Thursday, August 16, 2007

Wednesday Recap: The Veils @ Beauty Bar

After kinda just sticking around the neighborhood for a couple nights (alt title: how the ken club kicked my ass on tuesday night), I decided I needed to check out The Veils at the Beauty Bar. Gabe Vega was presenting, which already is a strong endorsement for me, and my friend had been talking about this show for weeks as a "do not miss" show. So I drove my crumbling car to the Beauty Bar and waited for the band to start. I remembered reading about drink specials on MySpace, but when I asked the bartender, he only mentioned the $3 u-call-its and not the $2 budweiser, because all I really wanted was a beer. Instead I barely drank the vodka tonic that was poured for me and then made the switch to Sprites, which is kinda funny that it was the same price as the Budweiser. Whatever.

The bar was pretty empty right up until The Veils took the stage and all of the sudden the patio was full of people. Not uncomfortably full, but crowded nonetheless. I really, really liked the band based on this one performance and not having heard any of their recorded material.

First, the setlist:
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The Veils Setlist, 8/15/07, Beauty Bar San Diego

From start to finish, the band was excellent. Though perhaps an unfortunate choice of headwear.

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And footwear?

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I don't know, maybe it was just me. The singer to me, has two voices that he varies between songs, and sometimes within the same song. At times, he's spot on with a Morrissey voice and other times pulling a Thom Yorke/Starsailor but less whiny voice...all comparisons that make any indie lover ga ga.

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It was nice to see a chick bassist playing without having to hear some idiot yelling at her how awesome she is "for a girl" as is the case every time I've seen Silversun Pickups or some other band with a chick on bass.

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Apparently the quartet is from 'down under' though I wasn't sure if they were Kiwis or Aussies. Either way, it's more proof that there is some really good shit going on south of the equator...Dappled Cities and Augie March come to mind, but it's not one "sound" that is dominating. Having had a former obsession with lands afar (my first two cats were Kiwi and Sydney), I am glad that some good stuff is happening (like the Crowded House reunion! and the new Real World which transports 7 douchbag Americans to Sydney).

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Being uninaugurated, I can't say that they played mostly new stuff, but they did play State Trooper, a Bruce Springsteen cover that got the singer to comment that they'd heard American police and troopers were assholes, and agreed that in their experience that has certainly proved to be true. "Just when you think you're on an endless highway all alone, there come the blue and red lights right up your tail."

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Anyway, the Veils definitely found a new fan in me and I appreciate them driving from Oklahoma City to make sure we got the chance to feel their music for one beautiful evening in the patio of the Beauty Bar.

As I made my way into my alley, I passed a cop. I parked my car and was in my house and the cop had circled the street, and pulled up behind my already parked car and shone his lights on my car and my house. Then the ghetto bird made three passes overhead throughout the night. Clearly something was going on in the neighborhood, and while I know it wasn't me they were looking for, I couldn't help but feel uneasy for the rest of the night into the morning.

"Mister state trooper, please don't stop me
Please don't stop me, please don't stop me"

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