Weekend
The Replay
November 15, 2010
The unfortunately-named San Francisco trio, Weekend, played to an unfortunate crowd last night. It was cold, it was November, it was a Monday night, it was the Replay. Yet the band, justly met with a great deal of acclaim for their awesome debut LP, Sports, played like the house was full. It is rare for band, thoroughbred-like, to jump out of the gate as fiercely as Weekend did, so tight and put-together. Sadly there were not enough people to appreciate this great young outfit, and those that were at the show mostly kept their bodies in lock. (My count when Weekend finally took stage was fifteen excluding me).
Also unfortunate was the brevity of the band's performance, which came after two middling go-nowhere bands. Taking to the stage at 1:05 AM, according to my partner, Weekend began with Sports' epic, supercharged opener "Coma Summer." The song, for all its scuzz and scrawling noise, was quite anthemic with soft buried vocals; an urgent, insistent bass line; and amazingly tight drumming. Danceable? You fucking bet. It's also a swooning and heartfelt statement, melancholic in some ways, which might be an odd thing to say about a band that shares not only a label, but many elements with sonic-menaces A Place To Bury Strangers.
Other songs were much more basic and monochromatic in sound. "Veil" pushed forward on stark, uneasy energy to its burst of a climax. The band was joined by a girl from one of the openers for the Pylon-esque "End Times." At times this starkness didn't work as well live as it does on Sports. Take, for instance, the mostly instrumental "Monday Morning," the third track on the album. After the headrush of "Coma Summer" and "Youth Haunts," the song's scabby guitar noise serves as a great transition between the first half of the record and the rest. Live, it felt mostly unnecessary: an inarticulate smear of flanges, pedals, and noises.
But that was the only hiccup in a short, sweet five- or six-song set that demonstrated the impassioned skill and brilliance of the trio. Ending with the spooked-out "Untitled," which appropriately features the couplet "I came alive / I've been a ghost," Weekend sealed a mostly great performance with another epic guitar track that was melancholic as it was scary.
Critic's Bias: Weekend sound like a bit of all of my favorite bands, including the already mentioned APTBS.
Random Notebook Dump: "Who's the guy crouching for the entire show?" About a guy who crouched for the entire show.
Overheard in the Crowd: There really wasn't much crowd.
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