Live: Steve Shiffman and the Land Of No @ Cake Shop 9.12.8

My friend Pete plays in America's Finest Rock Band, The Figgs. For a while now he's been playing with one Mr. Steve Shiffman, a transplanted Canadian whom I'm kind of disappointed has ties to the nightmare that is Sidewalk and it's Anti-Folk scene that is attached like mold to it's back room. By and large, it's a great venue if you want to see fourteen 'friends bands' and or a rogues gallery of people far too untalented to actually garner people to play 'with'. I'll give minor props to Beck and Paleface, but whatever smoldering ember of relevancy that movement has fostered has long gone out.

So Pete's been playing with Steve for a while now. Originally they were a two-piece comprised of guitar and drums. You may remember I hate the deconstructionist rock band, but sometime over the last couple years, the duo has morphed into a three-headed guitar monster with a real rhythm section. They were far from bad before, but now that Steve and The Land Of No are a five-piece, a lot of bands should be watching their ass. It doesn't hurt that the three newer guys are Dave Hollinghurst of the late Chapel Hill powerhouse Small and Alec Ferrell and Kent Heine of The Holy Ghost, two of the better bands of the last ten years. Hollinghurst was the ringer for me, as I loved Small a ton, but as a five-some Shiffman and company are pretty damn fearsome.

It showed at Cake Shop. It's far from my favorite room in town, and the relative timing of the shows can be more a than a bit tiresome but it was a crappy night and they rock, so off I went. I've enjoyed them before, but it had been a while since I'd seen them. If anything, they've gotten tighter in the last couple months. The three guitars option can be an ill-advised one, but they have it down pretty well. Two solidbodies, one hollowbody, Dave playing a lot of slide, it all makes for a pretty noise. Add Shiffman's hooky songs and you've got one hell of a good time. Shiffman has a solo EP Tamborino out and it appears that there is a full-length looming ominously in our future. I, for one, can't wait.  Check out the SS & LON webpage here and check out some great MP3s at their MySpace here.

R