Concert review: Stephen Malkmus, plus what's up tonight
By Dan Nailen
11/10/08 - 11:27 AM
STEPHEN MALKMUS AND THE JICKS, Saturday, Nov. 8, Urban Lounge
There is a tendency among music geeks to hold on to the past a little too dearly, particularly when a favorite band breaks up and its respective parts split to pursue new sonic playgrounds.
I can be as guilty of that as anyone, but I swear that's not the reason I didn't like the sold-out headlining gig by former Pavement leader Stephen Malkmus and his new band, The Jicks, at Urban Lounge Saturday night. In fact, I've seen Malkmus a couple times since he's gone "sorta-solo," and enjoyed those shows immensely. And with one of my favorite drummers — former Sleater-Kinney skin-basher Janet Weiss — now in The Jicks, I fully expected to LOVE the show Saturday.
Didn't happen, and it's because I wasn't prepared for the full-on swan-dive into guitar wankery and prog-rock that Malkmus pulls on his latest tour. Having listened to his newest album, Real Emotional Trash, perhaps I shouldn't have been so surprised, but I thought he'd mix things up a bit more during his set. Instead, it felt like a deluge of lengthy guitar jams that I couldn't really latch onto emotionally.
Malkmus himself made a joke about the jamminess when he introduced his encore with a nod to jam gods the Grateful Dead: "We have a great one-two punch coming for ya. 'China Cat Sunflower' into ..."
There were moments of blithe brilliance, to be sure, as any fan of Malkmus (solo or with Pavement) would expect. And songs like "Dragonfly Pie," "Elmo Delmo," "Jenny and the Ess Dog" and "Jo-Jo's Jacket" made wading through the boring parts of the show almost worthwhile. Still, too little payoff for the high expectations I had going in.
WHAT'S UP TONIGHT?
Over at the Murray Theater, Henry Rollins (pictured above) is doing the spoken-word thing he does so well, skewering hypocrisy by fat cats and government big-wigs. I wonder if Obama's election will temper Rollins' fury, or if he's using his current tour as a last chance to skewer the bumbing, stumbling Bush administration? Tickets are $20, available at Smith's Tix outlets.
Tonight at Club Karamba, catch Cafe Tacuba, widely acknowledged as the best Mexican rock band, even though the "rock" label hardly does justice to the band's diverse sound. Anyone who saw Beck at the E Center a few years back, on his Midnite Vultures tour, might remember these guys opening the show. Tickets are $35, available at Smith's Tix outlets.
Tonight features Subtle headlining at The Urban Lounge, and Nashville singer/songwriter Matt Stillwell playing at The Depot.
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