parts were the ones I expected. One was during "Nosferatu Man" when the band locks into the total metal groove at the end of the song and the other was the buildup and final release during "Good Morning, Captain," which culminates with Brain McMahan's tortured screams of "I miss you!!!" Those moments made the $25 ticket price and $5 beers seem like not such a bad deal after all.
Now I can start to look forward to New Model Army, The Undertones and Gang of Four.
That said, I'm still glad I saw them. I'm not really sure if it was worth $25, but I'll still say I'm glad I went to the show. I guess you end up paying for the mythic status of the band. You know, the whole coming back 14 years after disbanding with just 30 shows under their belt thing. Steve Albini, who's a friend of the band members, said in a recent article on Slint that he was disgusted that they hired a manager and hooked up with Ticketmaster/Clear Channel for the tour. He also said that despite his disgust, the opportunity to hear the band play their songs is something he wouldn't blame people for jumping at the chance to witness.
If you focus only on the music, the show was fantastic. As I mentioned earlier, drummer Britt Walford is just amazing. I think I watched him and only him during a lot of the show. I'm not a musician, but it doesn't take a genius to recognize how good this guy is. And he hits hard...really fucking hard. They played almost all of Spiderland and it was pretty much a perfect replication of the album. In a live setting, the impact of the tempo changes and rhythmic complexities is even more amazing. The coolest parts were the ones I expected. One was during "Nosferatu Man" when the band locks into the total metal groove at the end of the song and the other was the buildup and final release during "Good Morning, Captain," which culminates with Brain McMahan's tortured screams of "I miss you!!!" Those moments made the $25 ticket price and $5 beers seem like not such a bad deal after all.
Now I can start to look forward to New Model Army, The Undertones and Gang of Four.