A personal diary keeping people abreast of what I am working on writing-wise.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

CHANGE YOUR TASTE IN MEN

For those of you paying attention (like my buddy Craig), you may wonder how my misgivings about She Wants Revenge panned out live. They were about as dull as could be. It doesn't get any duller. Seriously, they should just be a covers band and perform songs by all the bands they wish they were, then I'd at least hear songs I like. If you think they are awesome, you might want to have a sitdown with yourself, because there is a good chance you are also boring and just don't know it. (Great. I'm about to get more hate mail from Bitsy.)

Placebo, on the other hand...they are sharing the bill with She Wants Revenge on this tour, which is a little wrong. Because, like, if Placebo were the United States of America, She Wants Revenge would be Guam. Apparently, they switch every night, and one night one band opens and the next the other opens. We got unlucky in Portland, and Placebo headlined at the Roseland. Unlucky in that they don't actually get a longer set because they are on top, they only play about an hour, meaning we had to sit through She Wants Revenge Because All the Songs You Write About Her Inspire Narcolepsy to hear the mighty Molko.

I reviewed Placebo the last time they came to Puddeltown, and I really don't have much new to say about their live show. They are reliable and thus always grand. Performing Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill" was a definite highlight, performing nothing earlier than Black Market Music except "Every You Every Me" was a lowlight, though probably just a product of a short set. Most interesting was hearing the material from Meds live. I find the newest album to be lacking in spirit, and the performance proved that Placebo as a live band has surpassed Placebo as a recording band. All the songs off of Meds sound cracking from the stage and fit right in with the rest of the Placebo discography. The songs in their set could have all been from the same album, that's how tight their live show is. What's lacklustre on record is mega when performed in the flesh. Somehow they need to capture that energy on wax.

I actually went to the show with Oni publisher Joe Nozemack, and he said that reorders on 12 Reasons Why I Love Her have been great. If you're still on the fence, can I point you to yet another postive review, this time by Vroom Socko at Ain't It Cool? He says, "This romance is about as far from typical storytelling as you can get without slipping into the abstract. It’s not going to click with everyone, I’m sure of that. But everyone who does have it click will remember this book for a good long while, I promise you that." That's true. It won't click with everyone. I have it on good authority that stupid people don't like it. You don't want to be stupid, do you? Or a She Wants Revenge fan?

Yes, it's 3:30 a.m. and I have indeed been drinking. Why do you ask?

Current Soundtrack: Keane, Under the Iron Sea (also boring)


Current Mood: drunk

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[to leave comments, click on the time-stamp below, then scroll down on the new page] – All text (c) 2006 Jamie S. Rich

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I enjoyed 12 Reasons AND I dig the She Wants Revenge album (while conceding that they may, indeed, suck live). So there. You can be both.

Jamie S. Rich said...

Exception, meet Rule. :)

Lesley said...

Thank GOD I'm not the only one that thought SWR sucked. My goodness. I was cowering against the wall, cursing our bad luck at having the "Placebo goes on 2nd" show. What a heaping pile of crap.

This was my first Placebo show (though I did win tix to the private show through KNRK - yeah baby). It rocked. I blogged about it, if you care to read. :)

Lesley said...

Ah, a link. You'll see the hubby and I have differing opinions on Placebo:
http://whomppower.blogspot.com/2006_10_01_whomppower_archive.html#116187641980087171

Unknown said...

While I'm sorry you had to sit through SWR, I'm satisfied that they are as underwhelming as I suspected. At least it was all washed away by Placebo.
Drinking is underrated.