A Night of Noise

Tonight was a bit of a pisser.

I'd intended for weeks to go see the Mosquitos (a NY-Brazilian band) who were actually playing in Tucson tonight, along with their opening band, Oppenheimer, who I also really like. However, at the last minute, every single person who told me they were planning to go with me decided to bail. OK, for the record, I fucking hate bailers.

So, I resigned to go alone... that is until Jordy and Katie called as I was in my final stages of debate (is it too weird to go to a concert alone? yes, no, yes, no) and invited me to a different concert at a different venue. Figuring the night was a bit of a wash anyway, I decided to change plans (after all, I have seen the Mosquitos in concert before).

The band du jour at this new venue was called "Subtle," and I can tell you they were anything but.



I give them serious props for creative, umm, "props" (seriously, the singer had about a zillion different props he used throughout the concert, like fake teeth, silly putty eggs, paper scrolls, a mirror, and many other random items) and general artisticness, but at a musical level, I just failed to appreciate them. Imagine one keyboardist repetitively playing drum chords over and over (generally leading the group) while the rest of the band each did their own thing, including a saxophone, a cello, a guitarist/drummer, a flute, and a gay Hispanic rapper with a very high-pitched nasal voice. At first it was intriguing, but by the third song, I was ready to seal my ears with cement. There was simply no melody, just noise, with the gay nasal rapper chanting rapid-fire lyrics that no one could understand on top of the general cacophony.

I suppose it could be considered art, and if I understood the lyrics, I think they were making some sort of social commentary, but it was lost on me. Katie too. Jordy enjoyed it though. In fact, he seems a bit disappointed in my lack of rock-n-roll appreciation, at one point asking me, "what do you like about music?" after I declared that I loathed Bruce Springstein and Bob Dylan's voices and generally wished to do away with the electric guitar except for minor accompaniment and muted background sound.

I pointed out that I do, in fact, have nearly 190 bands that I enjoy on my MySpace account, although none of them could really be labeled "rock."

Just to show that I do appreciate music, albeit not of the ilk seen this evening, here is one of my favorite new finds, a Swedish duo called Le Sport (who sadly just broke up last month)... perhaps they could be considered the antithesis of rock-n-roll:



Korg out!!!