Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Independent, 9/4/07

by hardrockchick [about 2 years, 12 months ago.]

Honestly, I don’t know where to begin.

How about here- I’d heard of BJM but had never much listened until I saw DiG!. I’ve been listening to Tepid Peppermint Wonderland: A Retrospective ever since.

So I knew Anton Newcombe was a brilliant, crazy man. I’m pretty forgiving- I’m there for the music, I can deal with some stage issues/antics/whatever, but last night pushed me almost to my limit. I won’t seal the deal and say I’d never go see them again- I think I’ll give them another chance, it just sure as hell will not be on a Tuesday night.

I caught most of Dimmer’s set, from New Zealand. Nice sound, but they need a new aesthetic. The lead singer is too much older and dressed a mismatch to the rest.

Dimmer’s set ended at 10ish, and BJM did not walk on stage until 11:15ish. The music that was played by the DJ was wacko- it went from The Streets to motown, house, skipping songs halfway through, and not in an artful fade in and out kind of way. The cigarette smoke from the guys setting up the multitude of instruments started to form a haze cloud over the overly patient crowd. The bassist- I think- lackadaisically ate a sandwich as he set up his equipment. Candles were lit and repositioned. Strings were tuned and retuned. More cigarettes were lit. Joints, pipes, one hitters, and bullets-yes bullets- were tapped by the audience during the wait. Only at the very end did a few squaks of WTF echo across the room, and by then, the side of the stage began to populate.

When the sextet took their places, I continued to look for Anton. I guess I hadn’t seen a photo of him in years, or the lighting was bad, or my contacts were maladjusted from the smoke- but he looked a pity. Not dope sick, but in the wallows of middle age mental mayhem that’s being treated with alcohol and pills. Shirtless, in white jeans and beads, the only thing left unspoiled were his talents- his “perfect pitch”, his voice, his guitar.

bjm

“Wasted” said someone in the crowd as Anton slurred to thank the crowd and describe how he is giving us this and has worked so hard, and that we should/do not understand the difference between “rights” and “privileges”, main themes for the evening. From here on, the night is a blur of audience members being told to fuck off, band members being told that they should be fired, and speeches on various muddled topics that were passionate, informed, and unintelligible at the same time. At one point, Anton asked the front row if they were thirsty, and gave someone a bottle of water. He doesn’t “drink the shit”, and do “we know what’s in there”, it’s “calcium and magnesium”, which is the “same shit as in Prozac”, and that it takes more water to “make the bottle than the stuff that goes inside”. Informative, current, yet paranoid and shit, it took him 3 minutes to say it.

The body language of the band- except for Joel- reminded me of myself at the end of my 7 year mentally abusive relationship: broken, apathetic, and numb. All are great instrumentalists- they have to be. Anton would fire them on the first night if they weren’t. There was just a lot of time between songs- I think they made it through 4 or 5 in the first hour, and some songs seemed as though every member was looking for cues from someone else as to where to end the song.

guitar

Around midnight, the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club guys showed up to see the set. The guitarist, Peter Hayes, used to be in BJM. The songs started flowing much better at this point. However, as we approached 1am, I had to call it quits. I hate leaving a show early…but beyond having an early morning, I was a little perturbed about the whole thing. I expected some fireworks, but when it overshadowed the music so much, I just felt awful. Perhaps I have seen too many rehabilitated rockers in my days.

My ‘videographer’ was very irritated by the whole thing- to the point that he filmed pure rants and no music. Sorry.

Who

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When Jokers Attack

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Open Heart Surgery

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Genre(s): My Musical Adventures

307Comments (13)2007-09-06+05%3A35%3A01hardrockchick

13 Responses to “Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Independent, 9/4/07”

w says:

September 6, 2007 at 7:05 pm

The night before we waited for three hours before the opening act hit the stage. BJM didn’t start playing until 11:45. I left at 12:45.

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I’d rather be surfing » Blog Archive » Brian Jonestown Massacre not a good idea on a Tuesday says:

September 6, 2007 at 10:09 pm

[...] night, I went to see Brian Jonestown Massacre at the Independent. I mostly agree with HardRockChick’s review of the BJM show. She was a little too forgiving though. I don’t think someone playing the Independent is [...]

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damien says:

September 8, 2007 at 12:50 am

I was at this show too. It was my first experience and a huge disappointment. The reason the music sounded so bad before BJM went on is because Anton was fricken spinning up there instead of getting his ass on stage. BJM was scheduled to go on at 9:30. Dimmer went longer it would seem to bridge the Anton Gap. It still took him over an hour to make it out after them.

The show was painful to watch, I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who thought so. I was beginning to think I was way uncool. Its a shame he’s such a train wreck, because he’s damn good once he can hold it together for more than a couple minutes. I had to leave when he walked off stage in the middle of one of the songs around 12:30 or so.

It was as if they grabbed a random angry drunk off the street, took his shirt off, strapped a guitar on him, put him in front of a great band then told him to just talk a lot and form sentences as best he could. It wasn’t until he actually sang and played with the band, that you could accurately identify him.

“It’s all about the music” ??? Could have fooled me.

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hardrockchick says:

September 10, 2007 at 10:49 pm

well said, damien.

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d says:

September 30, 2007 at 2:48 pm

Anton’s has become a parody of himself. Angry rants are his “shtick”..part of his act. The audience expects it and he is known for this. Unless the sound is messed up in a venue (Belly Up bar,Solana Beach) the music is a wonder to behold. People put up with Anton’s character disorder because the music is wonderful.

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DEV says:

September 30, 2007 at 2:54 pm

Yes, drinking and anger have taken their toll on Anton Newcombe. The night we saw him he looked like Alice Cooper, only Alice wore makeup. The band pretty much played the same set that we heard them play in 2005 at The Bottom of the Hill..

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Hard Rock Chick » Stage antics says:

October 8, 2007 at 10:58 pm

[...] with some of the Lauryn Hill escapades with a side of Lady Sov tantrum central. They really missed the scoop on BJM, though… tags:rock in the newsBookmark to: posted by hardrockchick at 10:58 pm [...]

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December 31, 2007 at 9:19 am

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Hard Rock Chick » Oh no, Anton says:

July 18, 2008 at 2:20 pm

[...] seen him throw verbal knives at his band members, and it isn’t pretty. However, this will never stop me from going to their shows…Anton, [...]

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Hard Rock Chick » Black Rebel Motorcycle Club @ Great American Music Hall, 9/8/08 says:

September 9, 2008 at 7:23 pm

[...] Hall could unofficially serve as a 10 year anniversary for the duo. Formed after Peter Hayes left Brian Jonestown Massacre, for reasons I can only guess at, Robert Been and Hayes teamed up with now former drummer Nick Jago to make their darkly beautiful [...]

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Hard Rock Chick » The Dandy Warhols @ The Warfield, 10/4/08 says:

October 5, 2008 at 5:20 pm

[...] most prestigious venues, playing a legitimate set at a normal time to a crowd of happy fans. BJM, love them to pieces, but they are still playing smaller venues at ridiculously late times to a …. They are two bands that started in similar places, but TDW took off on this other trajectory [...]

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Hard Rock Chick – Open Heart Surgery: Brian Jonestown Massacre, Federale @ The Fillmore, 6/21/10 says:

June 24, 2010 at 12:52 am

[...] a BJM show, there is always speculation as to whether there will be any drama. However, I can tell you that as far as I know nowadays, the drama has transferred to the crowd. [...]

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