I am embarrassed that I enjoy this band so much what with their unfair use of everything good in rock and roll: heavy bass lines, groovy blues licks, funky pick-ups, but to their redemption, they\”ve also got talent, soul, authenticity, and diversity. At previous shows, they\”d been more about the tight hopped-up songs (which they still did), but tonight there was only three band members (lead guitar, pedal steel and drums) and they did some extended intense jams as well as some lighter country numbers (Moonhanger songs?), with both guitarists exchanging vocalizing duties. I like Chili Cold Blood, I cannot lie.

David Archuleta
February 26, 2009
Starland Ballroom Sayreville, NJ

I saw David Archuleta last Thursday in N.J….3rd night of his solo tour….he was wonderful…he’s learning to work the stage and crowd and his adorable personality really came through…the club was small which was GREAT because he was sooooo close to everyone……. FANTASTIC! His voice was as good as ever and the band he has seems good for him…He did a smart variety of songs, and a medley of other artists, which was a real treat! His purity and sweetness are oh so refreshing to see, in a world that is inundated with complications and darkness…….Thanx David…..

By Tammy F. bugnout299@aol.com

David Archuleta setlist
Touch My Hand
Barriers
Your Eyes Don\”t Lie
A Little Too Not Over You
Somebody Out There
My Hands
Works For Me
Waiting for Yesterday
Medley: One/You Gotta Be/Love Song/I\”m Yours
To Be With You
Don\”t Let Go
Zero Gravity
You Can
Crush
A Thousand Miles
Angels

They’re a motley crue but it comes together beautifully: the drummer who’s so bad-ass (literally) he doesn’t care if his shirt has a hole in the armpit; the proud, dark, classic, and pretty guitarist; the happy mop-head bassist; and the cute emotive showman of a lead vocalist. In addition to coming together as a group of ‘misfits,’ their music manages to tap into a multitude of sounds while still retaining a personality all their own. They often overlay punk vocalizing with rockabilly/psychobilly melodies, but their true appeal lies in the diversity of their songcraft and the quality of the musicianship all the way through. Touch of metal there too.

Death metal. Death metal. Death metal. Their flying math-metal fingers were lovely but I can’t help worrying about their poor little vocal chords after all the screaming and their poor little necks after all the thrashing.

A verbatim Motorhead band and very good at it. The robust every-girl’s-best-friend-looking lead singer in a black Dia De Los Muertos looking shirt and with a waist-lace of bullets alternated between lyrics like “Religion – sadistic – sadist – whore” to call-outs to the audience like “Let me hear you, Austin!!” They were exactly the metal I was looking for tonight.

SPECIAL FIND! They initially seemed to be Stray Cat rip-offs, but quickly emerged to be some psychobilly (the bass!) – new wave – pop punk fusion. Also a much better (and much harder) They Might Be Giants. They were freak nerds who took breaks to act out idiosyncratic scenario-jokes. The key here is: I thought the bassist (in his multi-colored layered socks) was playing guitar for a few songs because he was that fast, to the point that his bass started sounding like jazz, and then I realized he was superb. All of them were talented. Some of their own songs were silly I have to admit (the porn star one…). They covered Devo’s “Girl You Want” early on, revealed that they also have a Devo cover band, and then ended with a phenomenal cover of “Gates of Steel.” The sad point was… after the lead vocalist/guitarist had been rubbing his strings against poles (microphone, wall support, etc.) as his little trick, a girl in the crowd whipped out a slide and extended her finger for a rub, and he denied her… on Valentine’s Day. In the end, this band came off as nuanced, talented, wacky and intelligent – and, upon further research, the band members each have illustrious music histories, mostly punk.

