Saturday, October 24, 2009

The Subjects, Bad Veins, Bear Hunter @ Soda Bar, 10.21.09

This was a hell of a week for music, wasn't it? It's really hard for me to say what night I enjoyed the most because every night I went out delivered. I already covered Tuesday night at House of Blues with Brand New, Manchester Orchestra, and Builders and the Butchers because I thought I should get something up before their second night at House of Blues, however, I should rewind and go back to Monday. (after the jump)



I was really looking forward to seeing Bad Veins again and I suppose in my head I thought that because they're on one of my favorite labels, Dangerbird, that there'd be a bigger crowd than when they played at the Casbah a couple months ago. I guess I'm always surprised at what bands draw and those that don't, it seriously seems so arbitrary. Like tonight I wanted to ask the sold out crowd at Blind Pilot, "how do you even know this band??" and also, "why don't you stfu and show respect to the opening bands, too". I don't know where people come from and at the same time I don't know how to get those people out for other bands that they should be paying attention to.

That said, despite the small crowd at Soda Bar on Monday night, the show was rad and I was glad that I was there. I went expecting to see Bad Veins and The Subjects, a band I hadn't seen since 2007 when they opened for The Walkmen at the Casbah, but there was a third band on the bill that was a nice surprise, too. They were called Bear Hunter out of Chico and they were a bit all over the place but still entertaining and talented enough to make me glad to have seen all of their set. And the dude had these crazy red boot/slides that I couldn't stop staring at and I definitely give him brave style points for whatever that's worth.

So anyway, I shot a bunch of videos at this show, here's one from Bad Veins, and I was waiting for help on titles for the rest of the bands, but you'll just have to trust me that they're worth watching, or at least listening to. Here's one from Bad Veins. The rest are after the jump, if you 'keep on reading'.






So when Bad Veins started, the first thing I noticed was that their reel to reel was working again. When they played Casbah, they were upset that "she" (I think they named her Diane) was broken but this time around she worked and they were able to play their music in a way that more closely resembled the record. It seems lately I've been hearing people bitch about backing tracks and whatnot, but if it makes the difference between a band from touring to San Diego or just staying home and recording layered music, I'll take the former any day.



Last time I saw Bad Veins I have to admit I was a little more inebriated and gushed and even got them to agree to taking photos in the Atari Lounge at Casbah. It might come as a surprise, but I generally don't announce to the band that I'm a blogger but that time I did. And I was feeling apologetic...like I should say something to the band, but then Sebastian announced that he was already quite buzzed and I remembered that sometimes bands are just out to have as good a time as I am. "Wanna tell them what happened last night?" "NOBODY gets to hear about last night!" And they continued playing and kinda fucking around to the tiny but enthusiastic crowd.







The Subjects:













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