I couldn’t hear for 2 days straight when I was dumb enough
to rock out right next to a giant speaker while at a No Age show a few years back.
They are notorious for playing a loud set, not quite as loud as My Bloody Valentine,
but pretty darn loud I can assure you. And people just stared in awe as my ears
literally fell off my head during their closer Sleeper Hold. Ok, so they didn’t
really fall off, but I’m fairly certain I lost some equilibrium mid set from
all of the noise that was ringing in my head, as my “dancing” immediately turned into swaying right when my
body entered into survival mode. Since then I thought I was getting smarter
with age but after this Saturday’s show, I’m not so sure.
No Age is currently on a tour where they’re playing random
venues in each city they stop in. While in Austin, they played in this
underground museum which is hidden somewhere deep in the east side of town; so
unless you know a hipster with a monocle and a curly mustache, chances are you’ll
never find it. Well lucky for me, I know a hipster or two that fits this
description, so I was in the house. Just to give you an idea of the layout, it’s
a giant abandoned warehouse that they have turned into a art space. It’s run by
these borderline counter culture kids and it’s full of sculptures, videos, and
paintings that they have made themselves; some of which are pretty interesting. They have weird
live shows that are going on while you can check out their art. The main issue is that
there is no central AC in this place, so unless a door is opened, you will instantly be
covered in sweat. And that was the scenario this past Saturday.
I missed the first opener Coma in Algiers because I was at a
party that paid homage to the poor man’s version of summer wear, jorts! That’s
another story for another time but just know that there was free beer. I did however
arrive just in time for Austin’s own alternative darlings, Ringo Deathstarr. They
were fresh off of a trip from Tel Aviv where on their way back, they were
apparently flagged as high risk travelers, and were temporarily detained while security
took apart all of their equipment. So they had to deal with faulty instruments
as they ripped through their grunge heavy set but thankfully they didn’t miss a
beat as they had the crowd moving to Kaleidoscope and Some Kind of Sad, both of
which are heavily influenced by Valentine and The Smiths. Right as they were
about to play their last song, they asked the crowd if they were ready for No
Age; and this led to some moderate yelling. The
lead said that he couldn’t really hear us so naturally the hipsters yelled even softer than before, perfectly playing the role of too cool for school. I’ve been to a few too many
shows in Austin where everyone is too busy “taking in the artistic experience”
to allow themselves to let go and have fun, and sadly this
hipster heavy crowd seemed well on their way to making it yet another one.
No Age however, came right out and after a short sound check went
right into two new songs. Now I haven’t actually purchased their recently
released new album An Object yet, but I have heard them play some of it live
before and it sounded really good. So I wasn’t surprised at all that the crowd responded well to the new material. But what
really caused the hipsters to put down their Lone Stars and start a mosh pit
was when Dean and Randy destroyed their most popular song Teen Creeps! They
immediately followed it up with Every Artist Needs a Tragedy and it was at this
point I realized we were in for something special. Despite the unbearable heat
in the place, the guys seemed to be enjoying themselves and were feeding off of
the crowd’s energy. Quite a few of their new songs required Dean to get from
behind the kit and play a guitar alongside Randy, which is a rare treat if you
have ever seen them live. They played I Won’t Be Your Generator and No Ground,
whose live performances were leaked online by Spin magazine a few weeks ago.
But don’t let this throw you, the second Dean returned to the drums, it was
vintage No Age.
It felt as if we were at a high school party because after
about an hour into their set, someone said they had to end it a bit early because
the cops were outside trying to shut it down. Now I don’t know if this was
actually true or not but everyone ran out to their cars like the INS had just arrived!
Given the fact that we were on the east side and there was about 200 hundred of
us packed in a warehouse and covered in sweat, it felt as though we were illegal
immigrants. Add to the fact that about 20 minutes before then, I forgot for a
minute that I’m actually old and I proceeded to jump right into the pit! It wasn’t
until I helped catch a kid in mid-air from his stage dive that I realized I was surrounded
by all 19 and 20 year olds. And the kid I caught was a guy I met last year at a No Age
show on the day of his high school graduation. I also ran into this same kid in
the pit of a Japandroids show! What’s it say about my music taste, when
everyone at the shows I attend can barely shave? Oh well, rock on No Age, rock
on!
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