Chavez, Not Hugo
Seeing Chavez play at the Warsaw this weekend was a frikkin dream come true, and the band confessed the same. They love us. We love them. Sound at the Warsaw is kind of primitive. Imagine the acoustics of a show in a high school gymnasium and you pretty much get the idea, although it didn’t really matter, it’s rock after all…suck it up. The place has oodles of character including two old ladies serving pirogies and kielbasa sandwiches behind a red and white checkered tablecloth. Don’t bother trying to stage dive or crowd surf at the Warsaw. Surly, bald, Cold War era dudes will throw your ass out immediately. The band was great, slightly sloppy at times, but full of energy. Let us all hope that this sold out show will convince them to at the very least play a few more. Or maybe the sea of James Lo air drummers.
On the crowded AirTrain back to Newark Airport some bearded dude stared at my CHAVEZ t-shirt disdainfully, and shook his head looking away. I started laughing, knowing immediately that the idiot thought that I was wearing a shirt supporting Hugo Chavez. The mistaken assumptions people make…
More on NY and pictures later. I’m recovering in so many ways.
December 19th, 2006 at 12:09 am
Awesome first hand footage!
I can’t believe, when I do the math, that it was 9 yeqars ago I saw them in PDX. Why is this band not like the Musical Laurete of US Indie rock? On the othe hand, I’m so glad they aren’t. The Sweeny relation to fame, as we have discussed, seems somehow perfect.
I also took dirty smirks and questioning from a kid working at the Kroger gas pump out in West Cobb over my Maoist tshirt, which is only visual - without text. But oddly the guy seemed to ‘let me off the hook’ when I explained I was into the imagery ‘for artist purposes’, rather than advertising for a despot, or whatever else he thought might have been going on by the wearing of such a tshirt.
December 20th, 2006 at 2:29 pm
fucking great show. i lied to weston afterwards and told him the sound was great. an excuse to talk to bob weston. sadly, i forgot to buy a shirt.
December 21st, 2006 at 10:42 pm
GREAT show! I had the time of my life. Me and my boy drove up from DC (after they cancelled the Baltimore show we knew we had to roadtrip) and it was well worth it. Smoked a few cigarettes outside with John Agnello, who was very gracious when we approached and told us stories of recording Ride the Fader and the Walkmen, who he’s recording now. A little later we spoke with Clay, and implored him to put together a proper tour. He said it was real hard with everyone not doing the band full time, but that they were trying to put something together. It was a real special night.