State Champs/Weasel Face Judge/Thrush Hermit Arrived at birdland at 11:30pm to find state champs just beginning their set (woo hoo!)...its a good show but nothing can compete with the humor & laidback charm of their gravitee pop exp appearance:) Some new songs,some old ones (has "she's a struggle" been renamed?). Drummer for wfg tells me he likes them a lot. Ended abruptly...electrical shocks from the mic the problem? Weasel Face Judge next. Zappa-esque, weird tempo changes, excellent musicianship but theirs was the longest set of the evening & i found myself getting really sleepy...their last epic (we're playing 1 more song) easily approached the 10 min mark. No "bacon n egg bicycle":( Thrush Hermit...new songs full of catchy riffs & 70s rock influences (cheesy power chord type stuff, though shant claims to see a lot of springsteen), notably "north dakota" (ooo i love this 1!) & "at my expense" (james says they have yet to write a bad song...oh yeah? what about the 1 that rhymes "overwhelm" & "helm"?:) + great pacific ocean ep. The last song before the encore featured a leap off of the stage by joel, who, with guitar in hand, made 1 enthusiastic birdland patron happy by "dancing" with her while she played air guitar (oh the joys of bar shows:). Big crowd, weird combo of bands (mostly wfg, tho TH seemed to enjoy them), *late* show, great night, no mucheast camera! ......kat,5am
PS hey mike...other klr covers i remember: the casino taxi song, the who's "the seeker", a public enemy song (the 1 that goes "1989!...). hmmm...which fugazi song? its a possibility... PPS if i've already posted this to the list i apologize;)
