No foolin': Traditional Fools at the Eagle. All photos by Jen Snyder.
By Jen Snyder
Remember when you were never held accountable for anything - save for your room being clean? Man, I do.
I've got to say, the Oh Sees, Traditional Fools, and Master Slash Slave show at the Eagle Tavern this past Thursday, April 17, dredged up feelings of nostalgia for me. I don't know if it's the comfy charm of the most relaxed gay bar ever, or if because past Bay Area indie gods dotted the crowd, as members of Coachwhips and Erase Errata buzzed around, but there was a carefree feeling about the show. If you like reminiscing about your childhood, I can only suggest listening to at least one of these local bands the next time you find yourself hunting for tunes.
Remember how much of a bummer it was when you had to go to school for eight hours every day, starting at 8 a.m.? That was insane - especially if you went to an extremely ill-equipped public high school with no money to upgrade computers straight out of the Oregon Trail days. The Traditional Fools reminds me of the days you feigned sickness, stayed home, and watched Wayne's World three times in a row.
This well-received, fresh-faced band promises punk rock without the irritation or the need to hate your parents. You expect the group's three blondies, including solo-performer Ty Segall, to have come out of '60s London, rather than 2008 SF. And they emulate all the right albums from the decade when punk was brand new. Adding to the outfit's playful demeanor, the members rotate instruments, giving each other ample opportunity to sing about stuff like "Surfing with the Phantom." Think Surf Punks meets everything you really liked about Iggy and the Stooges, and there you have it: melody and anarchy in a perfect concoction that makes you pour beer on your friend's head in a loving way.
Master Slash Slave evokes those primal vid game experiences of yore.
Fresh from a stellar five-week tour across this fair nation was Master Slash Slave. In anticipation of their new album, Scandal, Matt Jones and Ephriam Nagler played flawlessly along to their programmed sequencers and drum machines. There's an argument between the lyrics, live instruments, and the programmed synthesizers that leads to some attention-deficit crooning - in a good way. The final effect was like something out of Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times, where human interaction must be unequivocally linked to the mechanism of music.
Back on the nostalgia tip: remember regular, old Super Mario Bros.? Remember how it was just the best game ever and you would scoot your bean-bag chair close to the screen because the controller cables were too short? If you put in a solid two hours, you could beat that entire game in one sitting. Even if you only warped once. Master Slash Slave personifies that perfect modern Frankenstein meld between man and machine. In fact, they are exactly like that game: there's sad and spooky dark parts, in-the-clouds whimsical parts, and really catchy music the entire way through.
We came, we saw the Oh Sees.
SF historic music behemoth the Oh Sees wrapped up the night. Talk about nostalgia - these guys make you feel like the taxi you took to the show was actually a time machine that drove you back to getting stoned and reading the entire liner notes to every album you ever bought. And what is it about these guys that make me think about the Schoolhouse Rock song "Figure 8"? Only the Oh Sees - or Shel Silverstein - have perfected that low-fi flair and the way that they make even a live performance sound as scratchy as a (really) old record.
Vocalists Bridget Dawson and John Dwyer offer somnambulist duets atop a muddled ice cream cake of music that rocks out live way harder than their dreamy recordings suggest. The pair seem to be singing to each other as much as they are to the audience, giving the listeners the impression that we are witnessing the group in the raw, as themselves and not as performers.
MASTER SLASH SLAVE
With Pants Pants Pants and Vows
April 30, 9:30 p.m., $6
Hemlock Tavern
1131 Polk, SF
(415) 923-0923
THE OH SEES
With the Dodos and dreamdate
June 19, 8 p.m., $12
Independent
628 Divisadero, SF
(415) 771-1422
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