Caught the end of Fucked Up at East River Park in Brooklyn. Suitably fast and loud with lots of mosh action and crowd surfing. They have some pretty nihilistic politics and a history of wild shows but nothing too outrageous today. I’ not too sure what to think of them politco-punkwise. They used some Nazi shit on a split release but then Jello Biafra, author of “Nazi Punk Fuck Off,” came onstage to join them for an encore at one show. Still poking around teh interwebs for their 2004 “clarification” concerning the Nazi crap. Maybe Jello’s gone soft?:)
Waiting for Mission of Burma to come on, Boston’s seminal contribution to postpunk. Never fails — the two tallest people at the show walk up and stand right in front of us. They were actually cool and when I asked they swapped spots with us (otherwise there would be a pic of a hairy back below instead of MOB).
I know MOB are pioneers in bringing interesting rhythmic changeups and tape looping to punk, but I never really got into their records the first time around even though they sounded interesting on paper. It all seemed a little busy and noodly, kind of the antithesis of the punk aesthetic.
Live is a different story though. They were incredibly tight as a band in a way that only people who are quite serious about their music and have been playing together for thirty years can be. And loud. And fast then slow then fast. All in all, they were way more musical than the last seventies vets I caught, the Damned, who were sloppy as hell but still fun. MOB reminded me of a guitar-driven punk-fueled version of XTC. The effects were seamlessly woven into the music. The guy doing the effects is the only non-original member I think, and he was back at the sound board, but he fit right in.
I really enjoyed the show but Monisha put on headphones and listened to Ozomatli on the train ride to Queens to wash the noise out of her head. She appreciated that they were technically very good but they were just not her cup of tea even though she quite liked Sonic Youth when we caught them last summer I’ll have to go back and give MOB’s recorded work another spin.
