Show Review - Modern English/Bella Morte, plus other highlights

[xiane]

Got to Starr Hill around 8:30, as I know the band would probably go on around 9ish. Immediately ran into a bunch of people I know from The Dawning, and chatted briefly, then got into a nice conversation with Micah and Gopal about their current tour, Micah's side project, Logic Of Decay, recording, practicing, blah blah blah... it was fun. I have missed those guys more than I realized. Micah insisted that his band and The Violet Dawning should do a show together again sometime soon, which I would love to do. Yeah, let's book ourselves a show with two bands that never practice ;) Seriously, his band rocks. Gopal's side project, Undergrave, rocks. Tony's other band, Riot Act, rocks in that punk way. And now Andy's evidently got his synthy side-project happening and close to recording, and I've heard some of his programming from that - and damn, it rocks. Imagine that.

So finally The Mortes get on stage. I'm going to confess something here - I'm rather hard to impress these days, and I've seen BM play an awful lot in their career, so I don't usually pay as much attention to their shows as I could. But tonight... I didn't have to work door, DJ, run lights, or police the floor. I danced. I danced to their entire set, and for me, that is DAMN impressive. They played all their fast and driving songs, keeping the crowd going, and although it started out with just the spooky contingent on the floor dancing, by the end of their set, they had a lot of the other attendees bouncing along. Nice job, guys. Now if you'll just play Funeral Night for me on Saturday.... *sigh* wishful thinking. I like the Gothic Cowbell song, though!
So the Bella Boys had the crowd going, ready for the headliners... and they didn't keep up waiting too long before they took the stage, dressed in nice Britpopish suits. Very spiffy, gentlemen. Now I'd read the review of the show at the 9:30 club in DC that the Washington Post had written up, which said that the band had been a bit poopy:


Modern English's frontman Robbie Grey -- the sole original in his group -- wasn't nearly as polite: "If you want the '80s stuff, you're going to have to [bleepin'] wait!" The five-piece band, all sweating in suits and ties, worked through 30 minutes of unfamiliar but funky Brit-pop before giving up the good: a life-affirming jam of the anthem "I Melt With You."


Yeah, I bet they were annoyed as fuck at people rudely screaming for "I Melt With You" like it was "Freebird".

Suffice to say that their demeanour was quite different tonight, faced with the notoriously friendly Cville Goth crowd and other locals. We're known as a town that loves music, and we managed to win over the band quickly when we all cheered and danced to all their new songs just as readily as their older fare. I liked the new things and I'm eagerly awaiting the CD they say will perhaps be out at the end of the year. I was infinitely pleased that they played "Ricochet Days", which is you listen to Subculture Shock, you know I spin quite a bit... and "Life In The Gladhouse", which was the very first Modern English I ever purchased, as a 12" vinyl [I still have it, and the Ricochet Days album as well. I think I still have After The Snow, as well]
Notable other tracks that weren't new: "After The Snow" and "Hands Across The Sea". Of course they played "I Melt With You", a super-blockbuster version... and then they came back and played "Soundcheck". Lovely. They were grinning, bouncing around, feeding off the crowd's adoration... damn, I love shows like this. I'm glad I was there. I know that a few people took pics; I'll see if I can get some links or permission to post 'em.

Okay. It is now past 4am. Time to go to sleep. I just couldn't pass out without transcribing all of this!

Comments

[crossbonesdj.livejournal.com]

Wow, sounds like a great show!