Couches on Fire

A Morgantown Area Music and Culture Blog

Monday, April 16, 2007

The Week That Was

Things have been slow around these pages lately. My bad. I've seen a lot of music lately, so let me fill you in:

Saturday, 4/7: Caught Thred at 123 Pleasant Street. I had a great time. It's hard for Thred to impress me anymore, since I've seen them so many times. On this night I thought they sounded funky and on point, and found myself really digging what they were doing and listening with more focus than usual. A couple of the band members weren't happy with the show afterwards, so it shows what I know.

Monday, 4/9: Big Ass Mantee's masks were creepy in a good way. That band is fun, and they've set the bar pretty high for onstage outfits. I beleive they'll continue to one-up themselves. Kid Koala was great. I'm not a DJ guy, but was impressed and entertained. The bar was pretty full, and it was weird to be out - the vibes inside re-inforced that notion. It was a Monday after all.

Tuesday, 4/10: Desperate to see a show outside 123, I headed to Pittsburgh to see Widespread Panic and I don't know why. This band, unlike many other bands who are the opposite, is LESS than the sum of it's parts. Dave Schools is great, and I love his work with Jerry Joseph and J.Mascis. John Bell writes good tunes. Jimmy Herring is as good of a guitar player as is living today. Together, what do you get? Boredom. Jesus christ people, can we lay off the bongos for five minutes? I did see one pillar of the local music scene up in the 'burgh for the show, hanging his head hoping no one would see him. You know who you are.

Saturday, 4/14: Treehugger's Ball at Sunshine Daydream. '85 Flood played our second show as a rock n' roll band and it went well. Had to play for a half an hour longer than we have material for, and a long drawn out version of Neil Young's "Down By the River" did the trick. I don't think the hippies seemed to mind. Avett Brothers headlined, and I think they are my favorite band going right now. How do they do it? I don't know. I'm blow away by everything that band touches. They were so good, I'm considering driving to NYC for their CD Release show. Too much? Nah, not for the Avett's. Drew Emmitt Band closed things out as the latenight band and were an alcohal fueled high paced good time. They closed with a cover of Townes Van Zandt's "White Freightliner Blues" and I couldn't have been happier. That is until the next morning when I had to have that "I'm never drinking again...." conversation with myself. But that's a story for another time.

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