The Spin

There are some nights we spend extra time primping in front of the mirror, putting on our sweetest threads to hit the town for an evening of extraneous schmoozing and maximum rock ’n’ roll action. But sometimes we just wanna get out of the house and hear some good bands. Thursday night was an excellent example of the latter, when we stepped out into the bitter cold, then into the cozy embrace of The Basement for a casual evening of local pseudo-country indie rock. We arrived just in time to catch the latter half of Murfreesboro’s Luke Pruitt and the Doghouse Band. Pruitt’s mature, polished roots rock was much smoother around the edges than the other, somewhat grittier acts on the bill. But the audience was nonetheless accepting of Pruitt and his perfectly balanced smooth/raspy voice and the band’s toe-tapping Americana shuffle. Following Pruitt, with a room half full of mostly friends and fans, Those Darlins finished off their beers and set up stage. The Darlins’ repertoire alternates from old-time hillbilly traditionals to quirky, rustic and sometimes humorous original numbers, but an ill-informed ear would never know the difference. The set was at times overrun by playful heckling, both from the audience and within the band, who taunted each other as much as anyone else in the room. “We didn’t mean for this to turn into Those Darlins comedy hour,” remarked bassist Kelley Anderson. Headliners Dixie Whiskey also brought a crowd of avid supporters, which came in handy when most of the Those Darlins posse slowly disappeared after their set. Looking like they had just walked off the set of a modern remake of Robert Altman’s Nashville, DW started into their sluggardly, booze-infused Southern rock with an extra player. As if sporting members of The Pink Spiders, Paper Rival and backup singer Caitlin Rose wasn’t “supergroup” enough, American Bang bassist Kelby Ray sat in the corner noodling on the lap steel guitar. Sounding much tighter than we’d heard previously, Dixie Whiskey showed some improvement on their already solid shtick with a few new songs that, while still retaining their usual haggard and hell-bound characteristics, sounded almost radio-friendly. Unfortunately, the band ran out of songs before they could fulfill the room’s request for an encore, but singer Jon Decious assured us we could hear as many more songs as we wanted...on their new CD, which was available at the front door.

The Spin likes to laugh. Yes, occasionally it’s at others’ expense—lame bands, bad hair, douchetastic dudes. But we enjoy the pure-hearted guffaw even more—little kids getting hit with pies, whoopee cushions, Florez. So, it was with great anticipation that we headed to The Basement to see SNL cast member and writer’s strike refugee Fred Armisen. We’ll admit, we can’t remember the last time we caught a real live Saturday Night Live live, but we had seen enough of Armisen in the viral-video realm to be intrigued. Then, a couple of weeks ago, Armisen appeared on our reason for living—eh, excuse us—favorite radio show The Best Show on WFMU, first as master of complicated drumming technique Jens Hannemann, and then as himself. The advance knowledge that there would be a full kit onstage set our comedy sensors atwitter. When we arrived at The Basement, we were greeted with a surprise: an opening act, and a strange one at that. Freedy Johnston, singer-songwriter and Nashville transplant, played a couple of solo tunes on his electric guitar. (And yes, he closed with “Bad Reputation”—a porch ruffian, skilled in the art of sarcasm, proceeded to quiet everyone down by hollering, “Hit song in progress!”). Armisen took the stage in his signature glasses and a hoodie, and won the crowd over quickly. The dude is a pro. He started off with some straight-up stand-up: when is it OK to stop saying “Happy New Year,” and a riff on trying to appear cool to young people and failing miserably. A series of elevator etiquette jokes fell a bit flat—we don’t have as many of those contraptions here. Also, talk of Obama (first an endorsement, then an expert dissection of how he never really says anything) brought a surprisingly tepid response—who are these people? Armisen threw in a quick drum solo, and then proceeded to play a bunch of songs off his iPod: hip hotel lobby music, his least favorite rhythm and his vote for worst song ever—Eric Clapton’s “It’s in the Way That You Use It.” Then he did a series of characters: a political comedian who never really says anything (apparently an instantly recognizable SNL character due to the crowd’s enthusiastic response. We guess some people do still watch SNL—again, who are these people?) and a version of Saddam Hussein who played guitar, was kinda British and made the most amazing kind of no-sense. Over the course of the evening we also got Vincent D’Onofrio from Law & Order: Criminal Intent (hilarious), a list of bands that almost kinda made it big for a second (Stabbing Westward, Digable Planets, Filter) and a series of drummer impressions (Keith Moon, Ringo Starr, the dude from Def Leppard and a brilliantly improvised Meg White on suggestion from the excited crowd). We also got a brief taste of Jens, who reminded us just how complicated drumming can be. Overall, it was a night of varied, punchy, pop-culture-tinged comedy before a packed house—not an everyday thing in Music City. We guess this is one upside to the writer’s strike. Well, this and American Gladiators.

The Spin is back, ya’ll, and we need some rock shows to go to. Please give us a good reason to leave our homes in this time of wintry despair. Suggestions: thespin@nashvillescene.com.