Mittwoch, 6. Sep 2006, 17:09

back to school, and i finally get to experience the bug jar. i really enjoy this venue because of its size. i wish i had been around when jens lekman played there! oh well.

anyways, the decor inside of the bug jar is really cool, especially the "upside down" room where the bands play. basically it has appliances like an oven, dining room table (completely set for dinner), refridgerator, etc. on the ceiling. picture the room doing a complete 180 on you and now you're standing on the ceiling while the floor is above you. it was pretty sweet.

so i went to seen joan of arc and owen with quite a few people (i think the only one on my lastfm list that went was david).
owen went on first, and he was pretty good. i would compare him to the time i saw langhorne slim. owen was nice acoustic music to listen to, with appealing (yet kind of trite and emo) lyrics. again, with langhorne slim, i would say that it wasn't terribly unique. i'm just waiting for everyone to come out of nowhere and tell me i need to give owen more credit, but whatever. i don't think owen is bad, but i didn't find it interesting enough to make me want to buy an album because it sounded so standard. but it's hard to be unique in an acoustic set.

the second band i wish i knew their name so i could at least give them a tag but i couldn't hear what their name was. anyways, i liked them the best of the three bands i saw. they were kind of crazy prog-jam-rock that reminded me of a mixture of the following: the books, godspeed you! black emperor, the mars volta, and explosions in the sky. pretty difficult to imagine aurally, but that's what it sounded like to me. it was a little hard to get into, but soon enough i was lost in a daze. i half-expected them to start off "experimental-jam" and then break into indie pop, but that didn't happen.

finally joan of arc came on around 11:30. there were a few REALLY obnoxious drunk people that kept "dancing/moshing" (i.e., bashing into people, spilling beer everywhere, and being a little too touchy-feely with the audience). dude, it's okay to get into the band, but getting ridiculously drunk and obnoxious is annoying and disrespectful to the rest of the crowd. especially in such a small venue. but i guess these kids didn't care. c'est la vie.
the performance and music were… interesting. i actually had not been super familiar with owen or joan of arc going to this concert, and had only heard them through ashleigh, but i figured it would be something to do, and i trust ashleigh's taste in music (as well as others who are fans of the band that i went with). but i thought the performance was sub par. maybe it was the audience, maybe the band wasn't feeling it that night, maybe it was the venue, who knows. but there didn't seem to be a lot of energy (ok, i know the stage was small and jam-packed with people, but show a little emotion!). the projection showing a video slideshow-type presentation was hard to see but interesting to watch in the background.
as for the music, some of it i really enjoyed, and some of it seemed really generic. i guess i just don't get this seemingly universal infatuation with Tim Kinsella in the independent music world.