Free Week
Last night free week at Emo's started. This, along with ME Television, really got me into local music last year. I admittedly tapered off on that towards the end of the year, but I plan on using Free Week again to get back into it. Last night I ended up enjoying the Sugar Bowl enough that I didn't get downtown until late, and missed the Mad Cowboys completely (WTG Utah, BTW). I went to Emo's, fearing whatever changes they've made because I'd heard rumors of an outdoor stage expansion. I didn't notice anything, or it could also be because I didn't spend more than half a minute in the outdoor stage area. The band playing there was very loud, enough so that I watched them for a few minutes from outside the stage area through a doorway and could hear them fine. I could also see them fine, and they looked pretty dead on stage. So, I went back to the indoor stage and saw the last band, Pataphysics.
I wasn't sure if I'd seen them before, but I recognized the lyrics to their last song so I knew at that point. I was kind of hoping I'd leave not knowing because I thought it would be fun to compare whatever I wrote about them the first time I saw them to this write-up. I'm still going to do that, but this write up might be subconsciously tainted with the knowledge of knowing I've seen them before. They were a five piece, the lead singer wearing a loud shirt and sang/yelled with a wide-eyed strained expression on his face, and sometimes played lead guitar. The beepy-boopy keyboard (Multivox) player looked to be about 14 years old, and made some great beepy-boopy sounds. The bass player had an awesome black beard and sunglasses. I can't quite think of who to compare him to. It was the rhythm guitar players birthday. Drummer was lanky, but solid. They had a female backup singer on stage for two songs--she had an expression on her face kinda conveying that she didn't want to be there. She was standing near me in the audience when she wasn't on stage and also had that same expression. I think she might be the lead singer's girlfriend, since he was calling for "babe" when her second song was up. The music was fun, and they had a strong following in the audience really getting into the music.
I don't know if this is new or not since I wasn't paying much attention last year, but a lot of venues are having free shows this week in addition to Emo's. This includes Mohawk and a lot of the other venues on Red River. It's great that Emo's, Mohawk, Red Eyed Fly (maybe others?) have two stages. If you don't like one band, you can go check out the other one. Of course this doesn't matter so much this week, but when you have to pay a cover its great that you have two shows to choose from.
The Ugly Beats are playing Emo's tonight, so of course I'll be there. I think there will be four bands on each stage, including What Made Milwaukee Famous and a bunch I haven't seen, so I could stay there all night. But, if I get bored I could also wander down the street. I think I'll take the bus downtown so I won't have to hold back. I will have to be somewhat careful though--the last time I took the bus downtown I ended up having to go on a date with a girl I wasn't really attracted to.
I wasn't sure if I'd seen them before, but I recognized the lyrics to their last song so I knew at that point. I was kind of hoping I'd leave not knowing because I thought it would be fun to compare whatever I wrote about them the first time I saw them to this write-up. I'm still going to do that, but this write up might be subconsciously tainted with the knowledge of knowing I've seen them before. They were a five piece, the lead singer wearing a loud shirt and sang/yelled with a wide-eyed strained expression on his face, and sometimes played lead guitar. The beepy-boopy keyboard (Multivox) player looked to be about 14 years old, and made some great beepy-boopy sounds. The bass player had an awesome black beard and sunglasses. I can't quite think of who to compare him to. It was the rhythm guitar players birthday. Drummer was lanky, but solid. They had a female backup singer on stage for two songs--she had an expression on her face kinda conveying that she didn't want to be there. She was standing near me in the audience when she wasn't on stage and also had that same expression. I think she might be the lead singer's girlfriend, since he was calling for "babe" when her second song was up. The music was fun, and they had a strong following in the audience really getting into the music.
I don't know if this is new or not since I wasn't paying much attention last year, but a lot of venues are having free shows this week in addition to Emo's. This includes Mohawk and a lot of the other venues on Red River. It's great that Emo's, Mohawk, Red Eyed Fly (maybe others?) have two stages. If you don't like one band, you can go check out the other one. Of course this doesn't matter so much this week, but when you have to pay a cover its great that you have two shows to choose from.
The Ugly Beats are playing Emo's tonight, so of course I'll be there. I think there will be four bands on each stage, including What Made Milwaukee Famous and a bunch I haven't seen, so I could stay there all night. But, if I get bored I could also wander down the street. I think I'll take the bus downtown so I won't have to hold back. I will have to be somewhat careful though--the last time I took the bus downtown I ended up having to go on a date with a girl I wasn't really attracted to.
posted by PlaysByEar at 5:59 PM
1 Comments:
The comparison with my previous entry about Pataphysics wasn't as interesting as I'd hoped. Here is the relevant content from that post, from February 2008 when I went to Beerland to see the Carrots:
"I showed up for the last few songs from Pataphysics and enjoyed them enough that I wish I got there earlier. Unfortunately I didn't write down anything specific about their music, just that I liked it."
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