"What's the difference between jelly and jam? I can't jelly my cock up your arse."
British Sea Power ended their three month North American tour on the salty shores of Hoboken, NJ. If there ever was a band name that completely described a band, it would be this one. British -- yup, from the south shores of the U.K. Sea there is a strong nautical sense to their form of British Rock. Also, the naval flags around the stage are a little obvious that they like the sea. Power, their music is full of large, epic spaces with seem to fit well with the British shores and wide open spaces.
The show tonight finds the band and their dirty joke telling crew in good spirits and willing to go out with a bang. This is my fifth night of shows in a row and if I wasn't so tuckered out, I might have enjoyed myself better. On top of that, British Sea Power is right around the middle of the pack when it comes to my tastes in British music. There's just so much on the scene that a band like B.S.P. gets lost in the shuffle.
The thing with these blokes is that they make a handful of memorable songs on each album. Their third and latest album, Do You Like Rock Music?, is their best yet, but like any album in the IPOD area, you cherry pick the best songs and ignore the rest. This new one has some epic songs that just fill you with gusto and bravado. You feel like you're the captain of the ship with "Waving Flags" and "No Lucifer." On the other hand, like their previous efforts, it's still not a front-to-back enjoyable experience with some instantly skippable little tunes in there.
In return, the live show has moments of high spirits where much rocking to be had. Then, you have a bunch of tunes where yous mind wandesr and you consider checking out because your favorite tunes were played already. For me, "Atom" was played early on. I do hand it to these guys from remaining faithful to playing small venues. This is maybe their third time playing Maxwell's and they always sell it out. It made me wonder when they are going to graduate to larger venues where their music can soar over the crowd.
So a generally positive show for me. I like the big guitar noises for their well-known numbers. The rest, I'm just not a big enough fan to get behind them.
The other good thing about British Sea Power is that they always put together fun opening acts. I always tell the story how I wanted to see them when Feist was on the tour back in the day, and the person from craigslist never showed up with an extra ticket. Last year, they brought the Pipettes on a U.K. tour. This spring, they got The Rosebuds for the majority of the tour, but tonight they had local legend Jeffrey Lewis on the bill. I've seen the anti-folk hero before and I'm more into his animation and sene of humor than the Trachtenbergs or Tim Fite. All them use simple animation or photos with some whimsical songs for their live show. J. Lew's animation is more cleaver and humorous, but his songs have a They Might Be Giants influence and a slight satirical quality I latch onto to.
Lew and the crew next join the Los Campesinos! U.S. tour.
Amazing show!!!
Videos of the performance below.
Remember Me
http://youtube.com/watch?v=u-HmFWRypPY
Joke #1 by Paul from BSP Road Crew
http://youtube.com/watch?v=9_nWZzs86TY
Joke #2 by Paul from BSP Road Crew
http://youtube.com/watch?v=2VYa-5i8Lpo
Posted by: Chris | May 20, 2008 at 09:57 AM
Where's your writeup of the Black Kids show?
You were standing right up front.
Posted by: | May 20, 2008 at 03:59 PM
Tonight, my friend I'll post of Black Kids. Just a lot shows and not much time to do a proper write up on Sunday or Monday nights.
Posted by: MusicSnobbery | May 20, 2008 at 05:39 PM
I posted a complete audio recording of this show on my site, a soundboard feed mixed with audience mics. Flac and MP3:
http://www.nyctaper.com/?p=199
Posted by: nyctaper | May 21, 2008 at 05:23 PM