Pony Excess

The Ponys -Monday, July 23, 2007 @ The Black Cat (Backstage) $10

Like an under-performing soccer team, the Ponys were relegated to the Back Stage at the Black Cat this past Monday, just days after holding the 1:30 Sunday afternoon time slot at the Pitchfork Music Festival, and after headlining the Black Cat's Main Stage back in March. Despite it being my week to pick a show, I was strong-armed into choosing The Ponys for a re-view of their performance (see earlier review: One Trick Pony). Well, strong-armed is over stating it, but let's just say I yielded my authority to the will of the RC membership. Lesson learned. Mob rule is no way to run anything - not even a mob.

There seemed to be some regret in having missed the Phonys while in Chicago, and it was stated several times that "everyone deserves a second chance" (try telling that to my ex). So that's what we did. We gave them another shot, this time in a more intimate setting.

We failed to motivate ourselves quickly enough to make it for opening act, Jay Reatard. That bummed out Jumbo Slice, and having listened to 25 seconds of "In the Dark" from their MySpace page, I think missing them may have been the biggest mistake of the night. But what's the deal with this band? They're from Memphis but put on the brit-punk accent? Didn't Ross do that on Friends once? Anyhow, point being - we missed the opening act.

There was a pretty good crowd for a Monday night, which I attribute to the mention in the Onion's A.V. Club. The show began with a lot of noise and technical difficulties. I agree with others that they were better Monday night than they were back in March, but I really didn't enjoy this band either time. I said it before and I'll say it again, this band is stuck in 1999, especially when it comes to their style. Let me remind those aspiring young rockers out there, I don't care how ambivalent you are to your own notoriety, you should dress the part of a rock star and make me envious of your lifestyle. The skeleton shirt only works if you are paying homage to Spinal Tap, and in that case it needs to be a glow-in-the-dark skeleton shirt.

Back to the music...again, I half-liked this band. At times I thought they brought out the rock and got the crowd shuffling their feet a bit, but no amount of reverb will cure the vocals of gigantisaurus Jered Gummere.

Here's a clip:


I featured the female member of the band in the middle of the clip because Jumbo Slice posed the question "Is she hot?" before we even got to the club. Survey says...
Not really.

Please don't make me see this band again. Once was enough, twice was too much.