Half-Cocked: Just a few words on last night's rock show

February 10, 2005

Just a few words on last night's rock show

Prof. Corps. has been rambling about Eisner and Ovitz for the last 20 minutes so I thought it would be a good time to post a quick review of the Secret Machines/Moving Units/Autolux show last night at the Ranch Bowl.

First, my impressions, especially of Autolux, were greatly colored by the inadeuqacies of the Ranch Bowl as a music venue. It's a big room attached to a bowling alley not a Hollywood Bowl type venue. The accoustics are terrible and the sound system isn't in very good shape either.

A derivate band like Autolux that relies heavily on dynamics in making their music interesting suffers when their sound is so muddled that a Hornrimjobs live performance be entertaining by comparison. It's too bad, too, because I really liked their record. That said, I am getting a little weary of the continuing offspring of Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine. Blonde Redhead was fine for awhile and And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead has developed beyond far beyond their beginnings. If you're going to continue mining this vein of alt-rock, give me some hooks.

Moving Units was probably the least hindered by the Ranch Bowl environment. They came off a little more New Order-y live, especially the bass line, but with more jagged guitar riffs. The drumming was stellar, almost to a Martin Atkins level of speed and intensity, but not quite. They were definitely danceable but this being an Omaha indie-rock crowd, nobody was dancing.

Secret Machines was impressively bombastic with a very well put together and immersive light show. The problem again, was with the sound. While SM depends on subtle changes in tone and chorus (the array of effects pedals at the front of the stage covered about 20 square feet), their sound isn't as reliant on feedback as Autolux so their set, while not as good as I expected, was still worth seeing.

The last show I saw at the Ranch Bowl was Buffalo Tom back in 1994 and I was reminded last night of why I haven't been back in so long.

Posted by Half-Cocked at February 10, 2005 12:19 PM

Comments

Too bad about the crappy acoustics at the Ranch Bowl. I don't believe it's necessarily the space, so much as they likely haven't updated their sound system (or kept it in good repair) in years.

Lots of good stuff coming to the cities though, buddy-body - I just put up a non-comprehensive list of interesting gigs. I'm saddened that May 10th will mark the second time THIS YEAR that I will miss Autolux ... Gang of Four are playing the same night, so what the hell'm I s'posed to do?

Posted by: Kevin at February 10, 2005 02:11 PM

I am going to see Trail of Dead next month (I think). We get some good shows here in ATL. But I understand the complaint about acoustics. There was/is this place in Boston (awww, I miss Beantown) called the Paradise that had THE WORST acoustics. It sounded like you were in someone's basement with a boombox. Ruins the whole vibe. Imagine seeing a melodious Brit pop group un that environment. Blech..

Posted by: musclehead at February 10, 2005 07:02 PM