Its not often that I get so flustered and excited by what I’m seeing at a show that I’m simultaneously spellbound and barely containing my desire to run around to every person I know and confirm with them that this is the best. Seeing the Gris Gris play at PA’s Lounge in April of 2005 left me like this. And finally, seeing Sic Alps play at O’Briens in Allston last night did it again. Something about the Bay Area and its bands investment in exploring and embracing the ragged edge of fidelity so bravely? Who knows, but for me, seeing the duo of Mike Donovan and Matt Hartman practically rewrite the rulebook that Spacemen 3 wrote and dive into the simplest, most intuitive ideas just sold it. One-chord/one-riff songs, loose drums, great cranky echoed vocals mixed with the Hartman’s instumental multitasking, most effectively when he simply used a guitar as a snare drum while accompanying. Sweet drones and chants flowed into some rough and tumble bluesy numbers, into revelatory Sister Ray level freakouts, and back to delicate duets.. unbelievable. I later realized that Hartman is some kind of serious vet. Originally of legendary noise pop band, Henry’s Dress, he’s something of a journeyman, drumming with Cat Power, Coachwhips, Total Shutdown, who knows who else. Either way, tremendous band, really one of the most crucial shows I’ve seen in years, and I highly reccomend whatever you can get your hands on, but their LP called Pleasure and Treasure on Animal Disguise is a fierce minimalist garage/drone record of the highest order. It took me a few listens to wrap my head around it, and took seeing them live to truly understand how great they are, but all told it couldn’t be more rewarding. Good biz…
http://www.boston.com/ae/music/articles/2007/10/16/before_radiohead_there_was/
Thanks so much to Linda Laban for writing a great article, and to the Globe for printing it.
Note that the picture of Reports that accompanied the story was taken by Patrick Piasecki.
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