DC ROCK CLUB
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Sunday, December 30, 2007

The Closer

Dennis Eckersley was a great closer. He had that cool side-arm delivery and pornstar mustache to boot. He was pretty much unstoppable in the late 80's (except, of course, for that meatball he threw to Gibson in the 88 World Series), but for the most part he ended ball games with confidence and a check in the WIN column.



I wish more bands would do the same. The "closer" (the last song played at a show) is one of the most important aspects of the concert going experience. We all want to leave on a high note, just like Costanza. Leave the crowd wanting more, that's my credo. The reason I was thinking about this is that I saw that University of Phoenix commercial during the Skins v. Cowboys game this afternoon. The theme song for the ad is "The Bleeding Heart Show" by The New Pornographers. This is a great closer. They played this tune at the Pitchfork festival and then again at the 930 Club show back in October. It was the last song of their regular set for both shows (not the encore). It has that great chorus "Hey-la, hey-la, heeey-laaa-laa..." and is a genuine crowd-pleaser.


Other memorable closers were "Separated by Motorways" at the Long Blondes show this year at the RNR Hotel and "My Mathematical Mind" at the 930 Club Spoon show.


The biggest disappointment was LCD Soundsystem. They played an incredibly upbeat show and then close with "New York I Love You (But You're Bringing Me down)". It a slow slog of a song and turned out to be a real bummer of a closer. (However, I heard the James Murphy's voice was shot and they usually do not close with that song. At other shows they played a cover of Joy Divisions "No Love Lost", which is an awesome fucking song)


But probably the best 1-2 punch of "closers" this year was the combo of "Rotten Hell", followed by "Evil Bee" at the Menomena shows (both Pitchfork and the Black Cat). Both songs have awesome tempo changes and excellent buildups. How anyone could leave that show without a smile on their face is beyond me. Sidenote: Menomena actually came back to play an encore ("The Monkeys Back" off their 1st LP), but I still consider the before mentioned songs the final 2 they WANTED to play..

Here is a clip from the greatest closer of them all. Alec Baldwin in perhaps his greatest non-comedic performance ever. Unfortunately, I can't get this fucking video to imbed, so here is the link


1 comment:

Jumbo Slice said...

Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross is fantastic.

Menomena finished very strong. You forgot to mention the controversial closing song of the Black Angels. Potsy and Jimbromski agrgued for weeks on that one.