Friday, April 30, 2010
The Spin Quasi and Let's Wrestle at Mercy Lounge, 4/29/10
Posted by The Spin on Fri, Apr 30, 2010 at 2:44 PM
- Photo: Ashley S. Wright
After Wednesday night’s sold out Beach House show, we weren’t quite sure what to expect of the Mercy Lounge crowd when a couple more bloggy buzz bands stopped into town the very next night. Well, firstly, apparently The Spin doesn’t know that much about what constitutes “bloggy” or “buzz” these days. Secondly, we walked in to Mercy to find one of our favorite SXSW discoveries Let’s Wrestle shooting the breeze for just under 20 people.
Sucks for them, but The Spin certainly wasn’t mad about cruising up to the front of the room in a matter of seconds. And if the band was upset about it, we couldn’t tell. The trio looked as goofy, unassuming and delightfully awkward as their music sounds. They powered through a dozen or so brief, twangy twee-punk numbers, borrowing heavily from a jangled golden era of underground '90s rock these boys are more than too young to remember. But given most buzz bands don’t seem to flash any influences released before 2003, there’s no way we’re holding that against them. Did we mention they’re English? Yeah, they’re English, alright.
The end of their set meant a brief intermission, so we strolled around a bit, ordered a PBR, and came back to find not only Quasi starting up their set, but that the crowd had somehow swelled to over three times its previous Let's Wrestle size. How it is that a band like Quasi slipped past us the first time around is insane. But we stood amidst our peers who were all eager to catch the veteran band’s first Nashville performance. What followed was a survey course in the Quasi catalog, bursting with the classically jagged hooks and aggressive pop melodies that are the band's signature.
The band soldiered through a spattering of mature, well-crafted, expertly executed indie rock, complete with a premium blend of male/female vocals overlaying a noisy, squealing guitar and a resounding gallop of drums. As the set wore on, the band came more prone to brief jammy psych dirges, veering more and more into sludge, but rounded out the set with a chunk of epic, “Rocksichord”-driven glam-pop ballads laced with noise, but powered by sweet melody. We were thinking The Doors meets Pavement in a classic rock orgy, supervised by Built to Spill. The crowd wouldn’t let them leave without an encore, and the band apparently wouldn’t leave without giving them one. We left satisfied with a sweet new discovery, vowing to make every attempt to grow old as gracefully as Quasi.
Comments (1)
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I was there and it was incredible! Why this show was not sold out is beyond me (or perhaps all too predictable in "Music City"), but regardless, Quasi rocked my balls off. My ears were still ringing a day or two later. Thanks for reviewing!
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