The Anniversary/Burning Brides/The Gadjits

live in Seattle (2002)

Aaron

I was really looking forward to this show. I had seen The Anniversary twice before (w/ the Get Up Kids and the Mars Volta) and they were always a good live band… Things have changed.

First up was The Gadjits. I knew nothing about this band before the show other than their name. They put on an energetic performance and their music was ok. They seemed to use a lot of the same riffs in their guitar parts. They played for 30 minutes and then the Burning Brides came on.

I had never heard anything by this band either. I had only read an interview with them on Buddyhead. Plus Buddyhead's gossip page said that they were gonna blow The Anniversary out of the water. So I had high expectations. They were a threesome - 2 guys and a girl. The lead singer had big hair which made me hope they would rock (fros = rock. ie; At The Drive-In, Coheed and Cambria, Vendetta Red). The girl was smoking while playing bass which was fairly unattractive. They came on stage and introduced themselves as the Burning Brides - Otherwise known as the anti-Saves The Day, the anti-Dashboard Confessional (everyone cheered), and the anti-Hey Mercedes. I think that it is pretty lame to get on stage and say something like that right off the bat. Throughout their set, I kept on thinking they were gonna play "Fell in Love With a Girl" the whole time. That's right - they reminded me of the White Stripes. Their music felt uninspired and they seemed like they didn't want to be opening for the Anniversary. The crowd was really moving the whole time which was nice.

Next was the reason everyone was there. The Anniversary finally made it to the stage (after a sample of a Dr. Dre song looped for awhile). I noticed one thing immediately. They looked like they came straight out of the 70's. I look back at my cherished "Designing a Nervous Breakdown" album and I recognize none of the people in the CD booklet but Adrianne. Seriously, it was unbelievable. I am all for change, but they couldn't be serious. It's too bad the Strokes got so popular - they have changed everyone into smoking-on-stage, denim-wearing, shaggy-haired rockstars.

Okay, so they looked different. That I could handle. They opened with an instrumental song that was interesting. There were no lyrics or anything, just a bunch of rock riffs with crashing cymbals. "Your Majesty" was played almost in it's entirety starting with Sweet Marie. The only songs off of that album that they didn't do were Tu-Whitt Tu-Whoo and Follow the Sun. A few new songs were played that seemed decent. The thing that disappointed me the most was the fact that they only played TWO songs off of "Designing a Nervous Breakdown" (Perfectly and The Heart is a Lonely Hunter) during the hour and a half on stage (with two encores)! And Perfectly was hardly recognizable because Adrianne was playing the congas instead of the familiar keyboard parts. I couldn't believe they ended the show without "All Things Ordinary" or "The D in Detroit". Those are all such fun songs compared to the dreary Husam Husam, the unbearable Follow the Sun and the rest of "Your Majesty". Adriane needs to quit the band. She played tambourine, shaker, and the congas half the time. She didn't even need all those moogs and keyboards. She barely used them.

I guess I just had expectations for this show and I was severly let down. The Anniversary is all about rock ballads now. They have lost their since of humor on stage. No longer are they the moog rocking fun band that I used to know and love. Don't go see them unless you like their new stuff more than their old, because they aren't playing any old stuff at any of their shows. And expect to hear the conga more than the keyboards.