Friday with the Horn Steady
Dec 8, 2019 6:25:28 GMT -5
Rich Tarbell, bigontheinside, and 1 more like this
Post by orzelc on Dec 8, 2019 6:25:28 GMT -5
Something to salvage your sermons from:
As we’ve done three of the last four years, my birthday present from my wife was a ticket for the Friday Massive Nights show and soundcheck. When we got the email with details about the soundcheck, it included a request for people to email in questions to ask the band. The thing that immediately came to mind was “A lot of the new songs have horn parts; have you ever considered recruiting a brass section for a live show?” We’ve been going through a crazy period at work, though, so I didn’t get around to sending it, but filed it away as something to consider asking if they took questions from the floor.
When I arrived for the sound check, though, and got on the line outside the Brooklyn Bowl, we could hear the band inside running through some songs. They were doing either “Banging Camp” or “Entitlement Crew,” one of the tunes where there’s a definite pause then the band comes crashing back in, with a horn part in the studio recording. And lo and behold, there was an audible horn part. I said “Whoa, horns!” and one of the guys in front of me said “Maybe it’s Franz on the keys?” but then it came again, and we all said “No, those are live horns.”
So, anyway, that was a question crossed off the list…
(Also considered: "Will there be a deluxe with-bonus-tracks reissue of Heaven Is Whenever?" and "Why do you never play 'Our Whole Lives' live?" but I doubt either would get answered...)
The soundcheck event went pretty much as it did last year-- they played a couple of songs that made the set later that night, and a couple of rarities that had been played the night before (“Arms and Hearts” and the brand new song that’s definitely not named “Frog”). The highlight of the Q&A was probably the moderator, fiction writer Adam Wilson, setting up a question about nostalgia saying “The title character in ‘Blackout Sam’ is someone whose time has passed, I think…” to which Craig said “Passed? I think he’s dead.”
Craig was sounding pretty hoarse at the sound check, so I was a little worried heading into the show, but they came out hard and fast (set list), with a lot of energy. At the start of the eighth song, “T-Shirt Tux,” they brought out “The Horn Steady,” Stuart Bogie on sax and Jordan McLean on trumpet, who played for the next handful of tracks, took a few off, then came back for “Entitlement Crew,” “Banging Camp,” and “Massive Nights.” I played trumpet up through high school, so I’m a total sucker for live brass parts, and this was more or less exactly what I hoped for. The horn parts work best on songs where they’re somewhat isolated-- on “Blackout Sam,” and coming in after the break on “Entitlement Crew” and “Banging Camp.” On “Massive Nights,” they were pretty well drowned out by the “Whoa-oh-oh-oh” from the crowd, though.
I don’t know anything about Bogie and McLean, so I’m not sure how much they play live vs. in the studio. There were definitely some moments where they seemed to have a “Holy shit…” look, particularly early on, but everyone seemed to be having a grand time. At one point in “Banging Camp,” I saw Tad talking to them during a verse, and when the “La-la-la-la” backing vocal that he would normally do came up, he stepped back, and they ran up to his mic to do the part, then ran back to their own mics stage left. (I think that got an extra cheer, but it was hard to tell…)
It was also interesting to do a little compare-and-contrast, because they played both “Blackout Sam” and “Hostile, Mass” at the sound check without the Horn Steady, and then with the live brass in the actual show. Tad, Steve, and Franz fill those out pretty well, but there’s a definite extra element added by live horns.
(In many ways, though, the coolest bit of “Blackout Sam” both times was Tad and Steve doing the guitar “solo” in unison.)
There was a nice head-fake at the end of “Massive Nights” when Craig did his “The chaperone said… The chaperone said…” thing that has in the past often led into “Citrus,” but instead he gestured to Tad who started “Stuck Between Stations.” There was some sort of glitch with Galen’s amp at the end of Stations, which held things up, otherwise I think the transition from Stations to Hoodrat would’ve been amazing; whatever the bass problem was continued through Hoodrat, but in the song they covered it with extended guitar noodling from Steve and Tad during the bridge.
The encore was entirely Almost Killed Me tracks, starting with “Certain Songs,” which I’m not sure I’ve heard live before; definitely not just Franz and Craig for the first verses. Then “The Swish,” “Hostile, Mass” with the live sax solo, and of course “Killer Parties.”
Definitely a high-energy show-- the only slow songs in the main set were “Blackout Sam” and “One for the Cutters,” neither of which can be said to lack intensity. A couple of different people said during the wait for the show that Friday is kind of a sweet spot crowd-wise; I can’t speak to that only having been to Friday shows in these residencies, but there was definitely good energy.
Obligatory unified scene report content: I talked briefly with some people I definitely know from online and past shows-- Kyle, Brendan (who deftly extracted himself from talking to the extremely drunk guy next to me), and Rich (with whom I commiserated about the problems of being a tall guy at a rock show)-- and several other people who I hadn’t met previously and whose names I forget because I drank a LOT while the happy-hour pricing was in effect. Galen and Tad both commented on my “Obscure Pop Culture Reference” T-shirt, so I feel vindicated in my wardrobe choices...
Anyway, a great time as always. I wasn’t all that fired up about moving quickly Saturday morning, but managed to make my way to Penn Station in time for my train to Albany, and got enough of a nap to be nearly human by the time I got home. One of these years, maybe I’ll swing more than one night in Brooklyn.
