review: 04.21.01- Hazel, Quasi, Harvey Danger at the Pine Street Theater
Harvey Danger were fine. Their band is very alterna-rock pop, and I usually like my pop over the top- jangly and sugar sweet. Harvey Danger is neither, but it was pleasant enough. I thought that the spoken word part in one of the songs was clever.
Quasi came on shortly after. It started off with a BANG! I was rocking out- they played tight, fast and sweet. Then somewhere after "California," which was about six songs into the set, they lost their steam. Musically, it began to feel tired, though the musicians themselves didn't appear that way onstage. I'm pretty sure they started playing new songs towards the end, and maybe it's just me not being used to these songs, but the pace slowed down considerably. I wasn't disappointed, really, just kind of like, "Oh... alright. New stuff to work out now."
Hazel, of course, stole every fleeting devotion I had left for whatever fixations I would have developed. Their punk-grunge pop (I'm bad at employing genre-oriented terms, obviously) was frenetic and got my whole body moving, picking up my energy where Quasi left it. They played supremely well. There were none of the screw ups that they are so famous for.
My friend James mentioned that Fred was distracting. But of course he was! Fred was a neccessary part of the live shows, I think. I heard that the idea to have a weirdo pulling stage pranks during the Hazel shows was suggested to Pete Krebs by none other than Joanna Bolme, who is a longtime fixture in the Portland music scene. It was a good idea, in my opinion. I guess it would make better sense for a band that actually sucked to have a dancer dude as an added bonus (or consolation prize), but plenty of great bands have had a exhibitionist member. Pavement was famous for the brief tenure of crazy Gary Young, and I'm sure there have been more, but given that it's 8:45 in the morning, I'm having trouble remembering.
I took some pics of Fred dancing and tramping about in his floral dress. He used some props (pitcher of water, banana, mic stand) to do whatever it is that he wanted to do. Another man with long, ZZ Top hair came out in a magenta dress and started a... um... chick fight with Fred. I thought it was hilarious. I could enjoy the music as well as have something worth keeping my eyes open for.
There was lots of on-stage banter. Brady waxed poetic about a Japanese Seattle Mariners baseball player he was particularly fond of, and Jody told us about golfing (she showed us how old ladies should swing) and her prom. She was such a riot. I wished that I hadn't missed the heyday of Hazel, or even Team Dresch, which Jody sang for. I missed all of that as a teenager.
They had three songs in their encore, with Fred and a couple other random people on stage. One person was throwing slices of what appeared to be either Swiss or Monterey Jack cheese. It was likely Swiss, as it didn't fall apart the way the more crumbly cheeses do (I'm pretty good with identifying my cheeses, having had two years experience slicing, using and consuming the stuff). Jody said that she wanted someone fresh, a girl, a fresh person to take over drumming duties during the last song. They brought up this girl who apparently volunteered from the front, and when they played their song, she knew exactly what she was doing. Either she is a really naturally good drummer (even training can't give you a keen ear for changes in tempo and rhythm like that) or it was staged somehow- she knew the drum part ahead of time.
Hazel's performance was immensely charming throughout. I watched and danced and got stuck with a goofy grin on my face until long after the show was over.