For those of you either unaware or cautiously ignorant of Ominous Seapods folklore, you may have never heard about a little jewel of a venue, tucked away deep within the Adirondack North Country. I speak of course about The Waterhole #3- the upstairs music lounge: a room built for sound. A bar that BEGS for live music to come hither and DESTROY.
She's all, "please live music, sully me good!"
Back in the day, Ominous Seapods used to play regular gigs at The Waterhole, which inevitably led to scenes like this:
Current Waterhole Manager & Master Mixologist Brandon Devito has been pulling in extra special acts this year to celebrate the bar's 40th Anniversary. The idea of booking moe. to play The Waterhole has been a twinkle in his eye for quite some time. The reality that he actually made it happen had moe.rons in a nauseas tizzy.
The show was announced on short notice and the limited tickets were only available at the bar itself. This left moe.rons within driving distance going ape-shit at the prospect of seeing moe. play in such an intimate venue-- and moe.rons further away, completely powerless & utterly devastated. Nice touch.
It's the first time I've been able to catch moe. since snoe.down in March and I was definitely jonesin' for a fix. There wasn't enough room on stage for the band to wear suits, so they dressed down for logistical reasons. It's all about surface area.
There also wasn't enough room on stage for setlists, so moe. built the setlists on-the-fly, round-robin style, where each song segued into the next, and band members took turns calling the next song. moe. opened the show with Head -> Kyle's -> meat.. meat., in an intimate setting--- is massive and fun (and I would appreciate it if you do not take that statement out of context). -> YoY -> Time Ed, hit the spot, -> Head to close out the set. I loves me a sammich.
The moe. show brought in a mix of people. Most were there to see the band, but a handful of others seemed to be there for the sole purpose of getting shitfaced and being obnoxious. During Head or meat., I was maimed by beer bottle shrapnel that left a gaping wound in my left ankle, from which blood spewed (at least) like a geyser*. Then I sliced my finger open whilst attempting to wipe said glass out of my sock. Despite the altercation with some idiot's flying glass, and a beer bottle that twice missed my pretty face by mere inches, and the fact that my running crew had long since retreated backways, I refused to budge from my sweet spot, right in front of al.
However, it did get rowdy enough on the floor that during setbreak we all moved upstairs. There was at least 1 fight instigated by the aforementioned shitfaced folks. Maybe I'm getting old, but it just seemed like pretty disrespectful behavior to pull on such a special occasion.
Shit-- how did I end up all the way up here on this soapbox? SET II. Consider this my public endorsement of Puebla. -> Tailspin was fun, but it didn't seem to work as well in that room as I've seen it before-- the ripping guitars need more echoey space to bounce around in. It kinda felt hollowed out. -> St. Augustine... "Fuckin' a right, Buckshot." - I'm sure someone said this because St. Augustine tore it up. -> an absolutely scorching 32 Things -> a raging Don't Fuck With Flo -> the best or 2nd best Buster that I've ever seen**. An appropriately wild Awesome Gary encore was the icing on the cake.
I feel privileged to have been an eye-witness to this show. Brandon Devito did a fucking fabulous job getting moe. to rock The Waterhole. Thank you, Prince of Saranac Lake.
A hearty thank you and shout out to Billy Allen, the Pope of Saranac Lake, with whom I got to catch up with after all these years. I'm psyched you made it out of the woods for this one, Billy.
And of course, thanks to moe., for making haste through the hostile streets of Lake Placid to show the fine people of Saranac Lake what respectable and upstanding citizens they actually are (and that moe.rons are for the most part, pretty harmless).
moe., 6/29/10, The Waterhole #3, Saranac Lake, NY: 9.5 HUZZAHS! It was EPICALLY EPIC in it's EPICNESS! Let's hope they get the opportunity to do it again someday!
SET I
Head>
Kyle's Song>
Meat>
YoY>
Time Ed>
Head
SET II
Puebla>
Tailspin>
St. Augustine>
32 Things>
Don't Fuck With Flo>
Buster
ENCORE
Awesome Gary
DOWNLOAD THE SHOW!!! Matt Falise taped-- I don't know you Matt, but thanks!
http://www.archive.org/details/moe2010-06-29.flac16
* Or at least dripped on my sock a bit.
** Please see moe., 1/23/10, roseland ballroom, nyc
1 comment:
Broken glass flying through the air?? Ahhhh, the north country. Great review!! I especially love the use of "ape-shit."
And, yes, you're getting old, but you're right, so...
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