Live Review: A Place To Bury Strangers/Hooray For Earth @ Motorco, 3/11/2011

If there's one thing I love, my friends, it's hitting the road for an out of town show. It feels like a teensy vacation, venturing outside state lines to go see some music at a club outside your usual circle of venues. And Durham's Motorco might just be my favorite non-local spot within driving distance. So give me the chance to go see two amazing live bands at such a great venue and odds are good I'll make the trip. Even with all that hideous DC metro Friday evening traffic. But damned if Hooray for Earth and A Place to Bury Strangers weren't worth the trip and then some. I don't really know what else could be better on a Friday night.

Hooray for Earth, some of my new favorite New Yorkers, are definitely a special live band. They have this certain feel to them, a rush of breathless, frenetic yet totally chill energy. It's the sound of the promise of beautiful warm weather, and to my winter coat-wearing ears they sounded simply delightful. To me, they're at their best when bouncing all over the place sonically, buoyed by lively drums and an inescapable feeling of excitement. At times, the room lacked a little intensity, but I think a big part of that was the drunken, basketball-glutted Duke and UNC fans in attendance. Taking cues from their lovely noise, the accompanying background images were a collection of swirling, dizzying colors and shapes. Big, clunky riffs and an uneven, awesome drum beat hallmarked a lot of the songs from their upcoming LP. "The barbecue truck is fuckin' rad," they opined between killer songs that went by much too quickly. Initially, I wasn't quite sold on this tour pairing, but having seen Hooray for Earth again, and heard more of their great, great songs, I think it totally made sense. In a way, they're like the sunshine to the stormcloud of animalistic aggression that is A Place to Bury Strangers. They didn't even throw my jam ("Surrounded by Your Friends") into the set, and they were still daggum fantastic.

So too was A Place to Bury Strangers. They've been just about flawless each and every time I've seen them, and are without a doubt one of my favorite live bands. And I made damn sure to have myself some earplugs for this one. The crowd was still on the lackluster side for their set, but the band played like they didn't notice. One song in, Oliver was already going gangbusters with his guitar-playing contortions and herky jerky moves, a precursor of the awesomeness to come. They weren't, as usual, big on banter, but early on we were informed that drummer Jay Space had a broken collarbone. After their set, I'd have said I didn't believe it. He, and the rest of the band, carried out their industrialized shoegaze with gusto. "Deadbeat," one of my most-loved APTBS songs, sounded about as good as I've ever heard, with that growling bassline and Oliver's onslaught of vicious guitar noise. The guitar bore the brunt, too, ending up tossed across the stage before the song was over. My most favorite song came right after, an extra feedbacked and extra slinky rendition of "Ego Death." It was nothing short of ferocious. The trio gritted and grimed and fuzzed and tore their way through their set with much savage force. And I ate up every last minute. Also notable was "I Lived My Life to Stand in the Shadow of Your Heart," which might have been my favorite song of the night. The black and white ballerina projections were the perfect juxtaposition to the sheer brutality of the merciless fuzz. The instrumentation in this song in particular was nigh on epic. This is a band that taps into some amazing energy when they get together on a stage, and if you haven't yet seen them live, well, you'll want to amend that as soon as possible.

Despite the blase attitude of the basketball-hungover crowd, both of these bands killed it at Motorco. It was a great tour pairing, and both of these bands should be seen live whenever possible. Trust.

mp3: Comfortable, Comparable (Hooray for Earth from the Momo EP)

mp3: In Your Heart (A Place to Bury Strangers from Exploding Head)

[photo by Megan Petty - Philly, 2010]

100 Shows of 2010 - #74: Hammer No More The Fingers/Birds of Avalon @ Motorco, 10/9/10

I would hope my fellow DC kids would agree on this statement, that we’ve got a pretty daggum decent little stable of venues at which to take in some rock and some roll. On any given night of any given week, we can venture forth and see a good show at one of any number of places. And that’s a damn fine feeling. However, for those of us with the travel itch, it’s nice to hit the road every now and again and see what’s goin’ on in other parts of this fine world. Especially when a brand spanking new venue is involved. Enter Motorco: newest venue in the fabulous (and fabulously talent-rich) Research Triangle (Durham, to be precise). So new the paint had barely dried, but still a terribly good spot for a terribly good show. And wouldn’t you know it, that’s exactly how it went down.

MINI RECAP: Birds of Avalon = Blazingly Amazing! Hammer No More The Fingers = Handsomely Noisy! Motorco = Motorific! Overall Score: B+++

I loved everything about Motorco immediately (well, save for the parking situation). It reminded me a whole lot of my first Richmond apartment, the loftiness of it and the exposed ductwork and the dark, friendly confines (yes, lofts can be dark and friendly. Trust.). However, my place had neither that fabulous wall of windows nor the great stage and sound. The place was packed with shiny, happy North Carolinians, reveling in this super new space, not to mention the cheap beer. But that wasn’t all, oh no. There were some pretty fine bands, too, to help ring in the official grand opening soiree for this here venue.

Birds of Avalon was the first musical treat I had the pleasure of sampling. I’d wanted to see them for a little while now, so I was way excited they were on the bill for the Motorco party. They immediately tested the sound barriers of the new club, spewing out pulsating wave of noise after pulsating wave of noise in an unflinching, unapologetic set. I’m not sure, but I might have left my body there for a little while during this set, so good was this band. The sound was a mess of things, swirls of shoegaze, the crunch of straight up bastard rock, and definitely delicious dashes of psych rock. This is a band that turns what could have been a disparate jumble of noise into a cohesive, unified wall of beauty. I could hardly believe it when they set down their instruments and left the stage. It was the biggest bummer of the night bar none.

But then, my spirits were lifted, because soon taking up where Birds of Avalon had left off were local heroes (and LET faves) Hammer No More The Fingers. Somehow this was my third Hammer show in as many cities this year. I was totally mystified by Duncan’s sartorial choice (a boiler suit), but less confounding was the band’s totally rad rock and roll. Feeding off the partisanship of the crowd, the trio (and friend on keys) stormed through a triumphant little set full of that ridiculously catchy 90s college radio rock they’re becoming known for. Between riffs there were much banter, and the tossing of many glow-in-the-dark bracelets into the happily inebriated masses. On their home turf, the band was that much louder, that much cheekier, and that much more into it. And friends, that’s a wonderful thing.

When you get right to it, my friends, I wanted to uproot Motorco and move it up north about 4 hours to this neck of the woods. Despite our venues here, I am insanely jealous about this space, and I might just have to make an effort to hit more shows down there in the near future. Especially if they keep up that whole Beatlestones dancenight thingie. Yours truly might be unable to resist that kind of tractor beam. But kudos to all involved with Motorco, and may it have many good years ahead of it.

mp3: Your Down Time Is Up (Birds of Avalon from Uncanny Valley)

mp3: Nobody Knows (Hammer No More The Fingers from Looking For Bruce)