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Promise
Ring, Camden, View My Heroes (?) Since it was May Day, I had to go see the Promise Ring. Actually, there is no connection between the two, but that is irrelevant. Arriving at the show, I had my ticket taken by the guy working the door. I have seen this guy working at every show that I have been to in the last two years and he progressively looks more like a heroine addict. Thin, pale, eyes half open, he should be pandering on St. Mark's Place before a D-Generation show. First up was View My Heroes (actually I am not sure what the band was called, but it is something like that) from Pennsylvania. After their first two songs, I was highly unimpressed but it was mostly a function of the sound. By the third song, the sound was fixed and they rocked to ride again. Essentially, they sounded like a minor league Get Up Kids, but done in a competent and novel way. The lead singer was great and the drummer looked like he was happy as a pig in shit to be playing (not unlike Stang). The other guitarist and bassist needed to be given a good shaking to wake them up. I met up with this guy Sean, who is in my program. It is interesting that we dig the same music and both have been to a ton of shows over the past two years and yet have never been to the same one. We commented on the fact that the crowd did not necessarily fit the show. For instance, there was a bunch of big booty ho's types and only a few scenester types. Of course, there was that girl who works at the record store with the bleached blond hair and tattoos who is at every show. Of particular note, there was model-type girl hanging out with (read: boyfriend) this guy…and the best way to describe him was tool! This matchup set the equilibrium state of nature off and it was very disturbing. However, college is weird. Often who you wind up dating is partially derived from who is in class with you and who is talking to you that semester. Next up was Camden, who although their name suggests otherwise were from Mille-wa-kee (you know 'place between two rivers'). Gut-wrenching slow emo, like a little Elliot. Where is my gun? Not that they were necessarily bad, but it was just draining. The lead singer was an interesting character, singing while making faces with a smattering of intensity. He did double duty with the Promise Ring, where he was much more effective as a backup. I am sure they sound great recorded, just hard to deal with without a seat and a beer.
Finally, the Promise Ring took the stage to cheers from the relatively
sparse crowd. Blasting off with clarity, competence and talent
of a major league band, they rocked the crowd. They played songs
off most of their releases, thus giving you a nice mixture of
old and new stuff. What I could not understand is that they played
a bunch of slow songs and then commented on the pain of doing
slow songs. Then don't play them. One funny moment came when there
was comment made about supporting your Coast Guard. They then
played a five-second ditty, stopped and the guitarist says, "'cause
there is nothing cool about drowning." Its one of the thing
where you had to be there, but funny nonetheless. All in all,
the Promise Ring were awesome, check'em out live if you have not
yet.
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