I was told I needed to post this:

Hot is standing in the Mojave Desert, at high noon, and while mostly dry the heat is so intense you can feel not only your
skin sizzling but your muscles beginning to boil and bake to oven-freshness. Couple that with something called humidity and suddenly you’re piping hot, moist, tender, and dewy like a sauna. Oven-fresh plus sauna equals Houston in August.

Saran Wrap all that up into approximately a 1,200 square foot
building, with no air conditioning; sprinkle heavily with
wall-to-wall bodies, and simmer for about a hour.

While simmering, pull out the “I’m clinically insane” trump card
and spin music, shirtless, because we all: (1) want to hear your
personal music interests, and (2) love seeing a cadaverous freak
dance around half-naked.

Voila! You’ve successfully cooked up a couple of fans who couldn’t care less if you never came back to Houston.

Arse-holerific!

There you have it. Let me know what you thought about last night’s show.

Innaway, the first band to play, was amazing. As promised, the L.A.-area band was a perfect blend of sixties psychedelia and modern rock. They had an intense light/film show as well, which only enhanced the music.

The second band, The Quarter After, had to endure “You suck!” before even playing a note — not sure what was up with him (and I hoped he’d get kicked out), but dammit if he wasn’t right. Not that the band didn’t shred on guitar, but that was about it — their songs were pretty lame — especially after a show as good as Innaway put on.

Well, after that I think you can tell what happened from the above — Anton from the Brian Jonestown Massacre apparently fancied himself a DJ and proceeded to burn an hour playing (mostly) lame music, although his choice of “Shine On” by The House Of Love was stellar. People all around were rumbling about how long it was taking in between sets and how upset and hot they were getting. With good reason, in my opinion. Maybe he was trying to clear out all the people who came out strictly because they saw Dig! — and good lord, they were out in droves (go figure) — but it was pretty annoying. Almost like he was playing up to it.

Here’s what one fan had to say about the Houston show on the BJM message board:

…for all practical purposes, the BJM show in Houston was a bust. Anton made his presence known early in the night by working the sound board for the 2 opening bands and getting on the house mike to yell at the second band to turn their treble down, while everyone in the house could see they were having equipment problems, thereby throwing them off for at least 3 or 4 songs. When the BJM got ready to play around 11:30 [much later, actually], Anton addressed the crowd that the air conditioning in the south had robbed him of his voice, but because he loved Texas, he was not going to cancel the Texas shows. As soon as “Whoever You Are” began, it was apparent that his voice was notes away from being blown completely, which it was after “Let Me Stand Next to your Flower,” the 2nd song. So we got a LOT of jamming. Although I expected one 30 minute jam I was suprised to get THREE 20+ “tunes” (I believe they were called “something in E” and “drone in G”: the loudness & mix made every instrument blend into a one chord mush, but kudos to the drummer, who kept going even when he was clearly blown out). There was a bit of heckling, which Anton totally encouraged, but the HUGE crowd was clearly supporting his antics the whole way. Around 1:30 when “Swallowtail” entered its 20th minute with no sign of ending, even though the rest of the band looked as bored as the audience, it was time for me to go.

I truly love this band, and was glad to see them, but with the shape of Anton’s voice, the show should’ve been cancelled. For those of you going to see them in Austin tonite, get ready to bored out of your gourd, as there’s NO way Anton’s going to be able to sing.

That pretty much sums it all up. I should have known it would never get better than seeing them at Cactus and Rudz a couple of years ago. If not for Innaway, I probably wouldn’t have bothered to go.

One good thing to come out of the night was that I am 100% sure that Innaway made some new fans. The crowd was into them before the first song was even finished. They put on an amazing show and you shoud check out their new self-titled CD. Check them out at the Some Records website: www.some.com

Now Playing in My iPod: David Garza — Overdub