Monday, December 14, 2009
The Spin Apollo Up! w/Private Dancer and Firebirds of the Arctic Ice at The 5 Spot, 12/12/09
Posted by The Spin on Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 11:56 AM
When we showed up at The 5 Spot around 9:30 Friday night, the room was emptier than we were expecting--then we remembered that the prototypical East Nashville band, Hands Down Eugene, were playing across town. Firebirds of the Arctic Ice took their sweet time getting set up, and they were one those bands that has one guy with a big amp who turns up his big amp real loud like, "Hey, listen to me, I've got a bigger amp than everyone else in my band," and depending on where you're standing, that dude's guitar is pretty much all you can hear. The band, which features former members of Kill Devil Hills, said they were from Albuquerque, then they said they were from Wisconsin, but they sounded more like they were from 1998. Like if Dave Mustaine got tricked into playing in a Victory Records band with a lot of feelings.
A pretty good-sized crowd had filled up the Spot by the time Private Dancer took to the stage, and a lot of people noticed the bass player set up his amp directly behind the drummer and stand right next to him. "Got to admire a rhythm section that's committed," someone with a beard said to us. Sure enough! We and everyone in our general proximity were hooked immediately. After all the geographic misdirection of the first band, people wanted to know where these dancers for money were from--Minneapolis, it turns out. But they almost sounded like they were from Atlanta, what with the '60s garage-y thing--only they were better and tighter and more focused-sounding than a lot of the '60s garage-y bands that seem to be coming out of everywhere including Atlanta these days. "That's some Entwistle-and-Moon-type shit," the guy in the beard said a few songs in. They were tighter than, uh, something that's really, really tight. And they closed with "Nobody But Me" by the Human Beinz! Nobody can do the boogaloo like those guys. Whatever the boogaloo is.
Soon enough it was time for the stars of the evening, and ol' Jay Leo Phillips got up there and right away apologized in advance in case his voice gave out or blood started coming out of his teeth or whatever. Sure, he sounded a little raspy, but as a rule, we're not a fan of this maneuver. It's like, "Hey everybody, just lower those expectations a little bit while we get tuned up!" Anyway, all was forgiven as soon as ol' Jay Leo Phillips started scraping away at the opening notes of "Walking the Plank." We're not the only ones who've been missing the hell out of Apollo Up!, as evidenced by the many people shaking their bangs and yelling along and not standing stone-still during their set, which was just the shot of awesome we needed. Not the tightest we've ever seen AU play, but how long has it been since they played a show? Too long, that's how long.
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It was a great show and I was pleased to hear them play a brand new song.. now I can hold out hope for another album / EP at some point.
not to take anything away from apollo up! (who were great), but private dancer almost stole the show.
Forgot how much I missed Au. That's some powerful shit right there.
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