out of it
i just spent the day home sick with some sort of throat infection. kim is in denver till tomorrow for work-related stuff so i was home alone with kitty. i feel pretty out of it lately. like things are changing all around me and i'm tangentially, remotely aware but i'm not following on as closely as i used to. i don't know, maybe it's just a silly feeling.
i saw blake schwarzenbach's new band thorns of life this past weekend. they played a secret show at the hemlock tavern earlier in the week and i went over there but it was sold out (word gets around quickly, i guess) so we left. apparently they took the wall dividing the venue part from the bar down so the whole place could see but we'd left by then, thinking we were out of luck. so we missed it. anyway, they played gilman on saturday so we went to that. i hadn't been to gilman in at least 5 years, so it was kind of neat and nostalgic in a way. by the time the doors opened there was a huge line stretching down the block but we had gotten there a couple hours early this time so we were able to get in. i met up with jessica, alexis, and lee, and i also saw natalye there, and it was nice to get to hang out with so many people i hadn't spent time with in so long. i also ran into some random dude from san diego that i met once in berkeley in 2002 and he recognized me, which was really random and somewhat flattering that he remembered me 7 years later after meeting me once. but yeah, gilman. i don't have a problem with teenage punk kids or anything; i'm not that old and cranky yet. and the opening acts were punk bands which i also don't necessarily have a problem with... but i dunno, they weren't that good, and it made me realize that in the general sense, punk rock really has not evolved a whole heck of a lot in the last 10-15 years. it's all just the same shit. the whole scene just seems so... tired. and that's kind of what disappointed me about thorns of life.
now look, i love jawbreaker. they have been my favorite band for a very long time, and they were hugely influential during my impressionable adolescent years, and i can't exaggerate how big a part of my life their music has been. i love jets to brazil as well, and even though it wasn't quite the same, it seemed like a natural progression, and it too really fit my life as i grew up with it. well, until their last album anyway, which i really didn't like at all except for one or two songs. suffice it to say, i am a big fan of blake and i feel like i get his songwriting style in a pretty deep and visceral way. and i think i understand where he's coming from with thorns of life. still, i felt a bit of a disconnect when i saw them last saturday.
i think what they're going for is a brand of uncomplicated, unpretentious, heartfelt punk-styled songs. and that's what they were, and really i would be lying if i said it wasn't enjoyable. i'd say it was pretty jawbreaker-esque in fact, but... i just felt like there was something lacking. part of it might be that they're a new band, just a couple of months along, so the songs may not be quite polished yet and they may not be very tight in terms of playing together. but part of it is that i suspect the music wasn't particularly thoughtful or inspired. aaron cometbus's drumming wasn't off but it wasn't smart or powerful in any way. daniela sea's bass playing was adequate but also not particularly clever. and blake, well, his voice has never been anything to write home about, but the lyrics, from what i could decipher, didn't seem deeply meaningful or profound or even all that poetic, and the song structures seemed a little pedestrian. sure, it's not meant to be very complicated music, but like... even if it were as good as jawbreaker (and it's not), i don't know, shouldn't it be better somehow, with some kind of new twist or innovation? as an artist, why would you be satisfied with a warmed-over version of the same kind of stuff you were making over 13 years ago?
anyway, i still enjoyed it, and it was nostalgic and fun. some of the songs sounded like they had good potential, and i look forward to hearing them recorded. a couple reminded me of jawbreaker b-sides like "shirt", "gemini", and "esme..." i'll probably go see them the next time they come out here. i guess the bottom line is that it wasn't as good as it could have been, and for the first time i felt like a guy who i have admired for a long time kinda let me down a little, and i saw him as just a dude, now in his 40s, trying to reclaim his youthful glory, and that made me feel slightly bad for the guy, because i think he's capable of better. i dunno, maybe he just wants to have a good time. i guess there's nothing wrong with that.
i saw blake schwarzenbach's new band thorns of life this past weekend. they played a secret show at the hemlock tavern earlier in the week and i went over there but it was sold out (word gets around quickly, i guess) so we left. apparently they took the wall dividing the venue part from the bar down so the whole place could see but we'd left by then, thinking we were out of luck. so we missed it. anyway, they played gilman on saturday so we went to that. i hadn't been to gilman in at least 5 years, so it was kind of neat and nostalgic in a way. by the time the doors opened there was a huge line stretching down the block but we had gotten there a couple hours early this time so we were able to get in. i met up with jessica, alexis, and lee, and i also saw natalye there, and it was nice to get to hang out with so many people i hadn't spent time with in so long. i also ran into some random dude from san diego that i met once in berkeley in 2002 and he recognized me, which was really random and somewhat flattering that he remembered me 7 years later after meeting me once. but yeah, gilman. i don't have a problem with teenage punk kids or anything; i'm not that old and cranky yet. and the opening acts were punk bands which i also don't necessarily have a problem with... but i dunno, they weren't that good, and it made me realize that in the general sense, punk rock really has not evolved a whole heck of a lot in the last 10-15 years. it's all just the same shit. the whole scene just seems so... tired. and that's kind of what disappointed me about thorns of life.
now look, i love jawbreaker. they have been my favorite band for a very long time, and they were hugely influential during my impressionable adolescent years, and i can't exaggerate how big a part of my life their music has been. i love jets to brazil as well, and even though it wasn't quite the same, it seemed like a natural progression, and it too really fit my life as i grew up with it. well, until their last album anyway, which i really didn't like at all except for one or two songs. suffice it to say, i am a big fan of blake and i feel like i get his songwriting style in a pretty deep and visceral way. and i think i understand where he's coming from with thorns of life. still, i felt a bit of a disconnect when i saw them last saturday.
i think what they're going for is a brand of uncomplicated, unpretentious, heartfelt punk-styled songs. and that's what they were, and really i would be lying if i said it wasn't enjoyable. i'd say it was pretty jawbreaker-esque in fact, but... i just felt like there was something lacking. part of it might be that they're a new band, just a couple of months along, so the songs may not be quite polished yet and they may not be very tight in terms of playing together. but part of it is that i suspect the music wasn't particularly thoughtful or inspired. aaron cometbus's drumming wasn't off but it wasn't smart or powerful in any way. daniela sea's bass playing was adequate but also not particularly clever. and blake, well, his voice has never been anything to write home about, but the lyrics, from what i could decipher, didn't seem deeply meaningful or profound or even all that poetic, and the song structures seemed a little pedestrian. sure, it's not meant to be very complicated music, but like... even if it were as good as jawbreaker (and it's not), i don't know, shouldn't it be better somehow, with some kind of new twist or innovation? as an artist, why would you be satisfied with a warmed-over version of the same kind of stuff you were making over 13 years ago?
anyway, i still enjoyed it, and it was nostalgic and fun. some of the songs sounded like they had good potential, and i look forward to hearing them recorded. a couple reminded me of jawbreaker b-sides like "shirt", "gemini", and "esme..." i'll probably go see them the next time they come out here. i guess the bottom line is that it wasn't as good as it could have been, and for the first time i felt like a guy who i have admired for a long time kinda let me down a little, and i saw him as just a dude, now in his 40s, trying to reclaim his youthful glory, and that made me feel slightly bad for the guy, because i think he's capable of better. i dunno, maybe he just wants to have a good time. i guess there's nothing wrong with that.