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December 16, 2005
Mark Gardener, Dantes, 12.15.05
Walking down to the show last night in the chilly winter weather I thought about how I'd waited over 10 years to see Mark play--I remember seeing his name on the marquee at Dantes a few years ago, and then a few months ago he opened up for B.R.M.C. at the Doug Fir. I avoided both instances because it seemed liked the right thing to do--I wanted to retain the concept of this man as an early-90s shoegaze icon (with Ride), and the thought of seeing his balding current self cashing in on my nostalgia was more than enough to keep me away...
Until last night, when the allure of a $5 cover and cheap beers (plus the somewhat recent enjoyable listens of his Knitting Factory acoustic set CD) made me brave the elements to give the man a chance to prove me wrong.
Sky Parade opened the show, and my first thought was they were pretty nü-gaze, but then they started to sound a lot like the second coming of U2. It seemed like the guitarist wanted to make up for the bassist being confined to his chair (the singer told a great story about how he hurt himself rescuing a kitten from a tree) by moving around too much--maybe find another band that needs your energy?
Before Goldrush took the stage I sampled some of the pizza, which was truly amazing--honestly the best New York-style slice I've had in ages. Also, I found a spot by their fire pit, warmed myself up and checked out the remodeling work at the club. I guess I hadn't been there in well over a year, so maybe its not too new, but it looked great--much more open and accessible.
Goldrush took their sweet time getting ready, so I was a bit bored by the time they started their set--and stayed bored throughout their forgettable 30 minutes on stage. However, I did amuse myself with a trippy light photo:
Once it was finally time for Mark to take the stage I debated about standing up, but decided against joining the rather feeble group of supporters. However, after seeing them sway, air guitar and air drum in my line of sight I hoped being closer would prevent them from distracting my attention. I quickly eyed the setlist on the stage and noticed a couple old songs, the first of which "Taste" sounded pretty good but kind of like hearing a cover band (the guys from Goldrush played most of the set as his backing band). However, I was really holding out hope that I would enjoy "VT", which could only mean "Vapour Trail" (unless he had some new song about Vermont that I didn't know about). Sure enough, he belted out the classic tune:
It sounded great--especially with the one Goldrush dude playing violin--and despite the annoying hippie dancing dude next to me I admit it felt good to finally see this favorite song of mine performed live. For his last song he took requests, and eventually settled on "Dreams Burn Down." They jammed a bit, and even though it wasn't Ride it was all I could ask for after waiting so long to hear him play.
Posted by j_john at December 16, 2005 1:40 PM
