19 Apr
04
cuff the duke…finally
on saturday night i finally got to catch a cuff the duke show. they’ve been here probably 7 or 8 times in the last year, and each time i’ve wanted to go but something’s always come up.
the good:
- it was at the grad club which is always a fun venue so long as the crowd isn’t made up of idiots
- the crowd wasn’t made up of idiots! i wasn’t annoyed at all for once! there were some pretty funny people there (for example, the 4 foot tall dancing machine – if by “machine” i mean “very very broken machine”), but that just added to the fun.
- cuff the duke were solid, as i would expect them to be after having played a million live shows this year. alt.country woo!
- they had a vibraphone! who DOESN’T like vibraphones? (note that i got the name correct this time, in part thanks to alan, and in part because cuff the duke pointed out that it was a vibraphone – “but i’m not quite sure how it’s different from a xylophone…”)
- although i didn’t really give them my full attention, radical dudez weren’t half bad. they’ve played a bunch of shows over the last couple years too, so i guess they SHOULD have improved. cuff the duke made a pretty funny comment essentially complimenting the dudez: “there are a LOT of jam bands at universities in ontario, so we were kind of nervous when we heard a band called ‘the radical dudez’ were opening for us…uh…no offense…but they were really good”. funny.
the bad:
- it was another fucking rock crew show, which meant 3 bands. now, i wouldn’t mind so much if it was 3 bands i cared about, but most rock crew shows i’ve been at this year followed this pattern: the headliners + some band they’re touring with (who usually suck but i can’t really complain about that) + some local band. examples: cuff the duke + kate maki + radical dudez, the dears + pilate + betablokka, weakerthans + carnations + fembots (yeah, i know they’re not local, but still). i wasn’t too upset about having to wait forever for CTD this time, because i had good company and a hockey game to half watch while waiting, but rock crew, if you’re reading this, stop being idiots.
- i only knew 4 songs from the CTD set, ’cause they were trying out new material. i don’t know if this should really be in the “bad” list ’cause it was good stuff…but i’m disappointed i didn’t get to hear antisocial. they might’ve played it during they’re encore, but we ditched before then.
anyway, the good clearly outweighed the bad. fun is fun.
Vibraphones are breaking out all over. I am considering a combo replete with vibraphones and a single conga drum.
April 19th, 2004 at 2:25 pmparka 3 could use a vibraphone.
April 20th, 2004 at 10:24 pmparka 3 did have a xylophone, which didn’t improve their sound. i have my doubts that a vibraphone would help the situation very much, but it probably couldn’t hurt…
April 21st, 2004 at 8:50 am