I was looking forward to this show for a long, long time. Cursive and No Knife are easily two of the best bands on God's green Earth, and everything I had heard from Appleseed Cast I had liked. Being from San Diego, I had already seen No Knife twice, and knew they would be putting on an awesome show. I had been kicking myself for missing Cursive the last time they were in town, and had been listening to them non stop and twiddling my thumbs to pass the time.
The night of the show, I got news from my friend who had just seen Cursive the night before in L.A. that they were "terrible" and it was "just a lot of screaming." I tend not to listen to him because he is staunchly anti-screaming, but it still took away some of my pre-show anticipation. I reminded myself to kick him in the nuts when he got back from Coachella. What a bastard!
The Scene was packed, as the show was likely to sell out. Hundreds of kids in tight jeans, with messy hair and thrift store shirts were packed in like a bag of sticky circus peanuts, sweating and suffering slightly to see their favorite bands. How's that for shitty writing!
The Appleseed Cast was up first, and let me tell you, I did not expect the lead singer to be fully bearded and look like my hairy father. Despite being hairy, the band still kicked a good amount of ass. They had the guitars set up so that the notes ring forever, which gave the music a sort of psychedelic quality. It was good mellow music for the most part, although it all started to sound the same by the end of the set. My friend went nuts over these guys and immediately bought two cds.
No amount of praise in enough for No Knife. Forget John Lennon, these guys are better than Jesus. The guitar work was jawdropalicious, the drumming was perfect and the bass was phenomenal. These guys write some of the craziest sounding guitar you will ever hear; they had to have been abducted by aliens at some point and injected with alien DNA that has slowly taken over their minds until they have been forced to create interstellar guitar sounds. The only complaint I have is with the Scene's horrible acoustics. The bass kept resonating and making horrible kill-me-now sounds that pummeled my eardrums for most of the set. The Scene needs to fix shit like this.
Cursive was the band I really came to see. They built the tension up with a sample of "The Ugly Organist" then blasted into "Red Handed Slight of Hand." They used a lot of samples during the set, which seemed stupid live, although it did give the music a fuller sound. Tim screamed himself hoarse for such classics as the Lament of Pretty Baby, the Recluse, the Casualty, Art is Hard, the Martyr, and a slow version of the Radiator Hums. He played keyboard on a few songs, which seemed a bit out of place but sounded good. Cursive finished their set with the epic "Staying Alive." The song was one big crescendo, with Tim beating his guitar until it begged for mercy. Overall, the show was one of the best I have ever seen, and I can't wait to kick my friend in the nuts when he gets back.