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Live Music

May 26, 2007 3:09 AM

y sheer luck, I've now lived in two cities that have a pretty awesome music scene for their size. Flagstaff had a ridiculous live music scene and I, as a friend of one of the more popular bands in town, ended up seeing a lot of the music the town had to offer. It was a lot of fun--live music always is.

Madison has a good live music scene, too. Or so I've been told. The problem is that I haven't checked out the live music here nearly enough. It's not that I don't want to, or that my friends don't want to, it's just that I haven't. I really don't know why, I guess. Still, with my time in Madison drawing to a close, I've decided to make it a point to do some of the things I just didn't have the time to do before--and checking out live music is definitely on the list.

So I was extremely happy when I went from having no plans this evening to having multiple plans, each involving live music. Although we moved around a bit, we ended up the Annex (a dumpy little bar that looks like it's built into a moldy warehouse that looks like it would have all-ages shows--that kind of place) watching a few metal bands. Metal was not a kind of live music that Flagstaff was known for--and for good reason, apparently.

While I enjoy metal in very, very small doses, I've never intentionally listened to an entire metal album. And I've never been to a metal show; not really, anyway--tocadas in Mexico don't count.

Anyway, we saw two bands. The first was fronted by some guy who looked like he was about forty-five. He could barely handle all of the screaming and shit. But he did an admirable job, and the band was decent at what they did. I would never buy their CD, I would never listen to them in my car or at home, but, given that I was at a metal show, they were pretty ok. Definitely energetic.

I was less into the second band. They were a three piece--just drums, bass, and a guitar, with the bassist singing. Right there's your first problem--bassists shouldn't sing. Ever. But moreover, they weren't all that interesting. Anyone can tune a guitar to drop-d and play a bunch of power chords; Santi and I certainly could when we were 15. I guess I just don't like metal very much.

Still, it was fun. And I hope to be able to get out and see some more bands soon.



1 Comments


dicta said:

probably the best live show i ever saw was ben folds at a small college in maryland. it was all standing room so we were close, and he put on an awesome show. the students were kind of dirty and smelly though.

May 28, 2007 4:25 PM



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