THE WHIGS
The Whigs Rock a Chilly Majestic
By STEVEN VAN HAREN
Clarion Staff Writer
“What else are you going to do
while in the Midwest?” I asked
Alabama native and lead singer of
opening band Wild Sweet Orange,
Preston Lovingood.
“Not much… But, we bought parkas!”
Parkas indeed. Madison welcomed
southerners Wild Sweet Orange and
The Whigs with a sturdy chill in the
air. The Whigs, in what is becoming
their coming out headlining tour,
demanded short stops in cold cities.
The bands wouldn’t be sticking
around long enough to really enjoy
the frigid temperatures.
They’d spend
their time in the venue, like everybody
else.
The Whigs loved the club. One
Whig, Tim Deaux, told me that when
they entered the Majestic, on King
Street in Madison, they were immediately
impressed by the look of the
place and knew it was a good fit for
the band. He was happy about the
size of the crowd, about 100 people,
and it reminded him of their show at
the Varsity, in Minneapolis, the night
before. “This is great… before we
were playing to 15 people.”
That “before” was before their
current tour, which comes after a
wave of incredible press from the
New York Times, NPR, and Spin
Magazine. They were recently on
David Letterman, and will be appearing
on Late Night with Conan O’Brien
next week. Letterman was clearly
taken with the band, as have been the
critics, noting The Whigs’ mastery of
all genres of American rock music,
and lead singer Parker Gispert’s urgent
voice that often rings like Neil Young.
At the Music Hall of Williamsburg, in
Brooklyn, the band played to a sold
out house.
The Majestic filled up steadily
throughout the night. People were
milling around and talking to musicians
from the opening acts, and the
bar was doing good business. The
architect of the Majestic, Matt Aro,
was talking to me about how pleased
he was with new design of the club,
how it fits the aesthetic of the new
ownership, dedicated to great new
rock bands and live acts.
The strange angles of the room still
make for some complicated sound
engineering, but Aro solved some of
these problems by putting the sound
board in the middle of the club to
allow for a fuller and more sophisticated
angle for the engineers, and
there was a lofted board on the stage
to allow for fine tuning of the musicians’
monitors. The feedback, that
served as transition music between
songs was intentional.
The Whigs-- young, but by no
means new, had incredible energy. The
first half of their set was filled with
their earlier work, marked by heavy
bass lines, major key melodies and
punk orchestration. The drum work
was distinctly contemporary: simple
beats fleshed out with constant and
complicated fills, and it provided the
backbone to the evolution of the bands
catalog. Gispert and Deaux traded
instruments, each taking a turn at the
stadium grunge lead guitar and the
versatile keyboard, which often manifested
as a plunky and haunting space
organ. Every song was musically rich
and lyrically cutting.
The only things missing were honest
to goodness rock fans. I don’t think
there was a person in the audience
who didn’t appreciate The Whigs, and
I bet plenty of their tracks were downloaded
when people got home. But,
through no fault of the band, even the
most appreciative audience member
was relatively subdued, especially
by contemporary punk standards. I
think that if this show had been at
the old Anchor Inn, O’Cayz or one of
Madison’s now defunct underground
venues, like Mierda Verde, it would
have hosted a more excitable, albeit
more beer-goggled, crowd.
An excitable crowd is part of any
great rock show. Maybe it was the
weather, maybe it was the Wednesday,
or maybe calmly staring is the new
cheering. Maybe. But, please forgive
me for bemoaning the absence of a
broken bottle of Pabst or three. I think
The Whigs deserved it. |
DOWNLOAD a Copy!!
•
Front Page
Opinion Page
Arts Page
Sports Page
•
News Section
Opinion Section
Arts Section
Sports Section
|
