No Rock And Roll Fun

ASH SPLASH FASH HASH... Okay, it's not actually a headline, it's just a lot of rhyming words: Becky Bamboo sees Ash in San Fransisco, and she's smitten...

The sun was still above the horizon when I parked the car and headed to Slim's. There's something just not right about going to a rock show when the sun is up. Rock music thrives in the shadows, in the cramped space between the walls. The sun seems to burn off all the danger. Daylight is safe. Light is certainty. Give me the recklessness of night, the ambiguity of darkness. Or, you know, tickets to the Live 105 BFD all day festival with Interpol and the White Stripes next month. Me and my SPF 60 sublock will be front row center.

First up was a local band from San Francisco named rubbersidedown. They were okay in a perfectly razor-cut, expensive highlights, just dabbling kind of way. I was seriously getting distracted by the fabulous haircut the bass player had. Not to mention the single dangling earring in his left ear. The music was all right. There were a couple of decent songs and the rest were just filler.

You know, I've been wondering lately about my ability to appreciate new bands. I keep going to show after show and my notes are all the same for the opening bands, "generic" "okay" "I've heard worse". I keep thinking maybe I'm in a rut. That I've hit that point at which you stop being able to recognize genius. Am I now just one of those old fogeys who automatically think everything is crap? Luckily the Space Twins came out before I could start freaking out too much. First thing I wrote, halfway into the first song, "now these guys I *LIKE*." The singer looked totally familiar and reminded me of that guy in Weezer. Which is cool because I found out today it actually is the guy from Weezer. Yes, I'm an idiot. Anyway. The songs were great, ranging from dreamy shoegazer type to all out 70's rockers. The entire set had a very Velvet Goldmine feel to it. There were some absolutely gorgeous melodies and great guitar hooks. I'm totally buying their cd. (I would've gotten it at the show but I didn't want to lose my place in front for Ash and the line was crazy insane afterward.)

And then we had Ash. I've come late to Ash but am enthusiastically making up for lost time. Tim was wearing jeans and an orange Datsuns t-shirt with the sleeves cut off and Charlotte was in a jeans miniskirt, fishnets, and a black tanktop with sparkles around the arms. And she was barefoot too. They started out hard, with a couple of songs I hadn't heard before. They played a few new ones (telling us they'd be back early next year with a new album) and a bunch of hits: Angel Interceptor, Shining Light, Jack Names the Planets, Walking Barefoot, Sometimes, Girl From Mars, before closing with a furious rendition of Kung Fu. They only did one encore (a new song, Envy - which I still don't like very much, and Burn, Baby Burn). They ended up playing for a little over an hour, but that's totally cool because they put on a great, energetic show. Tim totally bops all around and is damn sexy playing that guitar. I still think Rhett has him beat on that front, but with a few more hip swivels thrown in there Tim could make it a close call. Especially if he broke out those adorable dimples. ANYWAY. I took pictures. Oh yes, I did. I'll try and post them next week. If you're nice I'll even include the one of him all tied up in my garage.