Across The Water...

T'was a fun weekend. No sooner did I land back here on the right coast that I was whisked away for the evening by the S.O., who was kind enough to get myself, Brandt and his young nice lady friend on the guest list for Peter Hook's DJ set at Lotus. Hooky, of course, was awesome and DJ'd like he was at the Hacienda to a a crowd that contained SOME New Order fans, but was filled mostly with trendy douches. This of course gave us lots of material to laugh our asses off. Anyhow, the crowd was annoying as fuck till we found a nice spot upstairs with the good view of Hooky and the floor. Hooky played 45 minutes longer than scheduled and those 45 minute consisted of a "Best Of" all the different stuff he has done over the years. Lots of obscure remixes. Hooky has come a long way as a DJ since the last time we saw him and it was a very good time. (This pic is actually from another DJ set, as I couldn't find anything else)

Saturday was the day of rest and yesterday saw us head to Staten Island to check out some festival called Across the Narrows that sounded like a bad idea on paper and actually was probably less of a good idea in execution. Basically it was take a bunch of good bands, like The Killers, Beck, Oasis and the Pixies, find some decent or at lest well-known opening acts, like Interpol, NY Dolls and Doves, balance it out with unknowns and then spread it over 4 shows in two days in two locations. Well, thats a great way to fill up half the venue and lose your money, but I'm not a businessman, so I digress. So as much as I like The Killers these days, my money was going towards the Oasis gig, obviously, because it contained current tour-mates Kasabian (relax, I'll go easy), Doves (who I had never seen) and a slot from the reunited Lemonheads (faves of G and I from way back.

The festival people were nice enough to post exact start times for the bands, so we knew when to get there, thanks to Brandt, we made it to an earlier Ferry and caught the horror known as Jesse Malin. Imagine Judd Hirsch gone indie. Terrible, but worth a few laughs, especially when he said "New Yorkers are not from America, they are from Rock N Roll". Spittake central. Thank fuckfully, Kasabian came on and stole the day to a very excited crowd. Look, fight me all you want, but they've got it. The new stuff is great, especially STUNTMAN, and they play every gig like its the last one ever. They better retain this drummer guy for the second album. He's fierce. Even though the mix was off and loud as fuck, I felt like I was 16 again discovering music for the first time. Totally worth going early.

The Lemonheads came on and bored the fuck outta me, playing all the songs I didn't know or couldn't remember. Luckily, they played IT'S A SHAME ABOUT RAY, somewhat redeeming the set. Then the surprise of the day, DOVES, came on and having been told by everyone from Lurch to Fuss to Brandt they are boring live, I had very few expectations. I love the new album and damn these guys were fucking ON today. If they played every gig like this, I would see them a million times. Looks like we caught them on a good day cause they were phenomenal. I couldn't believe how much I liked them live. Maybe I caught them on a good day, but I'm glad we did, cause they totally made up for the fact that Jet, who played after them, are the worst shit ever. EVER. Except Jesse Malin, who is the living embodiment of The Worst.

Oasis came on and they were almost the opposite of the MSG gig earlier this year. Liam was Grumpy and I guess I would too if i went from MSG to some baseball field. Anyhow, they did the "paycheck" set, which is about 5 songs shorter than the set they have been playing on this tour. No encore. Quick in and out. After Kasabian and Doves, it seemed like a big let down. It was. Can't win 'em all. We had MSG. They'll be back eventually and they will be fucking great. We just got lucky we saw two opening acts having very ON days and an headliner who was having an off one.

And now, it's time to listen to the new Depeche Mode album...fingers crossed. Again, if you wish to be a member of this blog, feel free to drop me a line. Anus (who I now think is Jesse Malin or the guy who chatted of B in the loo yesterday with his weenie out) did.

F