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The Rum Diary / Caesura / Fort Erie / The Velvet Teen / Xiu Xiu Bottom of the Hill April 29, 2001 Review by Squid The Rum Diary, it should be noted, are from Cotati. They came quite a long way, and they brought a lot of stuff with them: there were two slide shows plus a strange black'n'white synopsized version of ...Star Wars! In between all of these goings on they played clean, clear indie rock that reminded us just slightly of Death Cab for Cutie. Daz really liked them a lot and would definitely see them again. Huge props to their guitarist, Jon Fee for putting together the translation.music. comp in the first place. It was a big undertaking, the packaging is nifty, and most importantly, it got us out to see five bands that we'd never seen before. Comps like this one are extremely beneficial to the greater bay area "scene" as it were, and we hope to see and hear more of them. Caesura were the highlight of the evening for Squid. They played loud, fast and hard mathy rock without even seeming to break a sweat. Drive Like Jehu was the first name that came to mind, simply because of their timing and the long sinewy notes their lead singer was stripping off one after the other. (NOTE: Caesura's drummer does not agree with the description of his band as mathy. So there.) And there can be no greater tribute to Caesura than to point out that about half a song in, the audience became what we here at Playing in Fog call a "dude show", the front area turned into a throng of seriously nodding guys...and us. This is exactly what happened at Shipping News, and it always means that a band is a) loud and b) fuckin' good. The antiquated physician's headband with reflector their singer was wearing is a different story altogether. Regardless of headgear however, they kicked prodigious amounts of ass. See them whenever you can. Fort Erie were all about concentrated layers of guitar mixed with a little noise. They reminded Squid a little of Jim Yoshii Pile-Up during their slower songs. We've missed them the last time they played at BotH, so it was nice to get a chance to see them. On the most shallow level, girl guitarist/lead singers kick ass, and Patricia Kavanaugh really knows what she's doing. She wasn't just standin' up there posing, she was providing some healthy feedback. Rad. The Velvet Teen were a trio that alternated between very sweet ballads and energetic power pop. We were really enjoying the whole thing and feeling bizarrely nostalgic. "Uh, I don't know how to tell you this, but I've just figured out who he sounds like", whispered Daz. "Remember the guy from Styx?" "Holy Shit. Dennis De Young!", Squid screamed, "You're right! That is so RAD!" The interesting thing would be to see if their lead singer, (who was definitely under twenty-one by virtue of the giant black X's on his hands that were meant to prevent him from buying alcohol), even knows or cares who Styx is. Let's put it this way, you sure as hell aren't going to be seeing any other bands with vocals like The Velvet Teen have. We are always suckers for innovation, and that's why we loved Xiu Xiu. This quartet swapped places between each song to take turns on an utterly random set of instruments that included a keyboard, two racks of hanging 'cymbals' (Squid really wants to say 'miniature gongs', actually), a huge bass that looked a lot like a mariachi's guitaron, and one of those nutty keyboard-like accordions that everyone but us knows the name of. Their lead singer surprised us with a dramatic vocal style that varied between Ian Curtis and Robert Smith. It was nice to see a band that took chances: it would be really easy for Xiu Xiu to be a well-liked band just by playing standard old instruments. Their willingness to experiment wasn't lost on us, and we'll definitely go see them again. |