Film School with Margot & the Nuclear So and So's - Maxwell's (Hoboken, NJ) - Sunday, May 21, 2006

Despite getting their van and all their gear stolen in Philadelphia last month, the members of FILM SCHOOL soldier on. They managed to play a short but very intense and loud set to the Maxwell’s faithful, despite the fact that they were playing to a less than capacity house (many of whom cleared out after openers MARGOT AND THE NUCLEAR SO AND SO’S) . They touched upon many songs from their excellent, self-titled full-length, including “11:11” and the wonderful “On and On.” They played most of the album, and songs from their previous EP Always Never, such as the show-closer “I Just Turned Into a Gas.” Although I’d only heard the full-length prior to seeing them, I enjoyed the songs from the EP enough that I bought a copy from them after the show.

Visually, Film School are an odd mix. Vocalist/guitarist KRAYG BURTON, who reminded me a lot of JASON LYTE of GRANDADDY, with his baseball hat and his shy approach (he barely moved throughout their set and stayed close to the mic when singing), contrasts wildly with the more animated gestures of tall, slender, and blond guitarist NYLES LANNON and the in-your-face bass playing of JUSTIN LABO (formerly of little-known but terrific ‘90s emo-hardcore bands CURRENT and OTTAWA). Lannon and Labo took center stage, while Burton just hung out on the right-hand side of the stage.

While there’s normally a fair bit of light on the stage at Maxwell’s during any given band’s set, it was almost pitch-black for Film School’s set. This added even more ambiance to Film School’s enticing brew of early ‘90s shoegazer sounds, played with punk energy, and the noise terrorist ethics of SONIC YOUTH and MY BLOODY VALENTINE. Between almost every song, Burton, Niles, and keyboardist/programmer JASON RUCK let out blasts of noise that would’ve made their early ‘90s influences proud, thus further clearing out the unfortunately already small crowd. While the band didn’t start until about 11 pm on a Sunday night, those who left missed a fantastic performance.

I didn’t know what to expect from openers Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s, but I was curious to see them, based on the positive attention that they’ve been receiving from various bloggers lately. And they were fantastic. Envision a large, sprawling collective of seven or eight musicians (including a cellist, a pianist, a trumpet player, and a percussionist who hit things with a mallet) which sound-wise is somewhere in between WILCO’s spacey Americana, the angst of BRIGHT EYES, and the sprawling nature of Canadian collectives like BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE and THE ARCADE FIRE.

Overall, this was a great bill of two completely different yet equally thrilling bands.