Mindergran
Oh my children...those of you who gather here at the ragged end of nowhere are no strangers to tales of rock and roll glory and flying to far away lands, nor to tales of stinkybus woe and misery. But Thursday...Thursday was fucking grand.
I began the day at 3:30am EST, leaving at 4 for a 6am flight out of Newark. All went smoothly except for the fact that nothing's open at the airport until 5:30, so I had to give breakfast a miss. My flight was thru O'hare which is always a fun and exciting place to be at 7am on a weekday. Again though, me and my first class self glided through the madness like the seasoned pros that we are. Even when "lady with a baby" sat next to me, which is never what you want to see, things were ok as said baby didn't cry but instead did other baby things like sleep and drool and smile at you. Got into SF and took BART into the city where I went straight to Zazie for breakfast with Val. Nothing like eggs scrambled with dungeness crab and wilted pea shoots and a side of gingerbread pancake with lemon curd and roasted pears to soften a landing. It felt good to be in the cool clean SF air after the hot, sticky, hot-garbage-and-urine air of NYC. Belly full I got back into public transport land (my experience with SF MUNI stations and their unfathomable payment system was my only true frustration thus far, but nothing a little panhandling couldn't fix). Off to Berkeley I was, to fetch my car. Goldie. Goldie Looking Car. Goldie Apparatus. I picked it up from the lot I've been trying to sell it out of and dropped it at the dealership for repair (I've since found out it'll only cost $750 to fix!! JOY!!). I picked up a rental and went to Chad & Erin's (or Cherin if you're into the whole brevity thing) where I'm staying. Not a bad day so far. Next we hooked up with their friends Krys and Marissa and headed to the Great American Music Hall for Grinderman. This, my children, is where things got epic.
This was simply one of the greatest things I've ever witnessed, hands down. For those who don't know, Grinderman is the latest project of Nick Cave. It's a more stripped down, raw approach than his Bad Seeds stuff and the record is great. Live it was as if Nick and Co. were saying to every rock band that ever was "you are all a bunch of fucking pussies". To see such a massive slice of rock in such a small venue was almost too much to take.
After playing the whole Grinderman record they came back out and "tried" to play some Bad Seeds songs, which they proceeded to rock the ass out of. Then a "very, very, very special guest" came out to sing "The Weeping Song" and the crowd went apeshit (especially Erin). I was clueless who this obviously doped up singer was who couldn't remember half the lyrics or focus his eyesight enough to read them off of Nick's lyric sheet. Apparently he's some guy from some German industrial band that was in the Bad Seeds for a while. Apparently it was the best thing ever but to me he only embarrassed himself. Apparently I don't know shit when it comes to German industrial legends. Regardless, this will go down as an all-time favorite rock experience.
I began the day at 3:30am EST, leaving at 4 for a 6am flight out of Newark. All went smoothly except for the fact that nothing's open at the airport until 5:30, so I had to give breakfast a miss. My flight was thru O'hare which is always a fun and exciting place to be at 7am on a weekday. Again though, me and my first class self glided through the madness like the seasoned pros that we are. Even when "lady with a baby" sat next to me, which is never what you want to see, things were ok as said baby didn't cry but instead did other baby things like sleep and drool and smile at you. Got into SF and took BART into the city where I went straight to Zazie for breakfast with Val. Nothing like eggs scrambled with dungeness crab and wilted pea shoots and a side of gingerbread pancake with lemon curd and roasted pears to soften a landing. It felt good to be in the cool clean SF air after the hot, sticky, hot-garbage-and-urine air of NYC. Belly full I got back into public transport land (my experience with SF MUNI stations and their unfathomable payment system was my only true frustration thus far, but nothing a little panhandling couldn't fix). Off to Berkeley I was, to fetch my car. Goldie. Goldie Looking Car. Goldie Apparatus. I picked it up from the lot I've been trying to sell it out of and dropped it at the dealership for repair (I've since found out it'll only cost $750 to fix!! JOY!!). I picked up a rental and went to Chad & Erin's (or Cherin if you're into the whole brevity thing) where I'm staying. Not a bad day so far. Next we hooked up with their friends Krys and Marissa and headed to the Great American Music Hall for Grinderman. This, my children, is where things got epic.
This was simply one of the greatest things I've ever witnessed, hands down. For those who don't know, Grinderman is the latest project of Nick Cave. It's a more stripped down, raw approach than his Bad Seeds stuff and the record is great. Live it was as if Nick and Co. were saying to every rock band that ever was "you are all a bunch of fucking pussies". To see such a massive slice of rock in such a small venue was almost too much to take.
After playing the whole Grinderman record they came back out and "tried" to play some Bad Seeds songs, which they proceeded to rock the ass out of. Then a "very, very, very special guest" came out to sing "The Weeping Song" and the crowd went apeshit (especially Erin). I was clueless who this obviously doped up singer was who couldn't remember half the lyrics or focus his eyesight enough to read them off of Nick's lyric sheet. Apparently he's some guy from some German industrial band that was in the Bad Seeds for a while. Apparently it was the best thing ever but to me he only embarrassed himself. Apparently I don't know shit when it comes to German industrial legends. Regardless, this will go down as an all-time favorite rock experience.
posted by JJL at 2:59 PM
1 Comments:
quite right. that it was one of the best rock shows ever.
while not a huge Einstürzende Neubauten fan, I was pretty stoked to see him on stage. They (nick and blixa) seemed really psyched to play together again. I don't think he embarrassed himself - he might not have cared what people thought about his signing (he's not a good singer), but that's rock and roll, right?
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