I don’t know if it’s because I live in Los Angeles and have over time adopted the universal jaded attitude that goes along with living here, but I’m notoriously bad about checking out local bands. When I do go to a show, I try and avoid the opening acts as much as possible. Sometimes that bites me in the ass when I hear the band later, but it’s also helped me dodge a few “bad band” bullets as well. Quite a few actually. So I will go months before hearing a new decent LA band. And then I usually I hear a track or two online and have to make a special trip just to catch a local band. That will be the case when Seaspin plays their Monday night residency at the Silverlake Lounge next month.
I’ve had tracks of theirs sitting in my inbox for months now and still haven’t made it to one of their shows. And every time I hear something else by them, it solidifies my desire to see these guys (actually 3 guys and one girl) live. There’s definitely some heavy Curve influences going on here, but I’m fine with that. In fact, I encourage it. Look for them to lead the pack of the shoegaze revival bands.
[audio: http://thesoundofindie.com/archive/2010/20100225/Seaspin-Reverser.mp3|titles=Reverser|artists=Seaspin]Download: Seaspin – Reverser
This is the shit
Hear, hear! about opening bands. Wish I had missed Glasgow (New Orleans band) opening for WLotM! and Elsinore the other night. God, they were awful.
I don’t know if it’s because indie music has been stagnant for the past few years and that’s why I’m no longer interested in “checking out” new bands, or if I’m just old. Either way, I pretty much do anything I can to miss opening bands.
I just caught Seaspin for the third time this month. I hadn’t seen them before though.
As far as opening bands go, time is valuable so I say don’t spend time on bands you wont like. I normally will listen to a couple songs online of all the bands before going to a show. The fun surprises are when a band doesn’t make an impression from their recordings but has an amazing live show. It’s rare but it happens.