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Artists:
  MASERATI w/ Moreland Audio and Paper Lions  
 
Date:
  Friday.8.February.2002  
 
Venue:
  The Earl  
 
Location:
  East Atlanta, GA  
 
Reviewed by:
  PostLibyan  
         
 
Performance Rating:
   
 
Sound Quality:
   
 
Overall Rating:
   
         
 
Review:
 

Yet another Friday. Yet another long work week over and done with, and high time for Zythos, Tracers, and i to head out to see some bands and grab a beer or two. Tonight's festivities: math rock at the Earl. More my type of music than theirs, but its good to have company sometimes.

We were running quite late and did not get to The Earl until a little after 11 PM. I was worried that we would miss the first act, The Paper Lions. However, silly me, i forgot to take into account the Time Warp of East Atlanta -- we were able to enjoy a full 15 minutes of their set.

The Paper Lions are what's left of mathy Atlanta band Some Soviet Station. I never saw SSS, so i don't know how the two compare. However, the 15 minutes of The Paper Lions that i saw were quite nice. They are a louder math rock band: i guess more emphasis on the Rock than on the Math. But they still used strange time signatures and that jerky start / stop type of rhythm that is typical of the genre.

Not a bad start to the show. I wouldn't mind seeing them again.

The next act was the real attraction for us Minions: Moreland Audio. This is the band formed out of the ashes of the legendary Purkinje Shift. We were all pretty big Purkinje Shift fans back in the day, and it was a pleasure to be able to see Gary Flom and Benjamin Davis still at it. The two of them are amazing guitarists, and they have a great chemistry together. They play really complicated guitar music, the type that you need a protractor and some graph paper to dance to, yet it still seems somewhat organic. There is something about their performance that seems more alive than a lot of the math rock i have seen. I can't put my finger on it, but i think that it stems from the human relation between the two -- they are so familiar with each other's playing that it comes across more like jazz. That is, the melody flows and grows and is passed between the two guitars, unconsciously and naturally.

That's what The Minions came to see, and that's what we got. Flom and Davis are incredible on stage together, and their new drummer is developing quite nicely. This is the second Moreland Audio show i have seen, and i think that this drummer's more "rock" sound (as opposed to the light jazz feel of the old Purkinje drummer) works fairly well with the guitar interplay.

Plus, there is that amazing song where Flom is playing slide guitar! Wow -- that's a good one. So my recommendation to anyone who happens to be in Atlanta and enjoys complex guitar work: check out Moreland Audio if you get the chance.

The headliner tonight was Maserati, who i had never heard of. However, when they took the stage sometime after 12:50 i realized that i had seen this band before. Sort of. There is a significant overlap between Maserati and Splint, Athens' Slint cover band.

I know that Slint are credited as being one of the first post rock bands, but i always thought that they sounded more like June of 44 than Mogwai. There is serious complexity to the rhythms, while i associate post rock with slow, simple, plodding rhythms and complex melodic interplay. I guess S(p)lint fall halfway between post rock and math rock.

Maserati are more Mogwai than they are Slint. They played long songs of chiming guitar interplay. At times it reminded me of the guitar-heavy sections of Do Make Say Think's most recent album. It was really nice and relaxing music, but, for a Minion suffering from sinus problems and overwork, it was far too mellow for a smokey beer-filled club at 1 AM on a workday! So after a few minutes, when i found myself nodding off, we headed for home.

Maybe someday i will see Maserati play a longer show. I really liked what i heard, but, well, the entire Atlanta Music Community conspired to prevent me from seeing them. I rant about this to fellow Minions all the time, and i rant here every once in a while. It's been a while so it's time to get up on the soapbox and yell:

Why do concerts have to start so damned late in Atlanta? Don't the venue owners understand that five days out of the week most humans have to be somewhere at 9 AM?

Basically, i would have liked to have seen Maserati, but they didn't start playing until pracically 1 AM. By that time i had been awake for 18 hours, and still had to drive home. So why the heck did things get started so late? Judging by the fact that they played for 15 minutes after we got there at 11, The Paper Lions, who were the first band, didn't start until after 10:30!!!!

After 10:30? Most people are asleep by then!

And that, i think, is the answer here. Or at least, in my current state of winter induced paranoia it is. Basically, Music People want to separate themselves from The Washed and Groomed Wasses Who Work. Being a musician/club owner/bartender/soundman is like never leaving college: you stay up til 4 AM drinking beer and then sleep until after noon.

People who actually are awake before 9 am are, to the bulk of people in the Atlanta music community, "dorks". The attitude really pisses me off. It is discriminatory, plain and simple. Atlanta music venues discriminate against people who work normal 9 to 5 jobs.

And that really really pisses me off, especially since i work 9 to 5 job.

So to Maserati i have to say "I guess that, since i work in an office, i'm not cool enough to have seen this show". That's the message that The Earl (and a lot of other local venues) are sending me by starting their shows so damned late.

URGH!!!!!

Okay, i'll shut up now. This whole thing just REALLY pisses me off. Why can't shows start at 8 PM? Why does nothing get started in ATL until after 10 at night?

And why don't these damned places that insist on doing everything way after the sun goes down at least serve coffee?????

 
         
 
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