On the right nights, the underprepared bands and overqualified bands share the same small crowds. Roughly a dozen people attended last Tuesday’s gig at The Bridge, and half were the musicians—the four amiable dudes in Alabama’s Baak Gwai, and opening performers Dirt Eater (Max Dreyer) and Jameson Zimmer, members of the defunct local band Love Tentacle Drip Society.
|
Listen to "Goodbye, Amen" by Jameson Zimmer
|
Now, a crowd this small makes itself a captive audience, but it also introduces a tension to the gig. Bands can try to block out the six spectators in the room with them and treat the gig like a practice session, or they can treat it like a packed concert hall—“For every person in the audience, picture one hundred people in their underwear.”
For their part, the Love Tentacle survivors did their best to get in some practice while they preached. The musical paths of Dreyer and Zimmer post-LTDS are as different as apples and orangutans: Zimmer performed a handful of tunes, many from an EP recorded with Lance Brenner titled Milk Songs, that pursued articulation and narrative while Dreyer’s electronic instrumentals seemed to purposefully evade both.
|
Baak and roll: The oddly named Baak Gwai upped the ante in a night of big rock for a small crowd at The Bridge. |
Dirt Eater played two brief sets of chirpy keyboard and synthesizer compositions, and occasionally enlisted Zimmer to tweak the keys and effects while he twisted feedback out of a pair of guitars. Transitions were choppy and halting, especially as Dreyer tapped his effects pedals looking for the right guitar tone, but a few numbers—notably the sludgy electronic ruffles of “Necropolis”—hinted at a dark, satisfying gig not too far down the road.
Between sets, Zimmer let his fingers flick across a classical guitar and a banjo, his picking as precise as a Vegas blackjack dealer. A few months since his last performance, Zimmer made a few apologies to listeners, particularly after he abandoned a song on three occasions.
“Thank you,” he announced at a point. “I have nothing for sale.” But his songs—the potently somber, somberly potent “Goodbye, Amen” and a redemptive version of “The Fruit Song” plucked from a banjo—proved that the melodies of his abandoned songs were no fluke. If Dreyer retains the experimental spirit of the Love Tentacles, Zimmer holds the band’s compositional smarts; future shows from each deserve attention.
|
Listen to "The Fruit Song" by Jameson Zimmer
|
Baak Gwai’s set felt more like napalm than a nightcap. The band started songs with relatively simple introductions—“This is about torture,” “This is about Bobby Brown”—then aggressively tore through each hook-heavy tune with a metronome’s precision and a madman’s disregard. The band has an uncanny knack for anthems, a good sense of crescendo and a drummer that could make you regret every bad drummer joke you’ve ever told. If anything, song titles like “Fraggle” and “Alabamsterdam” suggest Baak Gwai hasn’t quite realized its own capabilities and can only get better, a summary statement for each performer tonight.
And, O.K., “Alabamsterdam” is a hilarious title.
