Wednesday, September 10, 2008
The Clubgoer's Dilemma
Posted by Noah Bonaparte Pais on Wed, Sep 10, 2008 at 11:23 PM
At 10 p.m. tonight, inside two of New Orleans’ best (if most disparate) music venues, two each of the best (if most disparate) up-and-coming local and national bands will do a familiar battle for scant attendance. It’s an odd phenomenon: This city — in rock terms, at least — is sadly prone to long stretches of inactivity and single nights of multiple goings-on. Tonight is a Wednesday. There is no good reason why the two best rock concerts of the week are happening at the same time, on the same night. But indeed they are. At Republic New Orleans, San Diegan (San Diegoan?) rockers Delta Spirit team with the area jazz/pop ensemble Antenna Inn. Six blocks away, Austin’s Low Lows (above, in a rather amazing video) tackles the Circle Bar’s cramped quarters with experimental locals Magna Porta. (And thank your lucky stars those bookings weren’t reversed, or you might’ve had one of AI’s nine members sipping from your straw.) Call it the Crescent City clubgoer’s dilemma. The simple math, however fuzzy, breaks down like this: Is a Northern Soul-adopting, mass-harmonizing classic rock redux + a stage-crashing, meter-defying Steely Dan fete > peculiarly voiced, pretty-as-hell indie rock + space-tripping, forever-soloing, Mars Volta-aping prog? My abacus, please.
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