a silver mt zion / generator
25-01-2004
the black sheep inn, wakefield
(when i get back to the alter-reality, something else will appear in this space.)
i was at the jan 25th show at the auberge le mouton noir, in wakefield, quebec - a somewhat famous venue to the north of ottawa that i actually personally do not like at all. this band tends to avoid ottawa. i think it's because it's the *actual* home city of a number of members, who don't like coming back to it. when they play in ottawa, which is rarely, it's usually in weird venues.....but they tend to avoid it altogether, when they can.
i was once again distracted by my no-good girlfriend, who was in the other room shooting pool all night, up to no good and didn't have the slightest interest in the actual music. she would have fit in better at a bon jovi concert, or something - she just wanted to get drunk and find an orgy. why did i bother bringing her, again? and, why was i still with her, anyways?
i didn't want to chase her around all night when my favourite artists were on stage, so i largely washed my hands of it. that was easier decided than accomplished, of course. if there were consequences of picking the band over her, which i gathered was the game, then i'd have to accept them. i don't see the band every day, after all. and, of course, my no-good friends fell for the ploy, once again: i mostly watched the set by myself, despite actually coming with a car full of people.
no, for real: the band of our fucking time is playing in a small room in front of you, and you're off in the other room fucking with my head and with my friends' heads, too. like, fuck off. i'm going to see the band - and fuck you for not appreciating the value of what's happening in front of you. this is not what i want.....
i missed a few songs in the middle of the set, but i caught the bulk of it and the berlin set is a fair representation of what they played.
i hadn't had a chance to digest the newest mt. zion record at the same level that i had a chance to digest essentially all of their previous work. i was living in my no-good girlfriend's room in a two-room apartment (perhaps i wasn't so full of goodness, either, myself...), and trying to cobble together enough time to study. my usual 5-disc changer basement stereo setup just didn't exist, so i just wasn't absorbing as much music, new or old, because i didn't have control of the means of reproduction. so, a lot of the setlist was actually coming at me pretty fresh...
the material on 'this is our punk rock' hit me pretty hard: flattened me like a train, perhaps. see, a part of the reason i was a little less excited about it was that i was pretty disappointed by the previous record. but, the show certainly piqued my interest...
the material for the upcoming record, 'horses in the sky', was a lot less interesting to me and kind of spooked me about the direction they were heading in, just as i was realizing the value of the previous lp, after having written them off due to the one before that. see, it is this level of frustration that colours my reaction to mt. zion moving forwards: the odd-numbered records are brilliant, and the even-numbered records are decent to awful.