No, not the guy in the poncho - we were hangin' back in the seats.
I was slightly bummin' on 'Shot' material, and frankly, I think we (myself and maybe Ippy) may have been responsible for that, now that I think about it (Dave Sims came in here on the 'Shot' post and had some choice words. Like an idiot, after telling him what I thought - politely and respectfully, mind you - I said 'See you in Atlanta'. I guess the Lizard got the last laugh!). And no 'Slaveship' was a serious downer. BUT, as you said, an 'okay' JL gig is many lesser bands best of career showing, so very minor gripes there.
I like All The Saints, but they play pretty much every mid-level 'guitar rock' show in town as there's no one else at the same level. All of the other bands are either too huge to open (Deerhunter, Black Lips, Torche whoever) or too small to draw (Untied States, HAWKS, etc.). ATS have been playing the same set, by and large, for the last year plus and, frankly, they could really benefit from another guitarist who knows a chord or two. To their credit, they've been pulling back on their more 'shoegazery' leanings (ridiculous amounts of delay and reverb) and the drummer has restrained his James Brown impressions (jumping out from behind the kit after every songs and really playing up his 'rockness' - it was gettin' ooollld). However, in doing so, their weaknesses come a bit more in focus - namely the guitarist and bassist play next to nothing. They NEED another guitarist to pull it all together, their drummer, as awesome as he is, cannot do it on his own and clearly can't handle the attention either, LOLZ!
I only say this because they are ALMOST amazing. But if you and most of the other people you know are rolling their eyes when they see you on a bill - and these are the people who actually LIKE you - you're doing it wrong. I would really like to see them take that next step towards being a classic rather than a 'remember those guys? They were OK'. Fuck 'OK'.
