Powered by Google
Home
Listings
Editors' Picks
News
Music
Movies
Food
Life
Arts + Books
Rec Room
Moonsigns
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Personals
Adult Personals
Classifieds
Adult Classifieds
- - - - - - - - - - - -
stuff@night
FNX Radio
Band Guide
MassWeb Printing
- - - - - - - - - - - -
About Us
Contact Us
Advertise With Us
Work For Us
Newsletter
RSS Feeds
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Webmaster
Archives



sponsored links
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
PassionShop.com
Sex Toys - Adult  DVDs - Sexy  Lingerie


   
  E-Mail This Article to a Friend

Bright nights
Interpol in the small hours; Broken River Prophet at T.T.’s
BY WILL SPITZ

The rooster wasn’t crowing yet, but it was wind-down time — 4 a.m. — and somehow I’d wound up sitting in some house in Brighton with Interpol’s Paul Banks, who was helping my band mate work out the chords to John Lennon’s "Jealous Guy." The rest of Interpol — or at least bassist Carlos D. and guitarist Daniel Kessler — were holed up with most of the partiers in an upstairs bedroom with a stereo, and the house was a mess of passed-out revelers and empty PBR cans. But down in the living room, Ted Billings, my brother-in-arms, was fiddling on an Ibanez while Banks offered chord suggestions. Eventually they got it, and they celebrated — Ted, Paul, unidentified-girl-with-Paul — with a sing-along. Then Banks grabbed the Ibanez and started strumming an interesting progression I couldn’t quite place. What was it? "It’s called ‘Summertime Is Coming.’ " By who? He smiled: "By me." I’m not sure which was the more surprising: that Banks was strumming new Interpol songs at dawn in Brighton — instead of, say, assisting suicides or whatever antics they’re assumed to be up to in their off-hours — or that there’s a new Interpol song with the word "Summertime" in it.

Earlier that night, the impeccably dressed and coiffed Carlos D. had followed Interpol’s Orpheum set by showing up with a crate of records to DJ at Central Square’s swank, SoHo-style Middlesex Lounge, which was predictably packed by a style-council crowd. He opened with the Cure, but a sequence of ’80s pop failed to set the hipsters dancing. It wasn’t until three-quarters of the way through his set that Salt ’n’ Pepa’s "Push It" woke people up a bit; invigorated, he threw on Gang of Four, lit up a surreptitious cigarette (gasp!), and started rocking the air bass. Then, out of nowhere, he turned into Dee Snider: he followed "Push It" with the Stooges’ "I Wanna Be Your Dog," segued into Metallica’s thrashy "Hit the Lights" from Kill ’Em All and Slayer’s "War Ensemble," and closed with the speed-metal national anthem, Motörhead’s "Ace of Spades" — raucously redeeming an otherwise pedestrian set.

Some friends of Victory at Sea’s Taro Hatanaka gave him a private going-away party last Saturday evening, and on Sunday night, he made his last local appearance for the foreseeable future, guesting with the Lockgroove/Mistle Thrush spinoff Broken River Prophet at T.T. the Bear’s Place. "He’s going away for a while," said head Prophet Adam Brilla, "so enjoy his playing while you can." Hatanaka, a native of Japan, has been living in the States for six years, but his work visa recently expired, and he’s moving back to Japan this week. He has mixed feelings about leaving. "I’ve made a lot of friends here, through music and other things," he said, a few minutes before hopping on stage. But he still has friends in Japan, and he plans to pursue a solo project there and also hopes to start a new band. Hatanaka was sitting in with BRP to provide plaintive violin for the group’s more melancholy, subdued songs. But on the set’s finale, the group built an epic from the ground up, starting with nothing but some theremin noise and ending in full-on freak-out mode, with Lockgroove’s Martin Rex joining in on a second drum kit, the theremin spastically squealing and Brilla and Hatanaka furiously strumming and bowing. It was a fitting farewell.

Will Spitz’s band, Slater, play this Wednesday, March 23, at the Middle East.


Issue Date: March 18 - 24, 2005
Back to the Music table of contents
  E-Mail This Article to a Friend
 









about the phoenix |  advertising info |  Webmaster |  work for us
Copyright © 2005 Phoenix Media/Communications Group