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July 03, 2008
Devo/Tom Tom Club, Live @ McCarren Pool, Brooklyn, 06.26.2008
Photos lifted from the Flickr account of Suicide fan "Frankie Teardrop," please check out the rest of his photos here.
OK, so I know how the internet at large fucking hates reading about anything that didn't happen within the last 24 hours, let alone an event that went down a whole week ago. I'm also quite aware that the show in question has been well documented in all corners of the timely reporting world, and even presented in full as mp3s for free download by nyctaper. I know these things. But it was too extraordinary a show, among all the swell, but ordinary shows I see on a regular basis, for me to let it pass with only a tiny video nod. Don't worry, it'll be short and disjointed, just like you like it.
First, a note about Dan Deacon who "performed" at 6:30, due to stringent McCarren Park curfews. As such, all I know of his show was what could be heard over the loudspeakers as I waited in line to pick up my contest-won tickets. (This line was huge, by the way, much bigger than standard will call, which was empty. I'm convinced that no one under thirty actually paid for the show. More on that later.) After beats distorted within an inch of their life sputtered out, you'd hear a fat, nasal voice giving bizarre dictation to the scant early birds. "Okay, yeah, form a human bridge! No, tighter! OK, now when I count to six, you're gonna run under that bridge and then become a part of it yourself! Faster!" I am now convinced that standing in line outside the venue is the best possible way to experience a Deacon show. (Sorry, Dan. I think "Wham City" is an interesting track. Kisses.)
Tom Tom Club
- I did not pay for this show, it was gifted to me by the fates, so I went into the Tom Tom Club set with a degree of unusual zen. Any radness they might provide would be totally value added. Thus, I didn't bristle when their line-up contained several red flags from the reunion band threat list. Chief among them: A superfluous 20 something DJ, sorry "turntablist," and a wanktastic hired gun guitarist who may or may not have been Stephin Jenkins from Third Eye Blind.
- Tina Weymouth remains cool. Like, really cool. With her sparkling sequin dress and her tasteful sea-foam bass, she was undisputed hot shit still. Chris Frantz, not so much (but as a former Talking Head, obviously cooler than, like, me or you).
- When first reading another accounts of the show, I assumed its description of the athletic dreadlocked gentlemen who sang on several tracks as "Mystic Bowie" was some kind of a snarky nickname. Like "Bowie" because of his smooth glam R& B voice and "Mystic" because he kind of looked like a genie. Turns out that's the man's actual name. Apt, I guess. I wanted badly to scoff at M. Bowie, with his ever present grin and pants that looked like the end result of hunting jesters at a Ren Fair, but it turns out he really did have a pretty good glam voice. I strongly suspect it was the only reason the band played a note perfect, yet still deeply baffling, cover of Hot Chocolate's "You Sexy Thing." His quick-fire reggae-rap interludes, I could not abide. Weirdly not during "Wordy Rappinghood" though. Go figure.
- But like I said initially, it was all value added. From that immortal first record (and really if you assume its just a couple novelty hits padded to album length, you're flat wrong) we got the obvious and undeniable "Genius of Love" and "...Rappinghood," as well as the sweet left-field inclusion "L'Elephant." Al Green's "Take Me to the River" was nice enough too, I guess, for the More Songs About Buildings and Food link alone. I paid nothing, and was well rewarded.
Beloved song of mine they did not play:
Tom Tom Club - "On, On, On, On..."
Devo
- Devo needed no caveats. As a paying customer I could have left light the ludicrous 52-dollar ticket charge and still have been satisfied.
- But you know, experience-wise, I'm not convinced the high ticket prices were such a bad thing. (Easy for me, a contest winner, to say.) The place may have been filled to the brim if the digits in the ticket price were transposed, but it wouldn't have been filled with real Devo fans. I'm positive now, that even I'm not among their ranks. They were all scary, maladjusted suburban dads and assorted shut ins in power domes cheering louder for "Gates of Steel" and "Mongoloid" than they did for "Whip It." It was like an alternate universe Rolling Stones show in there, and I have to say it was pretty awesome. I strongly doubt that any of our current heroes will inspire such long-clutched emotion (I almost typed devotion) in their middle age. Think there'll be throngs of people driving in for the 2038 Liars' reunion? I don't.
- "Gut Feeling" is one of the most exhilarating rock songs ever written. It's so perfect that I've always sort of resented the "Slap Your Mammy" section of the recorded version. I mean, you just finished this amazingly elegant kiss-off of a song, and then you're dragged down into a silly goof. It just cheapens it for me. But live, I finally got it. You can't have all that boulder-down-a-hill accelerating energy without a culminating crash. Cutting off the song after "Gut Feeling" in concert would leave the audience two pumps shy of a hand job. (Sorry for the locker room talk, but I'm considering that the ratio of girls reading this will roughly equal the ratio of girls at the concert. )
- The key to easy longevity seems to be avoidance of showy high notes in your songs. Mark Mothersbaugh can't quite flail like he used to, but he had no problem piercing the target of every quizzical yelp in the band's songbook. It was record-perfect all night. Those are some goooood records...
- It is too bad that Live Nation's curfew gestapo had to cut the show one song short, purportedly denying us "Booji Boy" singing "Beautiful World." Weirdly though, I almost felt like Booji Boy emerging to pull bananas and Twizzlers from his pants and throwing them at the crowd was a fitting finale.* You couldn't top "Gut Feeling/Slap Your Mammy" anyway.
Beloved song of mine they did not play:
Devo - "the Day My Baby Gave Me a Surprize"
* This was the first time an act has thrown food at me since I saw Kool Keith in '01. Then it was bags of uncooked chicken.
Posted by Jeff Klingman at July 3, 2008 05:45 PM
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Comments
Your unique and knowledgeable perspective is always welcome, whether it be 24 hours, 24 days or 24 months after the show. Love your description of Gut Feeling!
Posted by: nyctaper at July 5, 2008 11:13 AM
The Songs they did not play were Peek a boo and beautiful world. I too, would have love to hear the day my baby gave me a suprize. Tom Tom Club played 15 minutes past their set time, which pushed Devo to the end of the Curfew. I could not believe the rudeness of the sound guy. Perhaps he was unaware that there was a music legend in that suit? I think a simple explanation that there was a curfew for shows would have closed the show much more peacefully.
Posted by: Evan at July 9, 2008 01:11 PM
