Built To Spill and Fauxbois @ Irving Plaza: July 28, 2010
To jam or not to jam? That was the question at the heart of last night’s Built To Spill show at the recently rechristened Irving Plaza. The Idaho based quintet has two modes on record: jumpy, guitar-heavy janglers or expansive, cavernous slow-burners. Sometimes a particular album will lean more on the former (1999’s Keep It Like A Secret) or the latter (1997’s Perfect From Now On) or they’ll just make a mash-up of the two styles (2009’s There Is No Enemy). But like fellow ’90s guitar titans Dinosaur Jr., the group is a different beast in a live setting. Pop-gems can be saddled with extended solos and the more meandering tracks often transform into snarling vistas of crumbling feedback and melodic noodling as lead singer Doug Martsch and the two other guitarists sling riffs back and forth. It can be euphoric/meditative or masturbatory/indulgent, depending on where you fall on the great pro/con solo continuum.
Personally I tend to fall in with the anti-soloing crowd (I still haven’t recovered from a Neil Peart drum solo at a Rush show a few years ago), preferring agility, noise and aggression to laid-back instrumental histrionics. Luckily for me, last night’s show fell into the sweet middle ground between too much improvisation and too little song craft; if Built to Spill shows are like bowls of porridge and I’m like Goldilocks, I might say, “This Built To Spill show is just right.” And it was. Sporting a beard that gracefully toed the line between eccentric high school history teacher and extra in a Rob Zombie film, Martsch lead the band through a set that mixed tracks from the group’s newest album, like the wry Canada-referencing “Hindsight,” with old favorites like “Kicked in the Sun,” “Carry the Zero,” and “Car.” Martsch is a charming and befuddling stage presence, humble in his demeanor but always confident with his guitar; he has a tendency to sing with his eyes closed and he accompanies every line with a slight head-twitch— a tendency which prompted my friend to say he looked like, “Rasputin having a religious seizure.” He might not be Russian mystic, but that doesn’t mean Martsch doesn’t have bits of wisdom to offer, like when he sang, “We’re special in other ways/ Ways our mother’s appreciate.” The appreciation wasn’t limited to mothers; the crowd fist-pumped, sang along and cheered at the beginning of nearly every song.
Having kept the soloing relatively in check through most of the night, the group returned for an encore that concluded with an extended hazy and even transcendent (gasp!) jam session. After putting on such an efficient and rocking show, the band had earned the right to engage in some old-fashioned guitar tomfoolery and the crowd ate it up, nodding along as the guys fed off each other’s constantly unspooling webs of feedback and distortion. Even I had to admit, “Yeah, this is pretty cool.”
Equally cool, but not quite as impressive as BTS, openers Fauxbois played a fun take on ‘90s guitar-heavy indie rock that sounded like… well, Built to Spill. You could see why BTS would bring these guys on tour with them. Many songs began as hushed confessionals as guitarists Brian Mayer and Kate Seward shared vocal duties before the drums kicked in and guitar squalls buried their lamentations. The only problem with the set was an issue of identification. “We’re Fauxbois,” said Mayer. “What?” yelled an audience member. When Mayer repeated himself, the guy yelled back, “Spell it!” Apparently the Built To Spill audience is not familiar with the artistic imitation of wood.
www.builttospill.com
www.myspace.com/fauxboisidaho
- Dan Jackson
Tags: Built To Spill, Fauxbois, Irving Plaza
