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April 2, 2006

Akron/Family (sorta), Plants at the High Five Space, Brooklyn, 4/1/06

This blog has been dormant as of late. I have decided to revive it a little. Apologies in advance if this isn't kosher.

Portland's fantastic Plants are in New York this weekend doing shows at various locations in Brooklyn and Manhattan. I took some friends who don't really share my taste in music to their Friday night show at the Kingsland Tavern in Greenpoint, and am happy to report three new converts to the church of psychedelia. They played a mellow set of mostly new stuff bookended by older stuff, and despite the low turnout, Josh and Molly poured their hearts in to every song. We stuck around for an Icelandic band called Jeff Who?, who sounded like the Hives and played a cover of "Let's Twist Again" to close their set. My friends and I danced and I, as per usual, looked like a bunny on crack hopping around the floor.

Last night, I trekked out to "East Williamsburg" to see Plants open for Akron/Family. Ok, first: East Williamsburg is actually Bushwick, no matter how you slice it. Yeah, it's east of Williamsburg, but so is the ocean, and you know what? The fishes don't live in East Williamsburg. Anyway, point is that the walk from the subway to the loft space was all dark, deserted streets, and not so much fun, especially for a petite woman who carries her ipod and cellphone on her at all times. My reward was seeing another fantasic Plants set, similar to Friday's show, only this time in a sauna. My bonus prize was losing a few pounds of sweat because the room was so damn boiling. Yay for multi-tasking. Who needs pilates when you have overcrowded rock shows?

There is a reason that I wrote (sorta) next to A/F in the title. Plants ended their set around 11:15, and by the time my friends got sufficently pissed off and we split at 12:30, they still HADN'T PLAYED A GODDAMN SONG. They did get up on stage and jam for a minute or two, and then stop. They took their shirts off, as they are wont to do. They did Neil Young karaoke. Had they been the local bar band, it might have been cute. But people payed twelve bucks and hiked out to an industrial park to see this show. Not cool.

I guess Akron have the "The Planet The" disease. Both bands are clearly talented. Both bands put out really good records. And both bands could give a rat's ass about their audiences, as is evidenced by the fact that they pull stupid stunts rather than playing actual music. The most frutrating thing is, both these bands are great, and could put on really stellar shows. But due to some combination of drunkeness, arrogance, or desire to be "quirky," they do stuff that will end up turning audience members off. Big polished arena bands might not be hip, but I'll get down with their respect for their audiences any day.

Posted by Cortney Harding at April 2, 2006 2:41 PM

Comments

Posted by: robert wiedenfeld at October 30, 2006 10:21 AM