Oh and I never talked about the American Music Club reunion after it happened. There was no good reason for me not to; I wanted to put photos from the show up but didn't think they turned out too well (here they are anyway), and I was supposed to write a review of the show for someone else and flaked. In that time AMC have played a bunch more shows, so here are some reflections on the two I've seen:
It isn't quite like they've never been away. Walking into the MOR before the first show was surreal. By the time they took the stage to begin the interminable tuning up, the room was filled beyond capacity, people in the front drenched in sweat from lack of air. Some guys unwisely took their shirts off but put them back on. Vudi had a mess of electro-harmonix effects. There was a piano but no one person to sit behind it. When they opened at the MOR with "Why Won't You Stay" it might have been ironic, or it might have been simply what they remembered how to play. The older songs began roughly, and the new ones were largely unfamiliar, and even the ones that were familar have been changed in significant ways. Where just two years ago the song formerly known as "Freedom" ended with the jibe "You wouldn't know freedom if it shat in your mouth", it's now called "Another Morning" and, with just a few lyrical changes, has become one of Eitzel's more affecting Kathleen tributes to date. At first Bruce's absence was obvious and the tension was palpable, but by the end of their set at du Nord to support Matt Gonzalez' mayoral run, Marc Cappelle was an obvious replacement.
The band is sober and older, but rested and at ease. In beween song banter is kept to a minimum. The new songs, "A Job to Do" and "Lucky" pick up where San Francisco and "All Your Jeans Were Too Tight" left off, wiggly Vudi-isms galore, but with more guile and more determination. Lyrically there is more bile and more hope. "Home" has become a thundering, revving, emotive call. "The Patriot's Heart" has improved with every public performance, the political content in this most political of years is overt and unabashed.
AMC are not a band that want to fuck around with pleasantries any more. They are not overly concerned with making you love them. If you don't feel anything: if you don't smile at the end of "Johnny Mathis' Feet," if you don't want to hit someone after "Bad Liquor," if you don't resent your country during "Team USA", then the hell with you, you're dead. Go home. American Music Club play this Monday and the next at Spaceland in Los Angeles.

Labels: american music club, live shows, mark eitzel, photos, reviews