Great Scott 06.12.06 - Birdmonster. Period. shan has already posted her review here and everyone seems to agree: Birdmonster rocked. even they were pleased with it. being the taller of our little co-op, i have pictures for you loyal folks and a few thoughts of my own.

our conundrum was as follows: a period of time ago, we had purchased tickets to see The Boy Least Likely To. last week, at the Tapes 'n Tapes show, we were handed a flyer and thus reminded that Birdmonster was playing on the twelfth [for those of you playing along at home, that was last night]. all that we knew when we left the north shore on monday night [still last night] was that we were driving towards boston and getting off of storrow drive...somewhere. our attempts to rationalize the decision failed, kind of like a fat kid choosing between types of cake. it was rough. so basically, we committed to Birdmonster once we drove by the exit where we would have been able to see TBLLT [tybalt? what?] and: welcome to Great Scott. band-from-around-the-corner Age Rings has some decent potential. there were seven of them, as noted, but the actual drummer was missing and they were welcoming a new acoustic guitarist and they just didn't click. we'll see what happens when they put out their first album. The Talk? they come from Charlottlesville, North Carolina, and they're kind of a mix of pop-punk basslines, rough guitars, and loud drums. we needed air and quiet for a few minutes, so in hopes of lessening the permanent damage to our ear drums, we stepped outside for a break during their set.

in talking to Justin after the show, after we made sure his hand was okay from beating the cymbal to death in the encore [he made sure to note that they bought that cymbal the night before, purely for the purpose of beating it to death], the concept of rocking came up. he grew up around shows where the bands were there to rock and the performers would do just that: perform. flinging their bodies around, whipping their instruments through the air, feeling their music, engaging their audience. the energy that radiates from a performance like that is more than enough to make up for a few missed notes. it grabs your attention and gets inside you. it's more than just a show at that point; you feel like a part of it. and that is exactly what Birdmonster did last night. they drew us all in with the smooth, seductive sounds of Ice Age and then proceeded to blow us away. they played off each other, they played to us, they played like they believed what they were playing.

and we could feel it.

they like what they're doing, and we like them for it. it was the first show of their inaugural east coust tour, and we were lucky enough to have been there. don't expect them to burn out anytime soon, either, because they're having fun doing this. make sure you find them on one of their stops, too, the dates for which you can find at their official site, their myspace, or you can just stalk them at their blog, which they'll be updating from the back seat of the van. if you need some convincing, check out these here photographs.

all was calm, at first.

but then, you know...

then they brought the rock.

it really was a whole lot of fun. the girl with the shaker and the girl with the tambourine would agree, i'm sure.

p.s. i have some goodies to post once i get myself together:

• choice tracks from the recordings of last week's Tapes 'n Tapes, Figurines, and Cold War Kids show
  
• a short video from Birdmonster last night
  
• a few new tracks from Muse, if you're nice
  
• a legitimate entry containing something other than pictures from a show
  

just stay tuned, Toaster promises we won't let you down.  alexander  9:44 PM  |  view comments (0)