Hot enough for ya?
Today’s Stage Buzz post title comes to you from Gary Larson — may he’ll someday reconsider.
And while we can’t remember an extended weather spell like this (going back at least a whole year), it’s kinda funny how “Hot enough for ya?” doesn’t apply to Courtney Love and Hole anymore. It’s not a commentary on her appearance, but two-and-a-half months have passed since Mercury Records dropped Nobody’s Daughter and the response has been startlingly blah. Ms. Love (or Ms. Michelle, as she now insists), normally a staple of the celebrity-justice circuit, has kept out of the tabloids while on tour (that stops here the 14th & 15th), which forces us to examine the music. Daughter, by no means on par with Liz Phair’s self-induced trainwreck, reveals the lioness has been tamed. Not by judges or publicists or drugs or losing custody of her spawn, but through sheer wear-and-tear. She can try to rail against a “Skinny Little Bitch,” but, even if we voluntarily ignore those days when her ribcage pulled at her frail skin, truth is her voice is cashed. Dave Mustaine cashed. With her voice gone, the guitars — already highly polished — lose edge, and the distracting production feels precisely like a distraction. (@Vic Theatre with Foxy Shazam.)
Wednesday night also doubles as In Tall Buildings‘ record release show. The Chicago-based band’s self-titled debut wades through tender acoustics, racing electronics, and percussion that sounds recorded in a cardboard box from 50 yards away. Erik Hall, who has spent time in Nomo and Saturday Looks Good To Me, will want to kill flog himself when Sparklehorse (“Twenty One”) and My Morning Jacket (“Suitor”) comparisons come stampeding his way. But that’s not to undersell his ideas nor pocket his sound, merely to plant a signpost for a debut with no other markers. His voice falls on the tender side of Nada Surf’s Matthew Caws, giving tracks like “The Way To A Monster’s Lair” and “Alarm Will Sound” an urgency where some of the others labor under sonics. (@Lincoln Hall with Village, Honest Engine, and Chrash.)
Category: Featured, Stage Buzz, Weekly
