I had seen Do Make Say Think a couple of years ago at the same venue I saw them last night (Middle East in Cambridge). But last night's show was infinitely better than the previous. It was better in every way I could think of. My memories of the past show are a bit vague at this point, but I just remember leaving thinking I could have just stayed at home and listened to their albums and been just as well off. I decided to give them another chance last night because for one, their music is awesome, and secondly because apparently Broken Social Scene won't be doing any shows anytime in the near future, so I felt I should take in as much of the relative music as I could.
Last night had a BETTER OPENER
A duo from Paris with just about the worst band name imaginable, Berg Sans Nipple, opened the show. They reminded me a bit of THE Duo (Benevento/Russo style) and their most recent efforts of adding more electronic and sampling spice to their music. This band was heavy into the sampling and electronic elements. The stage was littered with doodads and doohickies and other thingamobobs that are beyond my understanding of just exactly what they are. But there was also plenty of organic music-making devices, real drums, real keys of different varieties, real mini-steel drum, real trumpet etc etc but most everything was run through some sort of sampling device at some point. The results were supreme. One of the better openers, and VERY well matched I might add, that I have seen in some time. The drummer was excellent, the beats very tasty. The music would set itself up, with pieces being sampled and looped and added upon and reworked as each tune took shape. It was mostly instrumental but they added little flavors of vocals which were run through various effects and were ethereal or background, but just added to the mix, not a true vocal in the sense. I don't know what else to say about them, but definitely worth checking out, very cool music, they played a fantastic 35m set. Could've had more, but it was also a nice amount to start off.
Last night had BETTER SOUND.
The last time I had see DMST the sound was so muddy and distorted that if I hadn't been familiar with the music it would have been difficult to get.
Last night had a BETTER CROWD.
It was pretty much a packed house on a Tuesday night with Menomona, Field Music, and Castanets also in town, whereas the last time it was maybe 1/4 full and dead. This crowd was into it from the opener and on.
Last night had a BETTER BAND.
I don't know too much about what is DMST. The actual band is a bit of a mystery to me, I just know the music is great and that they have some connections to BSS. The last time I saw them there was 5 maybe 6 (yeah, maybe 6th man?) members. This incarnation last night was 8 strong. 2 drummers! a sax and a trumpet and a violin. 2 guitars, and Charles Spearin on bass. What is this, Broken Social Scene or something? Anyway, I started thinking that the last time I saw them it wasn't even the right band, they must have been an impostor right? (They did have a DIY "Doom Ache Satan" written on the bass drum at that show...hmmm) This band KILLED the tunes. Each song was an ultrasonic masterpiece. So much noise coming from so many different places all coming together to make one glorious sound, it was awesome. I haven't heard their new album yet, but I knew they had tried vocals on a couple of tunes. They played one of them last night. Not horrible, actually not too bad at all, but not nearly as good as their instrumental stuff so it kind of sticks out a bit. I'm not exactly sure why the curfew was so early, but the band announced a little after midnight that they only could play for 7 more minutes, so instead of walking off and coming back for an encore they just put their instruments back on and kept playing. but then they played for another 15 minutes and apologized again when about not playing for longer. they had played for nearly 90m which is about what I thought we would get anyway, though it was great to see that they wanted to keep on rocking. and unfortunate that we had to miss out. If this tour is coming your way, I would definitely recommend checking it out.
DOWNLOADS
Berg Sans Nipple
Do Make Say Think
YOUTUBES (not from this show)
Berg Sans Nipple
Do Make Say Think
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