by eliza czander
Knowing there was a good chance I might not be able to sneak myself into Terminal 5 two nights in a row, I allowed a friend to persuade me to go see Joseph Arthur in Williamsburg last night. I was sad to miss The Hold Steady – I saw them this summer at McCarren Pool, and they absolutely rocked it. But alas, braving another sold out show at the Terminal was a little daunting. A nice acoustic show at MHOW seemed much more my speed for the evening.
TEMPORARY PEOPLE BY JOSEPH ARTHUR:
I downloaded a bunch of Joseph Arthur and have been vibing to it for the past couple of days. Really pretty stuff, his songs have been featured on a ton of TV shows, as they carry this accessible, melodious nature that’s pretty easy to like. I mean, the guy toured with Tracy Chapman for Christ’s sake. He put together a band, The Lonely Astronauts, to bring on tour with him in 2006, and they’ve been going strong ever since. I was psyched to seem them; I had high hopes for this guy.
We walked into The Music Hall catching the end of openeing act Ezra Furman and The Harpoons. It was noise, and the kids looked like they could have been playing on the quad at blah blah college. Not coincidentally, it turns out they’re all students at Tufts. They self-released their first EP, which was recorded in dorm rooms and basements. Gotta give ‘em credit for trying, right? They actually got signed to some indie label last year, and have been gaining a following since starting their tour. I can’t really get behind them, but to their credit, their last song wasn’t too bad. I even remember saying, “Eh, I kinda like this one in comparison to the others.”
Joseph Arthur took the stage around 10, and came out flying with 4 electric guitars and one guy on drums. Whaaa? This wasn’t the sweet, harmonious Joseph Arthur I had been listening to as I laid in bed earlier that day. This was a racket of electric clamor wailing far too close to my eardrums. I realize the guy’s been playing music since I was a fetus, and that he’s got like 10 albums, but my impression of him was completely off the mark. Maybe I had been listening to his early stuff? I don’t know. But I did not recognize even a one song, and he played an hour and a half long set. My friend, who was more familiar with the band than I, was also disappointed. They sounded like messy garage rock, and looking out over the half empty floor of The Music Hall, it was clear a lot of people weren’t feeling it. Arthur did manage to team up with some good-looking people though. The two girls on guitar and bass were smokin, and actually knew how to play, which was cool. He also had some interesting looping techniques using his foot pedals that were pretty cool. Overall, it was too much guitar for me. Too hard electric, not enough heart, you know? I mean, you could barely make out the lyrics it was so fucking noisy. We decided to book it one song into his encore and call it a night. Ah well. Another one for the blunder book.
