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July 20, 2006
Oneida - Live @ the Knitting Factory, New York City, 7.13.2006
I was drunk at this show. Profoundly drunk. Now, I'd like to be able to claim a metaphorical device, like, "I was drunk on the majesty of Oneida's blistering psych assault!" or some such shit, but I'm sort of a grown up and I can sort of claim responsibility. The muddled rememberances and shoddy photography contained within are ultimately my fault. But Oneida did not help. I mean, at one point, synth nerd-cum frontman Bobby Matador took center stage and declared that the title of their newly released record, Happy New Year, meant that champagne was a necessity. He quickly produced several bottles of "Cristal...ino" and circulated them among the already half in the bag faithful. The diehards didn't help my condition either, as a rowdy, moshing, bare chested nimrod in a Yankee cap gifted me with both an elbow to the skull and a conciliatory swig of a Jim Beam flask. Of course, even though earned, I didn't have to accept the burning chug, but what can I say? I'm a total pro.
To switch from personal substance abuse to public concert (as you might expect from a concert review), Brooklyn's psych kingpins were in boisterous form, accompanied at all times by a dizzy kaleidoscope lightshow. The celebratory nature of the evening spread to the slightly less than capacity crowd, and even without a drink or eight it was hard not to move around at least a bit with drummer Kid Millions anchoring the kraut rhythym section. The majority of the set leaned on the group's tendancy towards lengthy repetitive workouts, held down by Millions superlative drumming, and nudged into various directions by main man's electro organ and Hanoi Jane's gee-tar. At some point the guitarist from opening band Knife Hyts (as well as Ex-Models) took the stage to add further heft to the disorienting sound and vision. The best number in this default drone model was newby "Up With People." All scraping electric death for its eight minute run time, the track was a prime pogo instigator in its live incarnation, with the fleeting moments where the racket dies down so you can hear the shouted mantra feeling revelatory when they finally dropped out of the sky.
But for all the unimpeachable musicianship on display in the epics, I'm always going to prefer a sharply crafted song that impresses with brevity and execution. On that front, even wasted, Oneida aren't your best bet. I mean they sound great, but for the most part I feel as if those sounds are a bit of an end in and of themselves, rather than building blocks towards sharply focused songs. By that standard, set highlights for me were some shorter numbers. The stuttering stop-go of last year's "Lavender" was a power house sprint amid the marathons, which I welcomed. "History's Great Navigators" from New Year was another moment of clarity, with a more fuzzed out synth sound standing in for the psycho ivory attack on record.
By the time they had exited, re-entered, and begun droning once again, the front of the stage was a complete debacle. My favorite New York indie rock Waldo to spot, Joly from Punkcast, was being jostled by the afforementioned Yankee lovin' flask-er. He waved the lunatic off by protesting as to the effect moshing would have on the integrity of his camera angle. Gotta love that old hippie. After the locked groove had been retired for the evening and applause doled out, I tried to express my affection with a hearty handshake and declaration of support for the 'cast, but he still appeared a little too shell shocked to deal with another wild eyed booze hound. After the sonic maelstrom and rowdy spectacle we had both endured, nervous apprehension and a desire to bolt were relatable impulses. So bolt we did, with my jostling to occur in-cranium the next morning at work, a belated victim of a show remembered fondly, if not completely.
Some more, uh, psychedelic photos after the jump...
Tags: Oneida, Knitting Factory, Krautrock, Jagjaguwar, Champagne, Punkcast
Posted by Jeff Klingman at July 20, 2006 08:48 AM
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