DC ROCK CLUB
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Friday, March 30, 2007

One Trick Pony- The Ponys w/ The Black Lips-Black Cat 3/24

This reminds me of Jimbromski.


Since I have been working on another RC related project, I will keep my review of last weeks show brief. I have to admit, I had high hopes for this show after listening to a few of The Ponys discs. I like the garage sound of their music and with an opener like The Black Lips (who we also saw open for Be Your Own Pet) it had the makings of an execellent Rock Club outing. We set off from Potsy's place as usual and arrived just in time to catch the Lips. It seems like there were some technical difficulties from the get go, as I could barely hear the lead guitar. They sounded pretty good nonetheless and put on a good show for about a 2/3 full Black Cat mainstage. I really like that tune "Boomerang", which they played about midway through their set. This is when I think the Lips are at their best, with that southern tinged, 60"s style garage rock, with all 3 guitarists bouncing in unison. Sometimes though, it is almost as if they are trying a bit too hard to be "punkish". My main beef was with the lead guitarist and his constant spitting of a large "loogie" up in the air and then catching it. This is fine and entertaining if you do it ONCE, but not like a dozen times. Somehow the move loses its edge. Its kind of like if Pete Townsend did the windmill on every song. You have to know when to pull out the party tricks and use them sparingly.

I think we missed The Ponys first few songs as we were downstairs/outside between sets. It seems like they had fixed the tecnical difficulties from the opener and The Ponys were really belting it out. I have to say they sounded a bit different live. Much louder and more feedback driven R and R. The lead singer was like 7 feet tall and reminded me a lot of Thurston Moore (played the axe like him too...). I was a bit underwhelmed by The Ponys set, I guess i was just expecting more. They played a short set, w/o an encore. The show reminded be a bit of the Tapes n Tapes show from last October. A good CD which led to an unispired live performance. It wasnt bad, but wasnt great. RC Rating: Black Lips 6.6, The Ponys 6.0

3 comments:

Potsy said...

The Ponys were half good and half ungood. I thought the lead dude reminded me too much of Evan Dando, and his look seemed to be stuck in 1999.

The Black Lips rocked, and I was happy to see them again. I was relieved to see the guitarist have some technical difficulty as I like their sound when it is not so heavy in the 6 string. I do think that their success with "Dirty Hands," has pushed them too far into the early 60s retro pop. A little goes a long way, and I think they're making a mistake by over emphasizing that sound.

Nice review Sacklunch.

Jimbromski said...

I think The Ponys were below average based on all the bands we've seen and as such should have been rated in the 4.0-5.0 territory--they certainly didn't deserve a 6. Grade inflation strikes again. Otherwise I agree w everything you wrote. I would add that The Ponys also seemed to suffer from technical problems, you couldn't hear the vocal track and the guitar was way too loud. This seems to happen quite a bit at the Black Cat. I still like the band but the show wasn't any great shakes.

Jumbo Slice said...

Good review. I agree with your assessment of The Ponys. Some bands' live act sound just like their CD. The Ponys tried to mix it up and take the songs in a different direction. Sometimes it worked of me, others it didn't.