And here lies the reason this site will never truly succeed. I am finally updating again, only to talk about last week. What a posting schedule. Anyway, early last week I managed to stumble upon a very important post. It started with simply noticing that the header on Music Snobbery listed Moby as part of his 3rd Anniversary show at Maxwell’s. After doing a little research I realized that he was indeed talking about THE Moby. Since word travels around these parts rather quickly, I was amazed to find myself able to score a pair of tickets for such a mythical event. But score I did… indeed do… er, yeah…
So Thursday night I headed over to my old stomping grounds to check out a couple local acts and one of my all time favorites. The evening started with a French pop outfit from New York City, La Laque. And what can I say? I’m a sucker for anything related to French New Wave movement. The real selling point for La Laque is front woman Devery, who plays the part of the sexy chantreuse so perfectly it’s almost shocking that she’s American. But beyond pulling off the look and vibe, her voice is fantastic.
The band has a fun and frisky sound, but obviously don’t want to be pigeonholed as evident by Ben Shapiro animalistic drumming or Michael Leviton’s screeching vocals on one of the tracks. I’ll need to re-visit these guys as I get acquainted with the 5 track EP they were selling.
Next up was another local act, Salt & Samovar. Right off the bat I’ll let it be known that I get a little nervous when “local acts” take the stage, because too many of them turn out to be just another generic, punk/indie/rock band that cranks the volume knob to make up for a lack of talent. But these guys… damn… what a show. Everything they played seemed to be coming from a familiar place, yet was fresh and new at the same time. It was like watching Dr. Dog cover the Allman Brothers or Bob Dylan’s cousin deciding the alt-country scenes wasn’t psychedelic enough.
The guitar work… the harmonizing… damn. So yeah, I highly recommend checking them out. And my car is getting quite familiar with their debut full length, “Old Joy, New Joy.”
At this point the evening was already a smashing success. Moby could have walked on stage and done a twenty minute a cappella version of “Body Rock” followed by half an hour of Britney Spears and Mariah Carrey covers and it still would have been fun. But he wasn’t about to be shown up by these “youngsters” and pulled no punches in a rocking set that saw him cover the likes of Lou Reed, Bruce Springsteen, and, yes, even Billy Idol.
When it comes down to it, the man loves to play. Chris from Music Snobbery covered it very well with his intro to Moby and commented on just why he would come to such a small venue. This is what it’s all about for a musician. I spoke to him after the show and told him it was yet another great performance (my third time) and how much fun he looked to be having. He said it was such a shame having to come down off that stage. I believe him. Whenever an artist can laugh at mistakes, they must be having a good time:
Probably the highlight of the evening was the rousing rendition of “Honey” (WARNING: Very loud and very NSFW introduction):
For full details on the evening, and the great story behind how it all came together, make sure to read Music Snobbery’s account. A hearty thank you goes out to Chris for making it happen and, of course, to Moby for putting on another incredible show.