Thursday night I went out to see weaklazyliar at 10 High. It was an odd show. It was their drummer’s last show with them, though no one knew it (well, they did, obviously). I got up and sang backing vocals on three songs, which I love to do. They always smile at me when I do it, too, which is kind of cute.
Still, there was an understandably weird feeling about the show. Bittersweet. They played a great show, I thought. I don’t think they care for playing a place like 10 High, which I can understand. They’re really the antithesis of the typcial club band. They play subtle, understated, intelligent stuff, and you have to listen to it for it to get you. It’s almost impossible to get the general crowd to pay attention at a club long enough to realize there’s something important going on, unless you’re making their eardrums bleed. But, hell, Wilco can travel around drawing crowds playing that sort of understated, smart stuff, there’s no reason in the world why weaklazyliar can’t do it, too. There’s a reason why, after they got a simple artist card shown after they used their music in the last episode of Felicity that they suddenly sold out at amazon. You have to listen, you have to hear what they’re doing in some sort of context.
I felt very special getting to play a small part in Joe’s last show. I worry about them now. I love them as a band (I honestly think the November Diaries is one of the best albums of the year, in fact, go buy it, will you?) and as people. I worry that the process of having to continually beat your head against the apathy of the typical crowd will cause them to finally say enough is enough. With Joe leaving I think they feel strange about continuing. They had really developed over the past few years and had become a band with an identity, a tight-knit group, which is rare for a local band, I think. But to me, that also serves to make it easier to continue now. The music is strong enough and has its own face now, so to speak, it has become bigger than the sum of its parts. It’s strong enough to survive such a potentially drastic change. I think the real question now is whether they feel it’s worth it to themselves.
I really do hope that, a year from now, I get to sit down and hear rough mixes from a new CD, and see where it is they’re heading. The November Diaries is a fantastic record, but it doesn’t need to be a swansong. It needs to be a preview. It’s a roadmap, not a destination.