I have to be honest here. My only exposure to the legendary Dutch band THE EX prior to this show was listening to their aptly named singles collection Singles. Period. While that collection starts off with relatively straightforward punk rock and shows The Ex growing as a band throughout the 1980s, it misses the last 15 years or so and as such, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, though I knew it was gonna be good. I wasn’t prepared, however, for the bludgeoning (and I mean that in the best way possible) experience of seeing the current incarnation of The Ex live. Playing without a double bass player (the last one, ROZEMARIE, left the band in 2005) but filling out the sound with just the two guitarists ANDY and TERRIE, lead singer G.W. SOK and drummer KATHERINA (who also sang a few songs), The Ex more than compensated. During the set I witnessed, they played repetitive post-punk not a million miles from prime GANG OF FOUR or the more drone-based compositions of THE FALL, but they pulled it off in an utterly unique way. It’s not just that they have no bass player and all of their repetitive noise is generated by two guitarists and a drummer with a vocalist howling, but struggling to be heard over all the racket (especially with the poor sound on this evening). It’s that they build up tension throughout every single song, but they don’t release it. I witnessed Sok buying a FEELIES album on vinyl from the vendor who always sells records at R5 shows and this made complete sense to me. Although I never got to see The Feelies back in their heyday, I know people who did and what they all told me was that they would build up an unbelievable amount of tension throughout every song without ever releasing it. This approach is also akin to slowcore forerunners CODEINE and more modern practioners like LOW (prior to last year’s more raucous, DAVE FRIDMANN-produced The Great Destroyer), though The Ex sound absolutely nothing like any of these bands otherwise.
Unfortunately, The Ex made the mistake of having a DJ (in this case DJ RUPTURE) open for them. I just don’t understand this approach at all. It didn’t work when I saw The Fall do the same thing back in June and it was just as annoying here. First off, I have nothing against DJs and I understand their necessity at dance clubs, but there’s no point in just watching them spin. It’s about as exciting as watching paint dry. If people are dancing or even talking during a DJ’s set, that’s one thing, but the music was so thumpingly loud that it made it almost impossible to do that. Perhaps this is just as much of a comment on the audience (myself included) as the artist involved, but when there are only 50 people or so and they’re all there to watch one band on a school/work night and it’s already 11 PM, isn’t it just common courtesy to not have to endure 45 minutes of this?
It also didn’t help that ALOHA, who I thought were pretty good when I saw them open for VOXTROT earlier this year, bored me as well. Perhaps it was the lack of attendance, but they just didn’t have the same spark as they did back in April at Mercury Lounge. My girlfriend said that they reminded her of a “low-rent DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE”. I say sure except that Death Cab for Cutie have much more memorable and catchy material. It’s not that catchiness and accessibility are the be-all and end-all of anything, but I just wasn’t feeling it on this evening.
The very first act, a performer named ERIK PETERSON who goes by the title MISCHIEF BREW, was quite enjoyable, however. Playing solo but with a ton of energy, Peterson was like a more modern punk version of early BILLY BRAGG. It was as if Bragg had a modern ancestor who grew up listening to RANCID instead of THE CLASH. At times he reminded me of the Rancid songs that LARS FREDERICKSEN (the indisputable soul of that band) sings in that same sort of Billy Bragg-ish style. Anyway, I enjoyed his set and the young kids in the crowd (many of whom left after his set) were singing along to every word.
