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2003-01-31 - 7:27 p.m.
accidents will happen
Last night was “It was an accident unfortunate”, a benefit show at the Black Cat for Kazu of Blonde Redhead, who is, like most working musicians, uninsured, and needs help with some medical bills. My boy Ted Leo was on the bill, so I decided to go support a good cause and see him for the 3rd time in as many months. I took a nap after work before going out, so I ended up getting on the road to D.C. a bit late, but just enough that I got lucky. They were announcing that the show was sold out literally the minute I got there, and since there was only one of me as I walked up, I was the absolute last person let in. But as I made my way upstairs and heard the boom of “Ballad of the Sin Eater”, I realized that I’d missed the beginning of the Pharmacists’ set. Of course, at the other shows I’d seen, that was the 2nd song they played, so I was hoping that was the case and that I hadn’t missed much, but I ended up only seeing half of their set. And since it was a pretty full house, I couldn’t get very close to the front. So that kinda sucked. But TL/Rx were on as always. The 2nd guitarist that was with them in December is gone already, but James Canty, who hasn’t been in the band for a while now but is still tight with them, came up and played some percussion of “Ballad.” After that they played “The High Party” and the title track from the new record, Hearts Of Oak, which I’m really really excited about, and was kinda hoping would be onsale early at the show, but no such luck. Ted took a request for “Biomusicology”, which is always wonderful to hear, and then closed out the set with “Treble In Trouble”, which I’d never seen live before and was awesome, though I wish it went on a bit longer. Not bad, but shame on me for missing half their set. Oh well, they’ll be back in March headlining, so no biggie, and hopefully next time I can bring some heads to check it out. After that, James Canty and Jerry Busher started setting up stuff onstage, and I thought that French Toast might be playing an unbilled set. But then Joe Lally joined them onstage and introduced the unnamed trio and played “one and a half songs”, the half being them just warming up while Joe said some things about the war our country is about to get into. Then they played a song with Joe singing that I didn’t recognize, don’t think it was a Fugazi song, maybe a cover. Good stuff, though, a nice surprise. After a long wait, the headliner, Blonde Redhead came out. I've heard plenty of BR over the years but not enough to really have an opinion either way, but i stuck around for a bit of their set. Sonic Youth is kind of a tired reference point when talking about them, but it's kind of hard to ignore the influence and similiarities: plucking strings behind the bridge of the guitar, maracas, alternating male/female vocals, etc. Still, not bad, but I was feeling kinda low on energy so I called it a night and left before they were done. -al
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