The Wrens / Jim Yoshii Pile-Up / Film School
Great American Music Hall
July 16, 2004

Review by Jake Thomas

When I walked through the doors of the Great American I wasn’t sure what I was hearing – I’d seen Film School before, but they never sounded like this. There was a level of aggression to the music that I’d never heard out of them; not in the Fred Durst/bad nu-metal way, but rather it seemed that where before the music was a mellow melting pot of all of the instruments involved, it was now being driven in a much more forceful way by the guitars in a Ride/Swervedriver type fashion. That is to say, they sounded pretty damn shoegazery, for lack of better terms. I was both caught off guard, and pleasantly surprised, because this did not sound like the same band I’d seen only a few months ago. I’ll be mightily curious to hear the direction of their new record if and when it comes out.

Jim Yoshii Pile-Up chose this night to show off some of their new material; and while it somewhat confounded me in that really wanted to hear some of my favorite tracks off of “Homemade Drugs”, I liked what I was hearing out of the new material. Not unlike Film School, they also played a few new tracks that featured a much more up-tempo sound, but still had plenty of tracks that sounded very much like you’d expect out of these lads. Again, this is another band I look forward to hearing new material by…if it’s anywhere near as good as “Homemade Drugs” it will easily be on my top ten list of whatever year it comes out.

To be quite honest, by the time the Wrens came on I was starting to feel pooped, and kept getting sidetracked by conversations with friends in the back of the room. It wasn’t nearly as engaging or as good a show as the one at Bottom of the Hill earlier in the year, but I would still have to say I enjoyed it (plus there was little to no way it could have been better anyways, that Noise Pop show was easily one of the best shows I’ve seen this year). I tended to drift off into conversations whenever they would play their slower material, but they were good of snapping right back into upbeat mode right after they played one of these songs and would immediately draw my attention back towards the stage again. As before, they played nearly all of their masterpiece, “The Meadowlands”, as well as a few select tracks from “Secaucus”. More than anything, it’s good to see guys, even older than myself, finally realizing that dream of rock-n-roll stardom, even if it is on as small a level as what most people reading this website enjoy. Just goes to show that hard work really does pay off.

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Check out our previous Film School experiences:
Review: January 9, 2004 @ Café Du Nord
Review: May 29, 2001 @ Dirty Duck, Modesto
Photos
: May 23, 2002 @ Hemlock Tavern
Portrait
Taken in early 2002


Check out our previous Jim Yoshii Pile-Up experiences:
Interview: February 2004
Review
: May 24, 2004 @ Bottom of the Hill
Photos: March 28, 2002 @ Great American Music Hall
& November 18, 2001 @ Great American Music Hall
Review: April 22 & 23, 2001 @ Bottom of the Hill w/Arab Strap


Check out our previous Wrens experience:
Review: February 28, 2004 @ Bottom of the Hill



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