doodledee

Ah yes, the Tapes. Earlier this week Grossie - yes that Grossie - pings me and says he has an extra for Tapes N' Tapes and he's wondering if I want to go. I'm not a huge fan or anything, but they're so local and so very in the moment and it's an excuse to go to a show and honestly, who turns that down? Certainly not me. So I said sure.

Let's break it down in order.

Openeropener was local 2-piece punk/thrash outfit 'Birthday Suits'. Totally not my style, but it certainly seemed cathartic for them what with all the jumping and sweating and screaming and stuff. We had a couple beers and watched from upstairs behind the glass.

Then buzzhot 'White Denim' hit the stage. They're a little less noisy and it's worth going down and checking it out. Then ZOUCH! the guitar player guy breaks a string on like the second song and pretty much has a meltdown. Way off his game. Finally borrows a guitar from the Suits and manages to finish, but you could tell they were just hanging-on and hoping to get through it in once piece. The atmosphere did not escape unscathed.

Longish break. Curtain going up. Here come the Tapes. They open with a short instrumental number. And it was inspiring. And the energy was up. And it was time to rock. And from there it went about like I expected. Ebbing and flowing and some songs were really hooking people (esp 'Hang Them All', duh) and others were just muddy and flat and I'd kind of bob my head and think about work. But that's just me. (Though I doubt it's just me.) Then the last 2 or 3 songs were great and the encore was 'oh hell yes'-ey all over again, so the night definitely ended on a high note.

In related news, Minneapolis-based Florafauna did the poster for this show and it was quite fresh. I really like these guys.

Tapes N Tapes [myspace]
Pitchfork Murders Tapes 'n Tapes [mfr]
White Denim [myspace]
Birthday Suits [myspace]