Last night 2/3 of the Bloodless Crew (Armand is in Dubai) plus a few grad students drove up to Pittsburgh to see The Gaslight Anthem at Mr. Small's theater. It was pretty fucking freezing for spring, and that the overzealous door checkers made me leave with my camera - the same camera that I have brought into dozens of shows there - until I could stash it off of the premises. Plus I got to sleep at 2am on a work night.
Think this is warming up to be a bad review? Hell no!
Great show, lots of energy. I got turned onto this band by one of the guys who plays with Baltar and me in a little alt-country/southern rock endeavor. I hear them described as having a "Jersey sound" and getting compared to Springsteen plus something 80s like the Cure, but to me they also tap into something Minneapolis. Upbeat, down to earth, charismatic, energetic. If you don't look close enough, you might dismiss them, but they are the real deal. As I stood there watching them, I turned to one of my friends and said "these guys are going to be huge." Better still, they play like it does not matter that they have talent or buzz, they play like it sincerely matters to them that people - no matter how many people - care enough to come out. And if you don't believe me, even Mikey likes them.
Posted by binky at March 30, 2009 10:01 PM | TrackBack | Posted to MusicSomeday you'll give me a heads-up for one of these shows . . . Smalls is like two miles from my house. Sounds like I should be sorry I missed it!
Posted by: moon at March 31, 2009 09:55 AM | PERMALINKArmand is in Dubai? Hey, if he goes to one of those airport-parking-lot luxocar blowout sales, tell him I'd like a Ferrari 456GT, preferably in a dark jewel tone -- but only if he finds one with a manual transmission. Thanks!
Posted by: jacflash at March 31, 2009 01:49 PM | PERMALINKyou know normally i'm fine with a dirty car, covered in pollen. after all, we have busy lives and making sure one's car is extra-shiny need not top one's list of priorities. but it was sad to see shabby looking Aston-Martins and Lamborghinis.
And yeah, I was in Jordan (various parts), Bahrain, Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
Posted by: Armand at April 5, 2009 07:55 PM | PERMALINKThere have been interesting debates in the online Ferrari-geek community over the years as to one's duty to keep one's car shiny and clean -- the argument in favor being that Ferraris are rarely seen on public roads outside of places like Dubai and Monaco, a sighting is an event for many car enthusiasts, especially young ones, and it's a Good Thing to represent the marque and the hobby well.
I tend to the fuck-off school of libertarianism on many things, but I find this argument fairly persuasive.
Posted by: jacflash at April 6, 2009 03:50 PM | PERMALINK