4/11/09: Blonde Acid Cult, Apache Beat & The Violens @ Santos Party House (79/100)
I finally managed to make my way to Santos Party House – a still fairly unknown venue in Chinatown. It’s a weird place, in a weird place (where there isn’t a ton of nightlife). It’s one party music venue, one part nightclub, and was started by Andrew WK. There aren’t bands playing there every night. In fact, it seems like it might not even open the other nights.
There are all these signs hanging up everywhere – like the one above, which pretty much sumps up this venue. Perhaps the best part about Santos, at least last night, is how it’s still under the radar enough that it wasn’t all that crowded. Maybe that’s because of the caliber of bands playing? Probably. But I was fine with it since sold out crowds are getting a bit old.
The other nice thing about tonight’s show was that it was early. My friend Jeremy and I rolled up there a little past 8pm, and the second band on the bill, Blonde Acid Cult, was already in the middle of their set. And damn did they sound good. Oh, that’s the other thing. Santos sounds amazing. Seriously, incredible. Loud, mind you. But really, really good.
This band immediately reminded me of a few bands — none of which I can put unfortunately put my finger on. Except maybe the Libertines. But I think that may have had to do with attitude more than sound. They were good snotty punks. The singer/guitar player threw the headstock of his guitar into the other guitar player, who kept playing as if that happens all the time. The singer then whipped his guitar around, slamming it into amps, onto the stage, knocking shit over – that sort of thing. Which is awesome. It may have felt a little forced here and there, but I still liked it. The preciousness of indie rock bands these days can get a bit sickening. So it’s nice to see a band fuck shit up.
When they finished up, they definitely left me wanting more. I can’t say the same for Apache Beat. In fact, I can comfortably say that whoever booked this show did it in the wrong order, as the music got progressively worse.
Apache Beat started out strong, got boring in the middle, and finished kinda strong. I couldn’t put my finger on who they sounded like either. Jeremy said, “Maybe Siouxsie and the Banshees?” That seemed about right. Not so sure if that’s a good thing though. The singer was attempting to be interesting. Imagine if Karen O had an older sister who wasn’t nearly as crazy…or cool. Ok, maybe stop thinking of Karen O, actually. That’s not fair (to Karen O).
After Apache Beat was the headliners for tonight: The Violens. Before I get into this, I have to give props to Jeremy for deciding to hit up Santos earlier rather than later. I just assumed show up for the headliner. Jeremy actually checked out the myspace pages for all the bands on the bill, and said the earlier ones seemed worth checking out, too. And he right because The Violens suuuuuuucked.
I hate to be an a-hole about this, but I have to call ‘em like I see ‘em. And this band was just flat boring. One song in, Jeremy turns to me and says, “Is this a Cure cover band?” To which I replied, “I know, I’m bored already.” The intros to their songs were often solid, but lead to nothing. Just mopey, whiny New Wave crap. And not even good New Wave. I hate that shit, but I can at least appreciate it when its done well. And this is not one of those times.
If one song could fight another song, any one of the Blonde Acid Cult’s songs would kick the living shit out of The Violens mopey crap. Hell, if a band name could beat up another band name, the same applies. But I was there, and felt I owed it to them to watch their entire set, as I’ve done with every band I’ve seen for the last 79 days. Sometimes bands who started weak finished strong. Sometimes it goes the other way, and other times they just never get it going and suck the whole time. This was one of those times.
