Yesterday was a good day. First, the weather has turned cool, finally. And my friend AJ got me onto the guest list for A Place To Bury Strangers.
APTBS have become really polished after touring for much of the last year. I really don’t see that many concerts, especially since I’m not a spring chicken, so if I go I want it to be good. And APTBS were definitely up to it. Lots to see and hear. Not to mention an amazing improvement over the last chance I had to see them, when Oliver walked off stage, aborting the show after the second song.
The beauty of APTBS is in the layers of sounds and the references. Oliver Ackermann makes it look effortless to blend so many guitar effects together that it sounds like there are two invisible guitarists on stage with him. I know this sort of effect playing isn’t easy, but you can tell that this is his passion (he’s a founder of Death By Audio effects). And then the projections behind the band, 16mm film strips that were madly edited like Quentin Tarantino meets Andy Warhol, were just the right icing on the cake. Pop art collages of vintage girls, cars, guns, sparks, etc.
The band sounds so much better live than on recordings that I really was wide eyed and disbelieving for the first few minutes. It was full throttle guitar, which is just what I needed. I was also hoping the gig would give me the a taste of the feelings I had when I was infatuated with My Bloody Valentine, Lush, and The Jesus & Mary Chain, and it did. For a fleeting few moments, I was 17 again, with my headphones on. What a strange feeling that was. But it was good. It wasn’t nostalgia, although it was a sort of relief to know that the energy persists and is still evolving. The feeling was more like watching a magic trick and getting completely taken in.
PS. My thanks to AJ and also to Juice for the T-Shirt and helping me pick a 45rpm vinyl single! (seen above)
PPS. Earlier in the evening, I saw my favorite Incredible, Sarah Vowell, listening to her iPod on the uptown 6 train, probably going to the Maurice Sendak/Spike Jones reading at 92nd Street (which is where I would have been going, also on the guestlist, if I didn’t bow out at the last minute to see APTBS).
