Sebadoh takes hold of Noho crowd, mixing old and new

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From the Daily Collegian:

http://media.www.dailycollegian.com/med … 6374.shtml

Sebadoh takes hold of Noho crowd, mixing old and new
By: Corey Charron, Collegian Staff
Issue Date 4/2/07 Arts & Living

Reunion tours can sometimes be used to make money after a once-successful band’s popularity dissolves. The shows on these tours are usually superficial, over-priced and often seem unnecessary.

Fortunately for the crowd at Northampton’s Pearl Street Ballroom Thursday night, Sebadoh does not give these types of shows. The solid performance of these pioneers of independent rock fulfilled any fans expectations .

Netherland-based band, The Bent Moustache, warmed up the crowd with their mixture of punk rock and dance punk. Ajay Saggar, lead singer, started the night off on keyboard, thrashing around on the instrument almost causing it to crash to the floor. The music was comparable to the Talking Heads or Devo, herky-jerky and danceable. Saggar picked up a bass guitar that he used for the remainder of the nearly hour-long set. Pim Heyne was on lead guitar with Wilf Plum on drums.

The rest of The Bent Moustache’s allotted time was spent performing songs from their release, "Forst," recently made available in the United States. While overall not an original or outstanding performance, the trio managed to provide the crowd with an exciting way to wait for the main attraction of the night. The Sex Pistols-inspired punk songs sometimes sounded too similar, but repetition was avoided with the band’s ability to build songs to intense climaxes.

Saggar at one point called Western Mass. a retirement home for indie rockers, something not too far from the truth. The average age between both bands had to be around 40. The mixture of college students and middle aged hipsters could’ve caused a generation gap, but luckily both bands were able to corral each group.

The personality dynamics of Sebadoh were interesting to observe, especially through the varying demeanors and quirks in the trio. Eric Gaffney clearly was the comedic relief, joking that audience members were noodles in a big factory. Gaffney went on to reminisce about working at the Pizza Factory and cruising around the Northampton area eating mushroom pizza. Lou Barlow was the typical laid-back guy who would’ve been fun to hang out with in college, while Jason Loewenstein was quiet, humble and sometimes overshadowed by the larger personalities of his bandmates.

Luckily, the band worked well musically, which is interesting since the last time the band played a show together was 14 years ago. This gap in time made the fact that they stayed on cue for over 30 songs a remarkable achievement.

Throughout the entirety of the show, each member of the band had the opportunity to take lead vocals. Loewenstein provided his services for about half a dozen tunes, with Barlow and Gaffney splitting up the remaining songs evenly. Gaffney and Loewenstein also switched between drumming and playing guitar or bass, taking time every swap to rearrange their equipment to their liking. For most of the show Gaffney was on guitar, with Barlow on bass, but when the band mates swapped places Loewenstein switched to bass and Barlow hopped on guitar.

The set list ranged over nearly every album the band has produced, even the post-Gaffney era, after 1993. The beginning of the performance leaned towards earlier material, with the rest of the night being a mix. The night started with "Level Anything," from Sebadoh’s first album, "The Freed Man," named for the Friedman Complex apartments at Smith College where Barlow lived with his then-girlfriend. Next the band jumped into songs from "Sebadoh III," including standout "Violet Execution." Songs from 1991’s "The Freed Weed" were played, including "Ride the Darker Wave" and "It’s So Hard to Be in Love."

Gaffney revealed that, "Moldy Bread," from "The Freed Man," was written in his local high school history class. Barlow reminisced about the day he moved from the Amherst area to Boston, causing him to write the song, "Vampire" for the album, "Smash Your Head on the Punk Rock."

Towards the end of the night, a man ran from the stage tried to dive into the crowd. Unfortunately, the mostly subdued crowd didn’t expect the spontaneous move, and the man landed head-first on the Pearl Street floor. Security helped carry the unconscious man off the floor to seek medical attention.

The ill-advised incident caused a somber mood to overtake the crowd until the seven-song encore, which involved songs from 1993’s, "Bubble and Scrape," the album on which Gaffney last appeared.

The hour and a half set consisted of many short, two or three minute songs and a staple of Sebadoh albums, which have on average more than 20 songs.

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