shimweasel

Last night was the last time the popfrenzy collective will book the Mandarin Club. This is a bit sad: it was a reliable source of shit-hot bands you’ve never heard of for a very long time, and it will be sorely missed.

Anyway, the farewell performance had The Dumb Earth headlining. I’ve been a fan of their first album, “Walk the Earth” for a very long time, probably at least partially for the circumstances in which I heard it first: it has this raucous, ramshackle charm about it, like punk played by a hobo jazz orchestra who remember better times. Time seems to have worn away their rougher edges: they’re still dark, but there’s a smoothness that wasn’t there before. Regardless, an excellent show, and I’m very glad I went.

The second support was some guy playing covers on an acoustic guitar. Not very interesting.

The first support, however, starting kinda late, was a band called ninetynine, who were flat-out amazing. While they jumped around on instruments a lot, the basic recipe seemed to be powerful drums + foggy, overwhelming synths + piercing stabs of sound from either the xylophone or the guitar. Very very highly recommended, and I only wish they’d been able to start a little earlier and play a full set. (Sekrit message to Shae: download, listen, enjoy. And see ‘em if they tour Boden. :P)