Now that my wife has finished up her time-consuming dissertation and is a “Dr,” we can start having a life of movies, drinking and bands. Last night that meant going to the Drunken Unicorn to see New Orleans’ Mr Quintron and Miss Pussycat.
Playing last, he threw down something fierce, covered in a sheen of sweat in front of an organ decked out with the grill of a Lincoln. He gets a huge sound out of his sound system, deep organ swells and analog dance beats from his self-created Drum Buddy. The second to the last song was “Witch in the Club ” (mp3), which was more pop-singly than the rest of his set, but I loved it. The mp3 sounds good, but Quintron is all about shock-and-awe performance and needs to be seen to hear the songs in their full sonic glory.
The second performer was the most bizarre musical experience that I ever had. Harry Merry is a one-man keyboard band from Holland. With his glazed-over confusion at sound check, apparent unfamiliarity with his keyboard stand and bizarre Dutchboy wig and sailor outfit, we couldn’t figure out if he was real or performance art. But his songs, crazed, child-like keyboard romps, were fantastic, bizarrely named (“The Appetite Gets Satisfied Each Bite”), and often too long. Listen (and download) the indescribable on his myspace page. I’ll be curious to see if the pictures I saw taken end up online, here’s hoping.
The first band that played were Thee Crucials. A solid and highly energetic old-school rock band.
Our first time at the Unicorn was good, the bands were all great and 22 oz. Sapporo cans a bargain. Future music plans include definitely going to Muse, and hopefully seeing Ladytron and Nouvelle Vague at the Variety Playhouse in September.
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Neon Poisoning 