Thursday, July 13, 2006

Electric Six!!!!!



As promised, here are my thoughts and observations regarding the Electric Six concert at the Khyber in Philly a few nights ago.

• First and foremost, I want to thank Smokin’ for agreeing to go with me to the concert. We had sort of a man-date (not that there’s anything wrong with that). It was good to hang out with Smokin’ again, as we sometimes get too busy to see our friends.

• Smokin’ introduced me to Indian food – we stopped by this little place on 2nd and Chestnut, and I gotta tell ya, I enjoyed the experience, and look forward to partaking in more sometime in the near future. The Naan was good, as was the Chicken Taton (I’m sure I butchered that one).

• I have never seen a rock concert in a sauna … until last night. The Khyber is a cozy place to see a band play, but man, does somebody need to install/fix the air conditioning! The smell of 100’s of people’s sweat can take away from a show.

• The first band we saw was a local group called The Distance. I’m guessing they are relatively new to the scene, as their stage presence was a little lacking. They did have a nice pop/punk sound, and seemed like generally good guys.

• The second group was called Priestess, and they seemed to be polar opposites of the first band. If the lead singer had bitten a bat’s head off on stage, I wouldn’t have been surprised. That being said, the group, from Montreal (don’t hold it against them), had some major talent. They had two great guitar players who were able to weave in and out of lead and rhythm guitar seamlessly, and the drummer was an absolute madman. I would say that they reminded me of a mix between Gwar and Dio (if that is possible). A side note, my ears are still ringing from them. I should’ve known they were going to be loud when they started setting up the columns of amps.

• Electric Six was incredibly entertaining. I really hope these guys make it. They definitely have the sound. The lead singer is not your normal lead singer, in that he doesn’t dress the part. He had short hair, and a buttoned shirt on. Additionally, he clowned around the stage the entire night, which was very entertaining (I love it when a band member, especially a lead singer, isn’t full of himself). The guy was quick-witted, especially during one song when the drummer’s base pedal broke. Almost immediately, the lead singer asked if either Priestess or The Distance had packed their gear up. Then, he went on to ask if Hall and Oates were around (originally from Philly). THEN, he asked if Allen Iverson was in the building, and if so, if he had a base-pedal with him. Then, he started imitating Iverson, saying something along the lines of “We’re talkin’ about base-pedal, here!” I had heard he was a little on the weird side months ago, and he definitely fit the bill, in a good way. He later was talking about his drummer, who was a local guy from King of Prussia, and proclaimed to the audience “My drummer is a strip mall!” Funny stuff.

• I had no idea that Pabst actually sold beer in bottles.

• On the drive home, I realized it was 12:45 a.m. At this point, I said to Smokin’, “I can’t wait to get up for work later this morning.” Believe me, I was cursing fire when the alarm went off at 6:30 a.m.

• All in all, a great show, and when they come back, I hope they can go to a bigger venue, like maybe the TLA or the Troc, or maybe the Wachovia Center (if they get big enough).

9 comments:

Steph said...

Sounds like a great "man date" ;)
Did he respect you in the morning?

Los said...

He hasn't returned any of my calls yet.

The Rev said...

That's because Karl didn't put out at the end of the night. I felt so abandoned.

Now my comments...

- You totally butchered the Indian food. I don't remember what they called the wings, but it was Tandoori Chicken. Karma on Chestnut St between Front and 2nd for the record. Good place. It gets Smokin Steve's stamp of approval.

- I actually thought I might pass out at one point in that sauna of a rock club. Maybe the young kids are used to it, but us mid 30's folk can't handle too much of that. I was handling it from 9-11pm, but around 11:30 I hit a wall.

- The first band was actually named The Situation. It doesn't matter what you call them, they weren't that exciting.

- Priestess definitely had presence and musical chops, but their music isn't my bag. I dug the fact that they were from Montreal as it is one of my all-time favorite cities. They were very much reminiscent of 70's metal. And those amps were big, but they had a great classic look to them which I dug.

- I'm officially an Electric Six fan now. I've been listening to their CD and digging it. I wish we could have stuck around and hung with them after the show. But leaving the sauna was a much better choice in retrospect. hearing the CD after the fact and picking out the songs they did live on it made the CD better to me.

- Given the atmosphere of the Khyber, I just felt like I should be drinking Pabst. It fit the scene. And it was only 2 bucks a bottle. And it didn't suck.

The Rev said...

Thank you, Los. You're a great "man date". And there is nothing wrong with that.

You're just lucky I didn't carry my man purse with me.

Ink and Stone said...

LOL

The only 'sauna' concert I've been to was White Zombie and Reverend Horton Heat at Merriweather Post Pavilion in MD. It rocked (and I became a bog Heat fan after that show - these guys rock out) and the Pav had to be around 110 degrees or so. Insane.

The Rev said...

I'm guessing it was mid 80's in the Khyber with lots of bodies around to add to the heat. Brutal!

Los said...

And stiflingly humid. It was funny, the comment Valentine made (lead singer), when he said that he didn't understand why we were complaining about global warming while we are sitting here in this sauna.

Superstar said...

Imagine PHX in summer and that was still cooler than your sauna!

I went to our outdoor desert theater for Sugar Ray, and Bare naked ladies...SO freaking Hot nothing was fun after an hour. Oh it was a 9pm show...it was still 106.
LAST TIME!

Man date...You two kill me!

The Rev said...

Yes, Bambi. But it is not supposed to be over 80 and humid indoors, like it was at The Khyber.

And you guys in Arizona are used to it by now. At least it's a dry heat with no humidity.