Slims & Apple Store In-Store July 18 & 19, 2004 Review by Jake Thomas I had no idea…I had no idea that experiencing, first hand, the musical output of a cult-in-the-making could be so fun and rewarding. If this is what religious zealotry is like, sign me up; I’ll have the tailor measure me so that my robe fits well. All kidding aside, I was simply blown away by The Polyphonic Spree. I felt like I was attending one of those old –fashion tent revivals like still go on back in the south where I’m from; the band was giving the performance of their lives, the crowd was ecstatic, and there wasn’t a face in the house that didn’t have a huge smile on it. The material was mostly from the new album (pretty much all of it, actually), with an encore of older stuff like “Soldier Girl” and “Light and Day”. Curiously, and something that never occurred to me before seeing them live, is how much they remind me of the more recent Mercury Rev stuff; I kept getting Rev songs stuck in my head during the show, and then I’d think “I hope they play that one!” until I realized a few minutes later that it wasn’t one of their songs at all. I’d been meaning to check these guys (and gals) out for a while now, but every time they came through the city I was either out of town or already booked into seeing another show. After this experience, I won’t be missing them ever again in the near future. …And just to prove I wasn’t lying, I found out about a last-minute in-store they’d be playing at the Apple store the following afternoon. Despite some problems trying to get in to see them, and poor sightlines (they were playing in a bit of a pit), it was still awesome to see them play the same songs I had just heard less than 24 hours earlier. It was a shorter set, but they still sounded great; what’s more, the eclecticness of the crowd pleased me to no end. I guess a lot of folks will apparently wait in line for anything, even if they have no clue what it is, just because everyone else is waiting in line for it. The bewildered look on some of the out-of-place tourists and business folks was priceless. And hopefully for the Spree, they won over some new fans – cause god only knows how they manage to afford to tour with so many people playing such small venues; but as a fan I’m certainly happy to see them playing there. --- Check out our previous Polyphonic Spree experiences: Photos: April 24 & 25 @ Great American Music Hall & Slim's Portrait Taken in early 2003 ©2004 playinginfog.com |