Ask any avid music fan if there is one band they must see live before they die and they will all answer in the affirmative. As to what band or artist it is, you'll get a wide variety of responses. For me, prior to this show, it was 16 Horsepower.
The opening band was The Twilight, which I guess is a Cleveland local. With all apologies to the band, the show was pretty bad. Their bass player thought he was The Hives. The guitar/vocalist was self obsessed. And their new drummer was quite high. Which could all be forgiven if the music was good. But alas, it was not so.
On the other hand, and most likely in another galaxy, 16 Horsepower followed with a majestic set. 16 Horsepower is just David Eugene Edwards (vocals, guitar, banjo, bandonian), Pascal Humbert (guitar, bass guitar, upright bass), and Jean-Yves Tola (drums/percussion). The experience was beyond words. The best I can do is try to describe some of the images that I was left with after it was over.
To try and accurately describe the music of 16 Horsepower, one teeters on the edge of being trite. The closest I've come is "alt.country with hints of punk and gothic," with the country leaning more toward a folky bluegrass, the punk more towards Johnny Cash, and the gothic being best represented by the painting "American Gothic" by Grant Wood, than by anything pop culture dictates as being "goth."
Edwards sat on a tall stool, his right leg bent and hung on one of the chair rungs. His other leg came to rest on the floor, where his foot stomped in time with the music. His vocals were like a bellowing cry of hellfire and brimstone. Every line an agonizing gasp.
Tola was mostly obscured from my sight. But his drumming was solid. I wish I could say more about him, but to try and do so would be an exercise in fiction since I'm not a drummer.
Humbert was the most fascinating person there. Imagine for a moment that it's not, in fact, the year 2004, but instead a mid-west dust bowl in the mid 1800s. Amid a swirling breeze with dust drifting and migrating you spot a crooked house made out of hand crafted boards. There is a porch covered by a roof and two rocking chairs sitting at opposite ends of the porch at an odd angle.
Article comments
1 - Eric Olsen
Excellent job, TT, sounds like an amazing show. You didn't remind me about it.
2 - Mark Saleski
i've only got Low Estate (which i love).
any opinions on what else to pick up?
3 - The Theory
heh, sorry eric. Next time I do a cleveland show I'll have this email nuclear war and send a blitz of reminders your way ;-)
Mark, if you love Low Estate, Sackcloth & Ashes would have a fairly simular feel to it, though it's a bit rougher. Secret South (which somehow did not end up on my Amazon links) becomes a bit smoother. Folklore has a delightful folk feel to it. It's really hard to go wrong with the band...
4 - J
I was lucky enough to see them twice and to promote both shows! Dang shame they broke up. At least we still have Woven Hand (his other project.)
5 - tim lentz
yeah, i saw these guys open for morphine back in 98, and both bands were damned amazing, if you ask me -- they would have stolen the show from any other band than morphine. all in all, it was a real festival of dark, devil-obsessed music, taken from a couple of different, but complementary, angles. whew! i still look back fondly on that concert.