Tuesday, July 28, 2009
The Spin Nashville Cream 8 off 8th: '90s Night, 7/27/09
Posted by The Spin on Tue, Jul 28, 2009 at 2:34 PM
Lots more photos: Part 1 and Part 2.
We wouldn't believe it if it weren't there ourselves, but it happened: A '90s covers night came and went without "Smells Like Teen Spirit." Indeed, without any Nirvana. But there were three Weezer songs performed throughout the night! Two from Pinkerton! Clearly Nashville musicians have memories of the '90s that are in no way influenced by reminiscing about VH1.
Anyway, the night started off with Martians Go Home, a one-off Hum cover band that played "Green to Me," the minor hit "Stars" and "Iron Clad Lou," a.k.a. the song Filter ripped off for "Hey Man Nice Shot" or whatever it's called.
The aggressive good-time art rockers Mattoid were up next and managed to turn '90s prom theme "My Heart Will Go On" into a menacing jam about having sex in a car on a boat. They closed out their set with two fresh-off-the-Jock-Jams-cassette club hits, "It's a Fine Day" and "Rhythm Is a Dancer."
Next up, Ocelots answered a question we didn't even know we were asking: Will R&B and hip-hop be totally ignored during this, their most amazing decade? A thousand times no! TLC's "Waterfalls" somehow works perfectly as a rock song. Special attention must be paid to the dude who managed to bust out Left Eye's rap: He nailed it. A nearby stranger said that the guy was a kid in Kids, but we're pretty sure he's a liar.
Soon thereafter, The Spin's note-taking devolved into a series of hearts and a "THIS=AWESOME" when And the Relatives busted out the one Weezer song we were hoping for: "Say It Ain't So." An absolute dream of a cover. We joined in the rest of the crowd and un-self-consciously jammed out, air cymbals included.
The Carter Administration baffled a good percentage of the audience with renditions of Superchunk's "Precision Auto" and Sebadoh's "Rebound." Everyone who was already a record nerd in the '90s seemed pretty happy, though.
Shoot the Mountain's three-song set went from punchy to dramatic to operatic. "Song 2." "Tonight Tonight." "November Rain." Obviously, a string section was needed to pull of the last two tunes, and it worked like a dream. String sections should be mandatory. Faux-Corgan vocals should not.
The Privates' bassist Keith Lowen confided in The Spin that he wanted singer Dave Paulson to "get drunk and talk shit about the other bands." It didn't happen, but The Privates barely fucked up the songs they didn't rehearse, which included "Sex Type Thing" by Stone Temple Pilots, "Why Bother" by Weezer and "Possum Kingdom" by Toadies.
Shit Sandwich, the final act of the night, could be described as a full-on Monet: It looks good from a distance, but up close it's a big old mess. But that was the intent! They are named Shit Sandwich, guys. The one-off party band closed out the night with the alcoholic's anthem, "Tubthumping" and a heavy dose of feedback.
So that was the '90s. They've been over now for almost a decade. But the band T-shirts, boozy sing-alongs with friends at the bar, and that girl with blue hair all confirmed that, for this particular generation, they are probably not going to go away.
Comments (18)
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The Carter Administration baffled a good percentage of the audience with renditions of Superchunk's "Precision Auto" and Sebadoh's "Rebound."
WAT? How can you call yourself an indie rock fan and not know these?
I think a lot of people at the show last night would not call themselves indie rock fans, or at least were not indie rock fans yet when those songs came out.
@tobin Easy, you were born after the Folk Implosion went pop.
Damn kids these days.
I too was dissappointed by people who consider themselves "hip" or whatever not knowing a song like the Pixies "Alec Eiffel," come on folks, this shit happened during your lifetime. Anyhow, those who did know the songs the Carters played were quite appreciative and hopefully some people out there who weren't familiar with the material were enlightened. Hearing that spot on version of "Precision Auto" was my personal highlight of the night.
the 'waterfalls' treatment even had overtones of the industrial.. a capital rendition, imho.
I was SORELY disappointed that there was no Nirvana, no Snoop, no Radiohead, no girls at all performing anything (hello No Doubt, Alanis!), with the exception of the hidden Larissa on cello during Shoot the Mountain's set and the hardly audible Tristen singing backup I'm not sure she was prepared for. I'm not saying I love all these artists and wanted to hear their tunes oh so badly, but damn. I'm sorry if I'm the only one who thinks covering Weezer is a little "too easy". But I will give the night the ole benefit of the doubt.
It was still super fun and major props go to Martians go Home for covering all HUM and to Shoot the Mountain for covering fucking November Rain to damn perfection.
I just wanted to give credit to our Left Eye stand in. His name is David and he's in a group called Conestyle. They're not a rap group, he just naturally flows like that.
And to the members of Shoot the Mountain i didn't talk to, November Rain made my night. Now maybe you guys can make an album called Chinese Democracy but make it good.
What a fun show! The Carter's kicked as, but I can figure out what the last song was. I knew the words, oddly enough, but I can't pinpoint the artist.
They are a band of, dare I say, older guys who were in college or high school when Superchunk and Sebadoh were putting out classic records, so it was probably the music that they remember most from the 90's. Everyone else was younger and remembers Blur or Weezer or Elliott Smith (actually, it's more likely they were listening to Linkin Park or Matchbox 20)
I was in elementary/middle school and mostly listening to Green Day, Oasis, Weezer and Blink 182 cassettes/CDs. I never got into Matchbox 20, but I'm pretty certain a friend burned me a copy of the first Linkin Park album. It sucked. But weren't we in the Aughts by then?
Anyhow, we almost played an Oasis song. Wonder how that would've gone over. I wish someone had given me a Superchunk record when I was 12. I bet I would've liked it...maybe.
Sean, I'm glad you liked our set. The last song was "Alec Eiffel" by Pixies, it's on their album Trompe Le Monde.
We definitely were the "old man" group of the night, and I guess we made that plain by our song choices! Those songs were totally "hits" to us because we weren't really listening to the radio or whatever.
It is a little weird to say that those records are for "record collector nerds" though, because even at the time, those bands were pretty big, they were not toiling in the underground or anything. Pixies were touring with U2 and Lou Barlow already had made a name for himself with Dinosaur. Plus, any "alternative" band post-Nevermind got a ton of attention. Just wanted to make the point that we weren't digging through our record collection searching for some obscure songs to stump people with.
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