Jennifer has promised a forthcoming post on the Newport Folk Festival, but first she has some feelings about the dreaded “nostalgia act” vibe to work out.
Internet, in the last two weeks I have, among other things, seen the Gin Blossoms, Soul Asylum and The Lemonheads, and I have a lot of feelings on the subject that I’d like to discuss, but first I’d like you to meet two fantastic newer bands: The Shining Twins and The Candles.
These are The Shining Twins:
Alex Weiss (bass), Marisa Kreiss (drums), Xanax Aird (guitar, lurking in the background)
They were the first band at the Lemonheads show. I knew a little bit about them before I got there, enough that I had them in my mental “you should maybe check them out” file, and so I was excited to see them on the bill. I wasn’t too sure how I was going to feel about the music, because the two songs I had heard – I Hate You and Stix + Stonez – were towards the whinier end of the punk spectrum. I am pleased to report that they are a lot of fun live, and that any whininess was overpowered by their Ramones-inflected groove. I particularly enjoyed Gregory and Why Won’t You Walk Me Home From Avenue C?
They were followed by The Candles:
They’re a little bit country but mostly rock and roll, and with three (!) guitars, a bass, two sets of keys and drums, there’s a lot of layers to their sound. Also, this is where some of my many feelings come in, they are beautifully congruent with the Lemonheads’ sound. But before I go off on the related tangent, here’s a picture of Evan Dando, weatherbeaten but unbowed:
He sounded good, and made my evening when they played Into Your Arms. I couldn’t stay for their whole set, but what I did hear was well worth the wait, both the 20 years and the 3.5 hours. The Lemonheads was one of those bands I never, ever thought I would get to see, and so catching them in a tiny club was a particularly special treat.
Which I suppose is as good a segue as any to the tangent, which is: How Do You Solve a Problem Like The Support Bands? It’s something I have been contemplating lately, as various of my best beloved bands from my high school and college years are popping back up and heading out on the road, in some cases with each other. I could not be happier to see Soul Asylum and the Gin Blossoms together, in fact for my 14 –18 year old self, that practically qualifies as a dream-come-true tour. (Remind me to tell you about the time I planned an entire vacation inspired by Runaway Train, which involved an actual train ride that was later cancelled (the train ride, not the entire vacation) due to flooding in Iowa. I was 17, and there was definitely poetry involved.) But as much as I enjoyed it, I felt like it put some unnecessary limits on them: the burnished brass shackles of the “nostalgia act.”
Sure, they were really big a long time ago, in the 1990s, in those dark days before mp3s. Okay, their fanbase skews a little bit older. But their tunes have stood the test of time, and, most importantly, they are making new music. They are not getting up on stage and rolling through their hits, note-perfect: they’re jamming through fresh ideas. And I’m sitting on the balcony in a community theater, watching my fellow fans clap, stomp and sway along, hemmed in their seats while Robin Wilson hops from the stage to various risers and outcroppings, tambourine in hand, and I’m thinking, Someone needs to get these people a club tour.
This is partially a reflection of selfish desire, because I want to dance in the pit. But also I think it could work. Filling the club would be the easy part; the challenge is in selecting the right support band. The Lemonheads and The Candles worked well together; if I was designing a tour for, let’s say, the Gin Blossoms, I think I’d pick Matt Nathanson , or, drifting a little towards the more folksy-side, Cadillac Sky. I still haven’t decided who I’d pair with Soul Asylum, though their Minneapolis neighbors Motion City Soundtrack are on the short list, as are Hacienda .