As we’ve done three of the last four years, my birthday present from my wife was a ticket for the Friday Massive Nights show and soundcheck. When we got the email with details about the soundcheck, it included a request for people to email in questions to ask the band. The thing that immediately came to mind was “A lot of the new songs have horn parts; have you ever considered recruiting a brass section for a live show?” We’ve been going through a crazy period at work, though, so I didn’t get around to sending it, but filed it away as something to consider asking if they took questions from the floor.
When I arrived for the sound check, though, and got on the line outside the Brooklyn Bowl, we could hear the band inside running through some songs. They were doing either “Banging Camp” or “Entitlement Crew,” one of the tunes where there’s a definite pause then the band comes crashing back in, with a horn part in the studio recording. And lo and behold, there was an audible horn part. I said “Whoa, horns!” and one of the guys in front of me said “Maybe it’s Franz on the keys?” but then it came again, and we all said “No, those are live horns.”
So, anyway, that was a question crossed off the list…
(Also considered: "Will there be a deluxe with-bonus-tracks reissue of Heaven Is Whenever?" and "Why do you never play 'Our Whole Lives' live?" but I doubt either would get answered...)
The soundcheck event went pretty much as it did last year-- they played a couple of songs that made the set later that night, and a couple of rarities that had been played the night before (“Arms and Hearts” and the brand new song that’s definitely not named “Frog”). The highlight of the Q&A was probably the moderator, fiction writer Adam Wilson, setting up a question about nostalgia saying “The title character in ‘Blackout Sam’ is someone whose time has passed, I think…” to which Craig said “Passed? I think he’s dead.”
Craig was sounding pretty hoarse at the sound check, so I was a little worried heading into the show, but they came out hard and fast (set list), with a lot of energy. At the start of the eighth song, “T-Shirt Tux,” they brought out “The Horn Steady,” Stuart Bogie on sax and Jordan McLean on trumpet, who played for the next handful of tracks, took a few off, then came back for “Entitlement Crew,” “Banging Camp,” and “Massive Nights.” I played trumpet up through high school, so I’m a total sucker for live brass parts, and this was more or less exactly what I hoped for. The horn parts work best on songs where they’re somewhat isolated-- on “Blackout Sam,” and coming in after the break on “Entitlement Crew” and “Banging Camp.” On “Massive Nights,” they were pretty well drowned out by the “Whoa-oh-oh-oh” from the crowd, though.
I don’t know anything about Bogie and McLean, so I’m not sure how much they play live vs. in the studio. There were definitely some moments where they seemed to have a “Holy shit…” look, particularly early on, but everyone seemed to be having a grand time. At one point in “Banging Camp,” I saw Tad talking to them during a verse, and when the “La-la-la-la” backing vocal that he would normally do came up, he stepped back, and they ran up to his mic to do the part, then ran back to their own mics stage left. (I think that got an extra cheer, but it was hard to tell…)
It was also interesting to do a little compare-and-contrast, because they played both “Blackout Sam” and “Hostile, Mass” at the sound check without the Horn Steady, and then with the live brass in the actual show. Tad, Steve, and Franz fill those out pretty well, but there’s a definite extra element added by live horns.
(In many ways, though, the coolest bit of “Blackout Sam” both times was Tad and Steve doing the guitar “solo” in unison.)
There was a nice head-fake at the end of “Massive Nights” when Craig did his “The chaperone said… The chaperone said…” thing that has in the past often led into “Citrus,” but instead he gestured to Tad who started “Stuck Between Stations.” There was some sort of glitch with Galen’s amp at the end of Stations, which held things up, otherwise I think the transition from Stations to Hoodrat would’ve been amazing; whatever the bass problem was continued through Hoodrat, but in the song they covered it with extended guitar noodling from Steve and Tad during the bridge.
The encore was entirely Almost Killed Me tracks, starting with “Certain Songs,” which I’m not sure I’ve heard live before; definitely not just Franz and Craig for the first verses. Then “The Swish,” “Hostile, Mass” with the live sax solo, and of course “Killer Parties.”
Definitely a high-energy show-- the only slow songs in the main set were “Blackout Sam” and “One for the Cutters,” neither of which can be said to lack intensity. A couple of different people said during the wait for the show that Friday is kind of a sweet spot crowd-wise; I can’t speak to that only having been to Friday shows in these residencies, but there was definitely good energy.
Obligatory unified scene report content: I talked briefly with some people I definitely know from online and past shows-- Kyle, Brendan (who deftly extracted himself from talking to the extremely drunk guy next to me), and Rich (with whom I commiserated about the problems of being a tall guy at a rock show)-- and several other people who I hadn’t met previously and whose names I forget because I drank a LOT while the happy-hour pricing was in effect. Galen and Tad both commented on my “Obscure Pop Culture Reference” T-shirt, so I feel vindicated in my wardrobe choices...
Anyway, a great time as always. I wasn’t all that fired up about moving quickly Saturday morning, but managed to make my way to Penn Station in time for my train to Albany, and got enough of a nap to be nearly human by the time I got home. One of these years, maybe I’ll swing more than one night in Brooklyn.
