Night on the town

Blogger's note: The following is a review of a concert. This concert would fall under the category of "depressing music that only Old Man likes." Read at your own risk.


I can't believe I actually lasted until 1:30am last night. Myself, my fiancee, and my best man Mark went out to the Triple Rock Social Club last night to see Halloween, Alaska. I really like their first album, but was slightly dissapointed with their most recent effort, "Too Tall to Hide," and had gone to the concert hoping to hear them play some of their old stuff, and be enchanted like I was when I first saw them play in Eau Claire last year.

After downing a very large cup of coffee (which would later prove more aggravating than helpful), we headed down to the club. Upon entering, we were greeted by a very friendly and cordial bouncer (don't see that everyday, do you?), and a smoke-free concert environment. The first band was called Mystery Palace. I think these guys went back in time to 1986, kidnapped Devo, and brought them 20 years into the future. It was that sort of music, but with more modern technology. This newfangled technology allowed them to excessively draw upon samples of high-pitched, aggravating noises, like microphone feedback and high-pitched bleeps. Add to the fact that they played way too loud, and my ears were in pain.

Next up was These Modern Socks, and odd name for a band, but they were pretty good. The singer had a voice and lyric style much like Death Cab for Cutie, but with occasional streaks of Partridge Family (thank you acoustic guitar). They did some creative stuff, and fit the bill well.

By the time Halloween, AK finally got set up, I was very tired. Lead singer James Diers started the show by declaring "hey everyone, it's Friday!"...when the hour of midnight had just passed, making it Saturday. They managed to play the good songs off of their new album right away, and showed no signs of delving into older material. At about 1AM, after being bumped, danced by, and harrassed for being tall, we were ready to throw in the towel. I never did check to see if they played older material after we left (no doubt they did), but I just couldn't stay upright any longer.

All in all, the evening was enjoyable, but I with Halloween, AK would put some more energy back into their songwriting. They seem to be content with a mellow groove, borderlining on funeral dirge as far as pacing goes, and their sound seems to becoming less multi-faceted. I don't know, maybe I'm not listening hard enough.