Did anyone see Smog in NYC/Philly/other recent dates?

the show was dogged with technical difficulties and the people who were overseeing the gig had no idea how to set them right.

1) the venue was dark and Bill complained that he couldn't see his guitar and asked if he could have some more light - their solution was to switch on a fluorescent strip light over his head :|

2) his micrphone wasn't working properly and bill asked one of light/sound guy if he knew how to stop ot swaying from side to side but no one knew how to do that.

3/ the sound was horrible but the sound engineer had no idea how to sort that out either! on 2 seperate occasions Jim White got up from his drumkit and walked across the venue through the crowd to fiddle with the mixing board himself.

Bill was in a foul mood as a result of all this and the gig felt really flat. because of all of these factors they played for a relatively short period of time only to have all the lights in the venue go on during the first song of the encore (closing time/licensing issues) at which point bill asked "i take it that means the gig's over?" he finished the song and they dispersed off the stage while everyone got rushed out.

apart from all this they actually sounded pretty good! Bill is a surprisingly engaging and slightly loopy performer. it was the 4th time i have seen him so i didn't mind as much as most of the audience did. Bill and Jim White were definitely furious though.

He was really great that night -- I think Nina's music is probably the best vehicle for him other than the Dirty Three.

Listen harder!

-- Ian John50n (dr.carl.saga...), August 14th, 2005.

Do you have a link to any of there stuff? I'd give it another chance. The sound man did kind of a bad job and it was hard to hear some of the instruments.

I was supposed to go to that Drag City show. Had to go home at the last minute and then found out I could give the four tickets I had bought to someone else because I had to show up in person to pick them up. Fucking Ticket Web.

xposts

Seeing him again, with Callahan, it was like "holy shit yeah now i remember why he's my favourite drummer in the world", and it even inspired me to make this image to send to my friend, titled "best drummer in the world" (sorry for the size):

http://homepage.mac.com/said_the/drummer.jpg

-- Ian John50n (dr.carl.saga...), August 14th, 2005.

I don't, but I think yahoo accepts pretty big files now too. I know I can at least get a track at a time.

You can send it to my login account. Thx.

Hurting - I think of an electric bass as an electric guitar with a longer neck. So it works either way.

Speaking of which, is anyone sharing their tour EP? I really need a copy of that...

will we see you in NYC? we're doing like 4 shows.

A lot of my favorite bands can be described this way!

I loved the venue -- La Sala Rossa; a red room (natch) with lovely atmosphere, great sound, a red curtain in front of the stage, and chandeliers.

Feathers didn't bother with the curtain but Bill did; it creaked closed just before Smog's set then creaked open again and the band came out -- Bill, Colleen, and Jason Dezember. I was very disappointed that there was no Jim White to be seen, although the drum kit was all set up; I kept thinking that he would make a grand entrance any moment, but he never did. So the first half, approx, of the set was drum-less, and mostly off "A River..." (we didn't get "The Well" either, but I loved "Let Me See the Colts", which is haunting me at the mo). They kicked right off with "Say Valley Maker" and I wanted to scream and gnash my teeth and say "No! No! You can't do this without percussion -- we need that gorgeous rollicking bit that Jim does after '...came galloping back'!" but to my relief it was lovely, even with just two guitars and a bass.

Then they walked off the stage after an hour and we were all wtf? but they came back out again forthwith andJason put down his guitar and got on the drums. I shall just say delicately that he is a better guitarist than a drummer, but he did not do a shabby job. They were tighter last time I saw them, in 2001, though. We cornered Colleen when she went to the loo post-gig and she told us Jim couldn't get a visa to play in Canada (grr), so I guess they were without him in Toronto too.

At some point Bill asked the lighting guy to turn off the stage lights and put on the chandeliers -- he liked the chandeliers and commented on them a lot. So there we all stood, exposed to Bill's gimlet eye, but we all felt the love. He was in a good mood. At one point he was kind of running his hand through his hair over and over, waiting for Jason to get organized, then he suddenly realized what he was doing and gave us this little smile and said "I have such a fine head of hair, don't I?" We smirked. "You can all line up and feel it later," he said, but he didn't deliver on that. Ratbag.

at the glasgow show there was an interlude between the support bands and smog where two old glaswegian staff / regulars of the grand ole opry had a gunfight on the dancefloor. smog was touring with a v. v. good violinist at that time. I seem to remember someone also did a somersault straight onto his back while "dancing" on the dancefloor.

at atp it was just bill alone on stage with a small amp. he did a lot marching on the spot and rocking his neck from side to side. he is so great.

jim white was fantastic.