Monday, Dec. 22, 2003 | 09:46
Inshi (and others) at the Fireside Bowl
last night, 21 december 2003, Inshi played the Fireside Bowl. i like the Fireside, though it's dirty and usually pretty empty. last night was no exception.
the emptiness began with a quartet calling themselves The Hospital. they played indie rock instrumentals. pick your favorite indie rock band from the 90's, dump the pimply, whiny singer, and you've got The Hospital. they had an audience, which they kept thanking personally (which suggests most of them are friends of the band). i could almost see the formulas in the songs. it's like the bought a book of how to write indie rock songs and got the music down but couldn't find anyone who still wanted to sing 90's indie rock. so they just play it drums/bass/two guitars. perhaps they're holding out for a good singer, which is why none of them sing. good choice.
following them was the trio (and my friends) Inshi. how can i describe Inshi? i'm thinking King Crimson playing Napalm Death medleys. that's not very close, but it hints at the idea of hardcore prog (epic grind). like scripted free jazz played guitar/bass/drums. it's insane, and not very catchy, but awesome to watch. the show was marred by a few technical problems: too much guitar feedback, the drummer kept dropping sticks, the bass broke a string, but it worked well overall. they had a few fans, many of whom were friends. irritatingly, many of their friends who said they'd show up (and some star fans who'd said they'd make it) failed to materialized. i got the impression that the show was rough on the band--it didn't go as well as they'd hopes--though the sound was pretty good. you should go see Inshi next chance you get. they are mind-warpingly good. also, if you have any desire to do interpretive dance to crazy, nigh undanceable music, let me know. they need a stage show.
Fireside must have been playing subtraction last night, because the third band was Qui, a duo from california. they were kind of a sub-Melvins sludge rock band, which was an almost painful adjustment after the high-speed assault of Inshi. as the size of the groups shrank, so did the size of the audience, leaving two or three people up near the stage. there were a bunch of "hip" indie rock kids in the back, but they were waiting for the final group and couldn't give a damn about Qui. most of them hadn't even bothered to show up for The Hospital and Inshi.
i didn't catch the name of the fourth group, but it was something like The Varsity Squad. they want to be Pavement, but aren't. worse, Pavement was great ten years ago, so these guys are stealing a ten-year-old style few people today would recognize. i guess those who do think a Pavement tribute band is a great idea, so they all turned out. it's like they were too young to appreciate their older brothers' Pavement albums so they're latching on to a rip-off of their own. that said, i went to the bar during Qui and didn't actually see The Varsity Squad. Qui had good volume, but it barely registered when The Varsity Squad came on, or when they finished. most of my comments are based on the people who showed up to see them (i know, don't judge books by their covers, but these kids were pretty obviously what they seemed). i could still hear the music from the bar, and it wasn't that exciting. the bad porn on the bar's tv was about as good, and may have had better music (though we couldn't hear it).
in conclusion, see Inshi, tolerate The Hospital and Qui, skip The Varsity Squad. of course, if you dislike challenges or you have some penchant for half-baked nostalgia, reverse that. Inshi is unlike anything you've ever heard before. and better than most of what you know.
