Block Party - I went

Block Party - I went to my first-ever Basilica Block Party last night. Wow - fun time. Amazed I've let so many of them go by without seeing one. I spent the whole evening at the Verizon stage, watching Franky Perez, Edward McCain and the Suburbs.

First things first - the opening act, Franky Perez, was amazing. His CD wanders all over the map; mid-tempo latino-tinged balladry (Two Lost Angels, Bella Maria), raucous hook-crazy bar-rock (Love and Hate, Cecilia), and a patriotic ballad (You're A Part Of Me) that swerves unpredictably between Proud To Be An American-style mawkishness and some genuinely beautiful insights (Perez, a Las Vegas native, is the son of Cuban refugees). Live, though, he's as kinetic as films of early '70's-era Springsteen, and his band, the Highway Saints, is razor-sharp. I'd only seen one of his videos (and, in retrospect, heard one other song, although I didn't know it was Perez at the time) before last night - it was amazing. His stage style borrows a lot from the great Stax R'nB performers of the sixties and seventies as it does from Springsteen, and was a refreshing break from the dull, staid cynicism that typifies so many groups performing today. I'm hoping his sophomore CD is a strong one, and gets his stage show out in front of a lot more people; he's really, really good. He'll be at the State Fair this August, at the Bandshell. See him, or I'll come out and give you what-for.

Edward McCain was next. McCain is custom-made for Cities 97; an engaging personality (he had the funniest stage banter of the night), but his music is a mix of mid-tempo acoustic pop ballads and mid-tempo mildly-jazzy acoustic pop ballads that are a lot like chinese food for lunch - an hour later, you've forgotten you've eaten. I imagine McCain's great at the Fine Line, or some intimate little club; in front of a couple thousand people on a stage at the end of a parking lot, stuck between the awesome Perez and the frenetic Suburbs, he was a fish out of water. A capable, fun fish, but still.

On to the Suburbs. The 'burbs were a seminal early-eighties new-wave/dance band from Minneapolis that's had more botched shots at stardom (note the date on the link) than Kate Capshaw.

I remember in about 1982, a college classmate of mine spent weeks talking about his favorite "Just amazing" band from the Cities, the Suburbs. Finally, one night, he played a 'burbs record for me and a few other locals. After weeks of buildup about what an amazing band they were, it was...a letdown.

And over the next several years, knocking around the Minneapolis music scene (and then working as a nightclub DJ), I heard every record they ever did - and was bored stiff. Among Minneapolis bands, I always preferred the Replacements, the Hüskers, Prince - their records sounded less dry and mannered, at the time.

But somehow, despite their reputation as the best bar band in town, I managed never to see the 'burbs live.

Big mistake.

Their show last night (a good one by their standards, say some longtime 'burb gig veterans) was a huge, anarchic, amphetamine blast of fun. The band was tight like a band that's been playing together off and on for 26 years should be tight, but loose in a way that a great live band should be; Charlie Watts once described the Stones as "loosely tight", and that fits the bill. Chan Poling and Beej Chaney split the singing, and while I've heard for years about their idiosyncratic interplay onstage, I really did have to see it to believe it. Poling was the eternal alt-rock geek keyboardist, who had the air of the classical musician slumming it in a bar band - and made it work. Chaney looked, after all these years, like nobody so much as a mid-eighties Iggy Pop, and acted the part; clambering up lighting standards, diving off the stage and floating about on the hands of the crowd (he got a solid 200 feet from the stage), and he's an anarchical, underrated guitar player to boot.

The main point - the band on stage was the exact opposite of their recorded history. While on record they always sounded mannered and fussy and just a little too precious for my raucous punk and soul tastes, onstage they were loud and...

...joyous. The songs that sounded so dry and dessicated on their over-rated early-eighties albums sounded big and alive and full of actual soul onstage.

It was a great evening. Wish you could have been there.