Special Events Week

I saw a bit of music this week, but in most cases I left wondering why I bothered. I first forayed out to the Westheimer Block Party. Those of you who have spent some time in Hate Town may be familiar with the Westheimer Street Festival, which was a proper street festival where a half mile or so of the afflicted street was closed off and people wandered around buying incense, organic food, and things made of wicker, all while wearing a rented snake. Oh and there was music too. Oh how I hated it. That was years ago. By contrast, the Westheimer Block Festival this year took place on a block and the street was not closed off and the primary focus seemed to be the music. Too bad because the music was largely forgettable. The bands I saw were more interested in being cute than playing music. In fact, the only band I saw that wasn't horribly cloying was a band from Austin which apparently featured at least one of the Fuckemos (having never seen Fuckemos live I can't say for sure). What made this band more tolerable? Well, for one they did a drop D version of "Immigrant Song." And they were in tune for the entire three songs I watched. Yes, that's how low the bar is now. It almost makes me long for the days of rented snakes.

The next day I sampled a bit of the ktru Outdoor Show. I didn't have high hopes for this at all, but it was a really nice day so it seemed like sitting on the grass listening to some windblown music was the right thing to do. But then I got there. The band that won the Rice battle of the bands was playing as I walked up and they were so bad I nearly turned around. I would hate to hear some of the bands that lost that competition. And they weren't even bad in an interesting tried and experiment and failed kind of way. They were just bland strummy rock poorly executed and sung off pitch. Where are all the competent musicians? They didn't even have the decency to keep their set brief. At one point they announced that they were going to keep playing until people got up and danced. As if these people can dance. It was at this point that they went from passively bad to downright malicious.

Next up, after a long set change was a noise band. There were lots of bleeps and sounds that were similar to static. I think there may have been a theremin. After all, anybody can play noise theremin. This is a genre that doesn't work in an outdoor environment where much of the sound is carried away by the wind. And what is noise without the sonic impact? It just turns into ambient music that nobody pays attention to.

After another long set change came the Balaclavas. Shockingly their first song sounded akin to Gang of Four. Subsequent numbers sounded like Joy Division. On the third song, the singer began singing through a muffler. Props. Awesome. That's when I left.

The week wasn't a total wash, however, because I did see Negativland last night. The last time I saw them, some eight years ago, they presented a full multimedia extravaganza. This time around, though, they did a long, focused piece on God and religion in the style of their weekly radio show. I'm not sure I liked this show more than the last, but it was still very good.