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Bottom of the Hill November 10, 2002 Review by Jake Thomas I don't know what it was that made this show seem so ho-hum to me - Sunday night, 4th show I had been to in a row, lackluster performances, or I just wasn't into it. I'm leaning towards the last one personally. Trembling Blue Stars (other wise known as TBS...wait a sec, TBS? I wonder if Ted Turner has his grubby little paws in this, that wiley bastard) had just started when I got there. They were the reason I came to the show in the first place. Apparently, the band broke up but since it was mostly just Robert Wratten's thing anyways, he's plugging ahead by himself under the same name. He was joined on stage by a girl for some duet action (who I would later find out is Aberdeen's singer). It was nice and pretty and all that which I expected, but not terribly exciting. Without the band, the music comes off as even more mellow than on the albums, and it's already pretty damn mellow there. I'm not really sure how he might spice things up to make things more lively, maybe add some can-can dancers or something. Part of it might have been that I just wasn't in the mood for something so slow paced. Anyways, it was an ok performance. I decided to stick around for the next band just for sits and giggles, even though I didn't know anything about them. In between TBS and Aberdeen, they played some songs over the house PA off of the Superchunk album 'The Laughter Guns EP', and this would prove to be my favorite moment of the night. It reminded me just how much I love Superchunk, and how I wish there were more bands out there like them. Maybe it's just that I grew up hearing them, but they seem to strike a certain chord in me that most bands I hear nowadays can't even come close to. Aberdeen plays next. Very twee-pop, in a radio friendly way. They have a couple of tracks I wouldn't mind hearing again, but wasn't my bag for the most part. They did put on a decent show though. Some rocking out, drama between band members, and christmas lights on the stage - a good recipe for a live show. The crowd seemed pretty different from when TBS played - lots of fashionable sweaters and fancy haircuts. My mop from supercuts looked a bit out of place; not that I care, merely an observation. The singer of Aberdeen, who I mentioned before sang some back up with TBS, had a nice voice. She also looked like a young John Water's era Ricky Lake, which was a bonus. At it's best moments, they reminded me of Ivy or Velocity Girl, and at it's worst, radio dreck. Man, I used to love me some Velocity Girl back when I started college... ©2002 playinginfog.com |