Don Caballero played Go! Room 4 tonight but I intentionally passed on the show. Don Cab are one of my favorite bands ever but the current incarnation is a bit of a sham, somewhat of a False Caballero. The lineup now consists of longtime drummer/octopus Damon Che and some guys from Creta Bourzia who (impressively) figured out all of the Ian Williams/Mike Banfield guitar parts to old Caballero songs. False Caballero rolled through town last October and I eagerly went to the show without knowing anything about the lineup change. After a lot of the emo kids cleared out after this band I'd never heard of called The Constantines, False Caballero took the stage and played copious portions of What Burns Never Returns and For Respect in addition to some other DonCab oldies and even a few new songs. All of the "old" songs were technically dead-on & very accurate...and I must admit that I enjoyed hearing them. But I got this weird icky feeling that I was being sold something under the guise of nostalgia...and that maybe I had finally passed some age threshold where the bands I liked in college were already doing "reunion" tours for cash a la The Who. Five years ago I saw a Steve Perry-less Journey at Walnut Creek Ampitheatre and enjoyed the hell out of it...but my ticket was free and I was drunk on a grassy lawn on a warm summer evening and I had absolutely no delusions of (or vested interest in) "Journey authenticity". Funny, the one thing that I will probably remember the most about last fall's False Caballero show was that Damon was totally drunk and pissed off about the band's performance and who knows what else...he kept making negative comments and I thought he might even start re-enacting elements of the Don Cab show at Local 506 ten years earlier when he got frustrated with soundman Todd Goss and proceeded to pitch a huge fit....as well as a snare drum and most of his drum sticks onto the Local 506 floor. Now those are good memories....
Back in the present: I was lucky enough to witness Ian Williams' awesome new band Battles a couple weeks back...more on that show sometime soon.
Posted by Tim at March 29, 2004 01:48 AMleave it to damon to sully the legacy of the don with the musical equivalent of near-beer. i guess you really can't go home again. i look forward to hearing about the battles show!
Posted by: CP at March 29, 2004 01:57 PMthere ain't no reason to spy a perryless journ, and you know it.
drunkenness and summer lawns can be had sans walnut crik.
Posted by: slitherhole jarvobs at April 3, 2004 12:55 PMC'mon, not all of us can so radically sport the authentic Journey baseball tee....at some point you gotta take what Journey you can get....while still holding true to the "Don't Stop Believin'" ideal, of course. The second part of your statement is very true, however....
Posted by: TR at April 4, 2004 01:47 AMand let's not forget that augeri has the side benefit of sounding like perry but looking more like a classic-rock richard simmons. yer.
'round here we say "patio" not "lawn". city life...
Posted by: CP at April 5, 2004 06:41 PM