I haven’t stopped giggling at this band yet. They fit (almost) every caricature of an 80s ‘heavy’ metal band. CAUTIONARY: This may be more a reflection of my age and personal bias than the actual quality of this band. Drummer with a red bandana singing in a quasi-screamo but totally 80s metal growl. They’re basically a hard rock, driving hard, metal-hard, with touches of Lynyrd Skynyrd and some real blues grooves. While the guitarist in the camouflage baseball cap was incongruous and cute, the bassist member was Will-Ferrell-as-a-metal-head incarnate, with the grandiose swagger and smirks and an upswung arm in some pagan salute at the end of each song, plus a cheesy haircut and goatee to boot. They were old (mid-40s) and the crowd was too. The girls, sorry women, were embarrassing me and should have been embarrassing themselves with their obvious efforts at behaving like metal groupies… at the age of 47… Oh! And there were some devil horns thrown too!

uhhh… Chili Cold Blood. Spot on. But a lot slicker and so less appealing, at least to me. They were grinding electric blues with a touch of metal and some harmonica. Sexy boys with sexy guitars. An emo-looking boy sang and performed a blues storm with his slide. The crowd was somewhat cold to them – maybe they were inauthentic (in their contrived get-ups) or maybe the crowd was hipster snooty. Their sound was polished and full, their instruments were glossy and gorgeous, and as much as all of this was good, I got the impression that they were privileged and totally out of touch with what the blues is about.

I arrived on time to one of my favorite minor music venues in Austin – an excellent little music store that convinces excellent musicians in town for bigger shows to do short acoustic pre-shows at 5pm right in the store. I am a fan, what with the early hour and the free beer. This show didn’t bode well with an anomaly of a line bending literally three blocks around the store – usually it’s me, some normal people, and then the regular sketchy types there for the free beer. I found parking, jogged in high heels optimistically up to the line, and picked an average girl to ask: “Is this line for Andrew Bird!?!” in a tone appropriately laced with disbelief and disdain. She turned and concurred, just as a guy with a camera, documenting the ridiculous crowd, was yelling to the line that they were at capacity and we could all leave… But I was busy recognizing the girl’s face – I know some multiple hundreds of people younger than me (former lives of teaching middle school and TAing undergraduates) and usually can’t place them beyond the face. I briefly considered flight and feigned non-recognition, but some tenets of bonding in our former life together and a sudden welling of her name made me say it… And she looked as mortified as I felt, as I realized that she was a former middle school student of mine (much worse prospect than a former undergraduate), and here we were, at the same place, with the same goal, three years later. We exchanged niceties. I fretted about the damned low-cut shirt I’d found myself in today. Imagined the tales she would have for her-classmates/my-former-students the next day… My point is, if you haven’t heard of Andrew Bird yet, mark my words, you’ll be hearing about him soon enough.

Of course Crue puts on the best show on Earth, but last night wasn’t like the one they did for the Carnival of Sins at the Hard Rock about 5 yrs. ago I remember. It was good..no doubt, but they didn’t do a few of the ultimate fave songs like Smokin’ In the Boys Room and Too Young To Fall In Love…Vince looked good and trimmed up, happy, sober..very healthy…so did Nikki and Tommy. Mick has that disease and you could tell he was in a lot of pain..I almost cried everytime he came up front to play to the audience…please pray for him…I don’t think he has much time left..really..we saw it in his eyes.. Otherwise…Crue was awesome..very energetic and everyone had a good time..the only thing that sucked was the Hard Rock’s rule about no cameras whatsoever…ya, we all had cell camera phones, but no real cameras…give me a break….that was total bullshit!!!

so silly I couldn’t stop the smirk and I don’t mean that politely, the crowd was peeing all over themselves, apparently this band’s hype precedes its arrival – some sort of political repression legend based on their Israelian origins and the fact that a few places haven’t allowed them to perform (though they’ve managed to rack up some 300 shows of late despite this), there is nothing political in their message, in fact their lack of message was complemented by a lack of music, there was some sort of something going on with sounds though the only band member you could pick out (what with the 40 drooling boys swaying ON the stage) was the lead singer in his jockey shorts hanging from a tree near the stage – I think the drummer was up there for a while too, this is a band for people who have a need to belong to something – to get caught up in the fervor and collectivity of – something, anything

was initially entranced because they were dead-on Reigning Sound, then I became distracted by the lead singer’s ZZ Top beard and black sunglasses, then I realized that they were the most soulless band I have seen since I don’t remember – I can’t quite pin down the exact origin of their peculiar void of energy though it did remind me of Yo La Tengo when they’re trying to pretend like they don’t give a shit – I fear this is one more indicator of the decline of Emo’s (all of their fabulous bartenders have defected, rumors are afloat of problems about unions, it’s all very worrisome)

pleasing, noise rock that went from poppy to droning, lots of guitar