Live: Lemuria, Gordon Gano's Army, Cheeky at Death By Audio 11.15.8

Let me derail this from the start and say how pissed I am that I missed the Thorns Of Life show. I heard it was pretty bananas. But really, what the fuck is deal with Hiesel posting info about their shows on the front page of the fucking Alternative Press site. I hope that this isn't some intentional anti-press promo stunt. 

In poking around on Jessica Hopper's blog for more dirt I found this curious post from 12/13 about a Lifter Puller project? Please forward all dirt to me immediately. The same for Thorns Of Life. I'll do the same unless the information is forwarded in confidence.

Ok, then. So I go to Death By Audio and finally blunder my way in. I'm not sure how above board the shows are there. They are pretty gung-ho about shooing people away from the front of the building and keeping things under the radar. I noticed a couple cruisers passing on my way home, so maybe there's a gentleperson's agreement between the two. Either way, they seem to start on time, as I got there at 9:30 and had already missed Get Bent and Slingshot Dakota, who evidently replaced the road-worn Bridge and Tunnel. Cheeky were setting up on the floor as I staked out real estate. I admire the Born Against aesthetic, but when you are a band mostly comprised of diminutive ladies, it does make for a bummer presentation-wise. 

So there was a pretty long wait before Cheeky jumped off. There sure was a lot of smoking (tobacco) in the back room. Like Carolina shows at the Brewery smoky. Yowza. When they did it was fun, but I wouldn't go so far as to say good. Granted there were PA issues and amps failing, so it wasn't all their fault. Either way, they seem to be decent folk and share Angie from Little Lungs, so maybe it was just a bad night.

There was also the small matter of none of the bands having Blake Schwarzenbach in their ranks, but Gordon Gano's Army were pretty damn great. I'm pretty sure Alex from Lemuria and Art Of The Underground was playing drums for them, but I'm not sure if that's a permanent thing. Either way, they did us the solid of actually using the stage and sounded like a slower UK Chixdiggit on the hookier stuff like First Song. That can't really be a bad thing. The crowd was pretty into them, especially an odd gang of young ladies who were hell-bent on attracting a lot of attention to themselves. If it was for the band's benefit, it seems like went unheeded, as GGA handled their business without a hint of distraction. You can get the full-length from Art Of The Underground here. When I get a copy, I'll get a review up stat. They are in the States for five more days. The dates are here. I'd see them if you could.

Lemuria closed out the night. Evidently Sheena's moved to Queens. We'll see how that works out, especially as they have been spending a hell of a lot of time on the road behind Get Better. It shows live, as the band brings it pretty seriously. Sheena's dual Music Man heads up the gear dork factor. She's a great guitar player, not in a Marnie Stern kind of way, but she drives that band with authority. Her rhythm section is no joke either. Alex and Jason are lock-tight and the band is authoritatively together to the point where various pieces of equipement crapped out over the course of the set and there wasn't a hiccup. It extended all the way to the lead vocals. Whenever Sheena had a mike crap out or her voice lagged in PA, the crowd was more than willing to take the reins and finish an entire verse or chorus as needed. The kids got kind of frisky towards the end of the set, which only asserts that pits at indie-rock shows are really the arena of amateurs and poseurs, but all in all a great evening, even if it wasn't the Thorns Of Life show.

R