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foo fighters, october 29
From the speed at which tickets vanished for the Foo Fighters’ surprise showcase at the Opera House last Tuesday, it seemed like extra crowd-control might be needed. Not at all. In fact, the response to each of the new tunes from the Foos’ just-released One By One (BMG) disc was a quiet shrug of indifference from the shoulder-to-shoulder gathering.
Instead of bowling over the group’s biggest fans with a revved-up set, frontman Dave Grohl — who still has trouble playing guitar and singing simultaneously — led his Foo flunkies through a series of patience-testing, long meandering jams that inspired ironic crowd surfing. After plugging their disc for 70 minutes, the Foo Fighters left the stage to polite applause. Though there was no apparent demand for an encore, they returned moments later for a finale. Ho-hum.
bamboo buh-bye, october 31
Cloudy skies meant there wouldn’t be one last Red Stripe on the roof, but apart from the weather, last call at the Bamboo went exactly to plan.
By 10 pm, the club was already filled with Queen West old-timers and recent converts. Those who weren’t snapping photos were grabbing whatever they could as souvenirs while the Sattalites, Friendlyman and DJ Billy Bryans entertained. The free pad thai and jerk chicken — plus the fact that closing night coincided with Halloween — meant the party was more festive than a wake. Still, the sad looks on faces said it all.
The ‘Boo may not have booked many interesting acts in the past few years, but the place was unique. Where else downtown could you get mixed up in a dance-floor melee with folks grinding to Fresh Vegetable?
tijuana bibles, november 2
Don’t count on seeing the masked faces of the Tijuana Bibles at the Tequila Lounge again. They’ve been banned for life for questioning the club’s coat-check policy during the release party for their hot new Fiesta! single. When the wrestle-rockers discovered that their 18 friends who’d arrived after a wedding missed their performance due to the mandatory coat check, the Bibles returned to the stage to play one more song.
“Apparently, the owner didn’t like what we said when we came back onstage,” explains drummer Super Destroyer. “Before starting into the song, we made some remarks about everyone looking chilly because they had no jackets on. Then I shouted, ‘Coat check equals cash grab,’ and that did it. He had (booker) Dan Burke tell us we could never play the Tequila Lounge again.”
It’s no immediate concern for the Tijuana Bibles, who’ll be spending the rest of November touring through Belgium and Germany. Their video for Haji is currently the second most popular clip (next to Peaches’ Set It Off) at the www.mp4.com site. Quite impressive considering Madonna’s Die Another Day is running a distant third!
the music, november 4
Cleverly named UK next-big-things the Music sadly didn’t come close to living up to the Fleet Street “most important group since Oasis” hype at Lee’s Palace Monday. The attempt by the fresh-faced Verve fans from Leeds to look hard was laughable, particularly when Robert Harvey — the Music’s Geddy Lee look-alike frontman — got the microphone cord tangled in his hair while doing some raver-style arm-flailing. And the booming echo the soundman added didn’t make Harvey’s shrill Richard Ashcroft-inspired babbling seem any more profound. If you missed the entertainment, the Music will be back opening for the Vines at the Kool Haus November 28.
