lo-fi overdriven blues

Went to the Clubhouse Jager this evening with some friends to chuck some darts and have a few drinks. Now I haven't been there in a couple months, but the music especially on Fridays and Saturdays has always been pretty borderline (typically DJs playing disco, various eighties, and the like).

I have to say though that I was really surprised when I walked in. The group playing when I walked in was pretty good. Guitar and drums with a vocalist playing rough lofi blues rock a la Black Keys. After a few songs they were done and the next couple of groups confirmed my feeling about the music there, but then Wolf & MY Bad Self went on and WOW. It was the same guitar/drums duo but now the guitarist was singing and I liked them even more than the first combination.

They aren't breaking any new ground but are a good time. I would definitely recommend checking them out sometime. They apparently play monthly at Jitters and at the Jag so there you go.

trip over my shoelaces

So for the first time in about 6 months or so I decide to actually go to a show and made it to the Peter, Bjorn, and John/Fujiya & Miyagi/Au Revoir Simone show at the Ave. Surprisingly I picked one in the middle of the week, but I suppose it also helped me procrastinate writing my Lit final (watching Lost would have done that as well but I think I picked the better option).

I showed up at 9 thinking I would catch the end of Au Revoir Simone but it turns out the show wasn’t supposed to begin until 9 so I caught all of their set. Unfortunately this was not a good thing for me. I am not familiar with any of their music other than fallen snow so I am not the best authority on how faithfully they performed their set, but it just seemed shaky. The sound was bad for the first couple of songs, but they seemed to be off from their drum machine making everything a little jerky. I will say whatever song they ended with was their best song of the night both in performance and songwriting in my mind.

The real highlight of the night for me was Fujiya & Miyagi and I was not disappointed. They opened with Ankle Injuries and at first I was not sure how the show would be. I though it might be the same issue—playing along to a drum machine doesn’t leave a lot of room for error. How wrong I was. They played sucker punch next and you could see them getting warmer and every song they played kept getting better and better. The crowd seemed to get more and more into them as they plated as well. When they played Collarbone second to last the crowd really went off.

They also played In one ear & out the other, Transparent Things, Photocopier, and a couple of songs I was not sure of. The last song of the night which may have been from their imposiible to find first album was just awesome funky-Neu! groove.

I really didn’t know what to expect from them live and was prepared for the worst, but I left the show an even bigger fan than when I arrived and hope they will come through again soon.

As it was getting late at that point (at least for someone who gets up at 6 am for work) and I am not much of a PB&J fan, I bailed at that point and went home to bed.

edit:
The killer last song of their set was the title track from their first album Electro Karaoke in the Negative Style.