Walking the Path

On Friday I went to see Carsick Cars, Snapline and Muscle Snap at 4Live. Overall the night was really good. But I was kind of surprised with what was the best part.

I was certain it was going to be Carsick Cars — and they were good — very similar to the Ramones in terms of sound and appearance, but not a good band to see live. The lead singer and bassist play like typical shoegazers. I was standing on the second floor looking at the stage when they came on and I could see that the band had to check the set list they had taped to the stage every other song to make sure they were all following the same song — sounds like a bit of uncoordination to me. But I shouldn’t knock them that much. I still bought their CD and a T-shirt. Unfortunately, the CD isn’t playing in my laptop so I can’t upload it to my iPOD — I know this sounds whiny but you should still go see this band.

The highlight of the night for me and again the next afternoon when I saw them play live at ENO, was Snapline. The lead singer worked an 808 drum machine while being accompanied by a guitarist and a bassist. He looked like that Asian kid from high school who you thought got into MIT but later turned out secretly had ADD and had either gone to a liberal art college somewhere on the east coast and dropped out or just not gone to school at all and somehow formed his own band.

The guy jumped all over the stage and everyone else in the audience did too. If you compared how the audience reacted to Snapline with how they reacted with Carsick Cars you really saw the age difference. The older people (that means those over about 25) preferred Snapline and moved to the second floor when Carsick Cars hit the stage. Whereas the younger kids bopped along to Snapline, but really started moshing when Carsick Cars hit the stage.

Maybe I’m just feeling my age.

J.