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Back in the first part of this century, I
spent most nights standing around watching
live music. It was my hobby, i suppose,
although part of it was fed by this site and
my quest for content...
Anyone still reading will have noticed that
the quest for content has kind of fallen by
the wayside, a victim of the pressing needs of
middle age.
And then I had some bad health issues, and
lost a lot of time where I could not
physically even go to concerts, and, well,
time has passed. The most recent concert
review posted on EvilSponge is from when i saw
Amenra open for
Voivod and Yob in Hell at the Masquerade,
back in April of 2019. Of course this is
right before the world kind of ended for a
while.
But the world is back! Back to work, back to
everything that happened before, except now
there are hand sanitizer dispensers
everywhere, and occasionally you see someone
in a mask.
And i have kind of been getting back into
going to concerts. This is my fourth concert
of 2024, as I try to work concert-going back
into my life.
I arrived at The Variety Playhouse around 8
PM. I located a seat that I could use, since
my legs are still a little iffy. And then I
watched the crowd.
Duster are a band from the late 1990s, a
lingering remnant of the old slowcore
movement, and for some reason they are popular
with younger listeners. I was definitely the
old guy at the bar during this show, my gray
hair and cane getting a few surprised glances.
The opening act started at about 8:10. Dirty
Art Club is a DJ, so the stage had a table set
up with two laptops.
His music seemed to be loops of old 70s music
with fuzzy hip-hop beats. The overall effect
reminded me a lot of that "Lo-fi Beats for
Studying" infinite YouTube playlist. Well,
actually I think whoever does that YouTube
channel is a little better at the transitions
between tunes than Dirty Art Club was, since
occasionally the change disrupted the overall
mellow groove of the show.
But it was pleasant, a kind of modern lounge
music. No one was dancing through, and most of
the people around me just stared, not even
bopping their heads to the beats. I found the
lack of interaction to be a little strange,
but that might be a current culture thing and
not the fault of the musician.
But it was okay for an opener. And the good
thing is that after a half hour set and about
5 minutes to move his gear off, the stage was
set for the headliner.
The four members of Duster meandered on after
about 20 minutes, and then they had to tune
for 3 minutes. Why couldn't the guitars have
been turned beforehand? I seem to remember
that is how this normally works. And for the
first three songs the band played, the drums
were way over micced and feeding back,
drowning out some of the rest of the sound.
That just seemed unprofessional to me. With
all of the time between acts, why couldn't
someone have tuned the guitars and made sure
the drums were set up right?
It was very strange that this did not happen.
But after those hiccups to start the show,
Duster played a great set for about an hour.
The whole atmosphere at the show was casual,
with the band taking a few minutes to retune
before each song, and the crowd milling about
respectfully but not very loudly.
The second track was Orbitron off of
their 1997 debut EP, and oddly enough this got
the kids moshing, slowly, people happily
jostling around in front of the stage. After
that I noticed a lot of people at the show
doing the post-rock dance, which involves
standing still, usually with arms crossed,
bopping their head to the beat. Duster also
played three tracks off of their
yet-to-be-released fifth album, all of which
sounded good and similar to their other
material, and they and even covered a song
from one member's side project.
The show built nicely, and ended with Constellations
and Echo, Bravo off of their classic
1998 LP Stratosphere. It was a
little over an hour long set, but very
enjoyable.
The band put on a good low key set of
enjoyable tunes, and I was still back home to
rest these old bones by 11 pm. That's a pretty
good night.
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