How Was The Show - Dynamiters, The Evening Rig, The Millionth Word at 7th Street Entry

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The Evening Rig CD Release Party with Dynamiters and The Millionth Word at 7th Street Entry on 3/27/09

Jason Miller of the Evening Rig - Photo by Sara Montour

Sometimes it’s nice to go to a show and not have to think so hard about how to tell people about what you saw. There are times when I think, “That was great, now what do I say to the people that weren’t there?” Friday was not one of those times.

I didn’t get to the Entry in time to catch the bulk of The Remote Age’s set but the three songs I heard showed promise. Armed with two Macs for sequencing, a keyboard and a guitar the duo resembled (from an equipment standpoint) many local and national bands but seemed to have a different angle on the electro-rock genre. I didn’t see quite enough of it to give an informed opinion, but I’ll be looking forward to seeing more of them in the future, and I was soon left wishing they hadn’t opened the bill.

The Millionth Word seemed to be study in self-destruction, and I’m still not really sure how much of it was intentional. Their recordings that I have heard are tight, dirty, buzzsaw sharp rock ‘n roll, and never having seen them live before, I was very much looking forward to the set. However, it seemed like at least two people in the band had had far too much to drink by the time they got onstage (which isn’t always a bad thing, necessarily) but the missed cues and flubbed notes (made more obvious by the band laughing several times and vocally acknowledging one miscue mid-song) made everything seem sloppy and thrown together; they complained several times about people just standing there. (Have they ever been to a show in this town?) Lead singer Kai Benson falling on one of the stage monitors at the beginning of one song did nothing to help matters, either. Maybe they were having an off night, or maybe I saw a perfect example of their live show; but even with all that said, I want to see them again when I get a chance.

The raw, loud punk (punk in that uniquely Midwestern sense, meaning it has some semblance of melody) of The Dynamiters seemed pitch perfect for the Entry’s stage. Countless bands in this vein have graced the Entry’s bomb shelter-like confines. There isn’t much new I can offer from last time I reviewed them just a few weeks back other than to say I like them a bit more after seeing them live again and expect that trend to continue. Their set was quick and to the point this time and also was possibly one of the loudest I have encountered at the Entry--even with earplugs in it was at an astonishing volume. These guys have all been around the block a few times (with The Selby Tigers among others) and know how to command the stage and put on a great live show. If you haven’t seen them live yet you’ll have to wait a bit as they’re headed out on a small Midwestern tour, but see them as soon as possible. They have a good chance of becoming a pretty hot ticket this year.

Josh Lynch of The Evening Rig - Photo, Montour

And then there were none. When The Evening Rig finally took the stage to hoots, hollers and a wave of applause everyone seemed ready to finally settle in and have a good, beer-soaked time. It was their party, after all, celebrating the release of their new album Is Doin’ Stuff. It’s hard not to fall in love with this band; the general “yeah, whatever” attitude they cultivate with song titles (“God Damn, I Could Use A Drink”), album titles (see above) and no-frills look onstage might lead one to believe they don’t care. Well, they do care-about good songs, great hooks and an overall sound that recalls the best of the ‘Mats, The Boss and Tom Petty, slicing away even more fat from those already insanely lean frames, making every note of every song count for something. The words all seem carefully selected, never dialed in or paint-by-numbers (i.e. “well, this word rhymes with this word, let’s do that”.) Taking into account that it’s only March, there will be few things that can happen this year to knock Is Doin’ Stuff out of the top spot on my year-end list. The only thing that took away from the show a little was a guy upfront who insisted on yelling like he was at a sporting event while playing air guitar but even that couldn’t put much of a blemish on the show. It was hardly The Rig’s fault to begin with and was fairly amusing after a bit, anyway (the man did this for roughly twenty minutes.) It’s great to see bands like this when they hit on all cylinders. It’s enormously powerful and also empowering in a small way, too. Like a very small number of bands, The Evening Rig can make you feel good about yourself, even amid liquor-drenched tales about being down on your luck or stories about poisonous relationships. Everyone’s been there at one time or another and it’s always good to know you’re not alone, that someone else has also been there too, and that they had the fortitude and sheer guts to stand up and tell you about it. In the end, there’s hardly anything that has the ability strike hope inside a person more forcefully than that will.