The Archers rock Dallas
rob
my arms tired. Wait, that's another story.... Anyway, they were just
great. For me, a tarheel boy in Texas, it was kind of like hearing an
inside joke. The others might understand it, but they sure as heck don't
get it. Well, I'm not one to get all possessive of a rock band, but I felt
related to the guys somehow.
Before the show I chatted with Matt. Is he like the nicest guy you could
ever meet or what? We talked about good old NC, the western mountains that
we both hail from, and the terror of driving up the mountain from Old Fort
towards Cullowhee in dense fog. I got him to sign my copy of "Vitus
Tinnitus" and I settled down for the show.
I had never seen the guys live, a powerful source of shame for me. You see,
in 1996, I forewent a Superchunk/AOL show at UNCG in favor of a POTUSA/Young
Fresh Fellows/Superdeluxe show at the Ritz in Raleigh. You see, I already
had tickets when I heard about the show. And it was really cool, the
Presidents were funny and Rick Miller even played with them and...oh fuck.
What a disaster.
Anyway, the openers sucked, as usual. At The Drive-In, a Texas band so much
wanting to be Rage Against the Machine, shimmied and shook about for a good
30 minutes before Spoon hit the stage. Spoon, while not the best band in
the world, excited me beyond words after the noise-fest before them.
Well, the Archers played a great mix of new and old songs. Eric, whose
voice always seems to sound like he's on the verge of popping a vocal cord,
was in fine form. The new songs were, well, different, but I liked 'em.
"White Trash Heroes" was especially good. But it was kind of odd to see
them start the show with Eric sitting while playing the keyboards. Man,
that wasn't how I dreamed them hitting the stage.
So I stood there, in awe of the whole scene, but mostly scared of Matt's
charging rhino/psychotic drum major stage persona. We sang along to the
songs I'd heard so many times. The highlights for me were a beautiful
rendition of "Rental Sting" and a damned fine belting of "Web In Front." I
was afeared that they wouldn't play either of my favorite tunes, but they
ended playing one of them, "Nostalgia," as their last encore. Damn, that
song kicks ass. The word 'blistering" comes to mind. Oh, the other song is
"Wrong," and I'm still disappointed they didn't play it.
Brian Causy filled in for E. J. quite well. It was obvious a couple of
times that he was the new guy. After one little miscue to begin a song,
Eric commented that Brian might need a cue which, drew laughter from the
crowd. But Brian had the last laugh as he totally rocked. This little guy
looked even smaller standing next to Eric. He really did do a great job.
Well, just thought I'd share. I'm like that.
Later,
Rob Goforth