I had been looking forward to seeing this show for a while. Eric had picked up tickets a couple months ago and I figured it would be a pretty hot ticket. Samiam haven't played NYC in a very long time, easily a decade in my estimation and I was embarassed to have never seen one of my favorite Bay Area bands live.
I rolled in just as The Casting Out started. I hadn't realized that this was Nathan from Boy Sets Fire's new project. Meh. I got in the room to see no obvious singer, and I feared that we might have to endure a drummer with a headset mike driving the proceedings, but realized in short order that Nathan had opted to sing from the floor, leaving his bandmates to look like a bunch of tools while he Glee-d it up. As I find seeing a band a big part of the live experience, I hate it when bands set up on the floor. If I'm paying, populism can suck it. Put the singer and band on the stage where we can see him/them, unless he needs to go into the crowd and regulate. Found Eric a couple songs in and was amused to find he had the same confusion about the singer. The Casting Out sound a lot like Samiam, I mean a lot. Nathan has got Zoli Ignite range going on, which is good I guess, but it being a school night and all I could have dealt with a whole lot less of their set. They have a record out, investigate it at the web presence here, if you are so inclined.
As we staked out real estate for Samiam, it became pretty obvious that half of the already half-filled room had left, leaving a fairly paltry crowd in attendance for our heroes. Hardly a hero's welcome, it proved an ominous harbinger, as this was pretty much a trainwreck of a set from the jump. Jason took the stage whiskey drunk, propositioning a bearded gent in the front row before singing a note and spending a good portion of the early set Fletch-ing his vocals and pretending it was the sound guy's fault that no one could hear them. Other highlights were Sergie's appropriating of Pete Hayes' facial hair from last decade and the drunken woman who couldn't stay off the stage, culminating her invasions by reentering the crowd like a falling tree and taking out another woman late in the set. Lots of interpretive dancing by older fat dudes in the crowd, too. Good times. All the songs I wanted to hear were covered, but the lack of vocals ultimately did put a damper on things overall. I left after they played She Found You satisfied enough, but sure hope they don't take another ten years to come to town and that Beebout stays off the sauce next time. These shows were precursors to another of their regular German tours, ostensibly behind the new odds and sods comp called Orphan Works that dropped recently via the lovable nerds of No Idea Records. Look for a review soon on the JS-NYC soon.
R
I like me some Samiam. They are no Jawbreaker, but I have a dozen or so Samiam releases in the collection that get pretty regular airplay at the JS-NYC corporate offices, rivaling the post-Latterman Canino catalog and the Suburban Home roster for top number of spins. My long-delayed first time seeing them live was pretty much a bust, but these recordings and this German footage lends credence to Samiam actually being a decent live entity when Jason isn't drunk.
