scene but not herd

I left the house this evening once again with the unfortunate sensation of not really being too excited about what I was doing. In this case it was going to see Slint at the Avalon. I really like seeing live music, but lately I'm just as apt to want to stay home and do nothing. I had planned on going down to Hollywood early and swinging by Amoeba and the Cat and Fiddle, but I ended up eating at home and leaving late. I arrived in Hollywood at about 8:15. I found some free parking, walked a few blocks to the Frolic Room, had a beer, and walked into the Avalon as Pinback was about to begin the last song of their set. Ah, perfect.

I don't know why I ever bought anything by Slint in the first place. I must have bought Spiderland sometime in 1991 and the following year I found their first album, Tweez, at Bleecker Bob's record store on Melrose. That first album which came out in 1989 is reminiscent of stuff like Big Black, Bastro, and some other bands on the Homestead label. The second album is pretty different and is probably one of the first signs of the whole "post-rock" stuff like Tortoise that was yet to come. Spiderland is a sparse album. It is mostly quiet and slow with whispered vocals, but that is broken up occasionally by flashes of jagged, fuzzing guitars and almost hardcore vocals.

I forgot to mention that the Avalon is the re-modeled Art-Deco theater the Palace. They did a nice job and I hope to see more shows here in the future. It's nice because there are a lot of good places to get a good look at the band even when you are in the balcony area. Slint came out in complete darkness and quiet. People were cheering, but the silence was quite striking. This was especially evident between songs because the band hardly spoke at all. I kind of liked that uncomfortableness. First off, the sound was great at the Avalon. It was perfect for the band which went from the aforementioned relative silence to really loud and distorted. They played songs from both albums and some of those songs off Tweez rocked my ass off. It sounded so good and I realize now that on Tweez Slint were mining some of the same territory as Helmet in terms of a mix of hardcore and metal. Wow! That was some powerful stuff. The songs from Spiderland sounded really good as well. I just love the movement from a hushed sound to that of pounding drums and screeching, fuzzy guitars. I haven't seen a band this tight in quite some time. They ended their set with my favorite song off Spiderland called "Good Morning, Captain." This song perfectly describes that quiet to loud aesthetic. I just love the way the song ends with the singer basically screaming, "I miss you" while the band is going off at full speed and volume. In contrast to how I began the evening, I left the concert very pleased and I hope they end up playing some more shows in L.A. sometime.