Lake Trout are a band from Baltimore that I've seen at least a dozen times over the past 6 years, one of my favorite live bands. They're not very hip to like around here, I don't think, stemming from the fact that they were identified early on as a jam band, although they seem to have spent most of their existence shying away from that categorization. There's a lot of improv in their live shows but it's mostly repetitive, loop-y playing, not a lot of solos or real 'jamming', so to speak. Around the time I started seeing them their drummer was heavy into playing drum'n'bass style, which he's pretty amazing at, and being a drummer I've always been pretty hyped about the idea of playing those kinds of fast, skittery beats on real drums (I've also seen them do some pretty impressive Amon Tobin and Aphex Twin covers). But then there started to be a lot of other bands copping dance music influences on the jam band circuit, so they were pretty unsuccessful at alienating that audience with that sound. Then they started to move back toward song-based material, although songwriting isn't really their strong suit and their singer is a lot of people's least favorite thing about the band (their best album to date is their one official live album, which is 90% instrumental). Plus the material was suffering from a too obvious Radiohead influence. Still, their last album was pretty good for what it was. Around this time, they became friendly with the Dismemberment Plan, who wrote "The Other Side" as something of a Lake Trout homage after seeing them for the first time. They also played a bunch of co-headlining shows with the Plan before they broke up, and started playing on more indie rock bills and weening themselves off the jam band festivals that were probably more lucrative gigs. They used to play most of their local shows at the Recher Theatre (cover-band and frat-guy-friendly place in Towson), now they usually play at the Ottobar (indie rock club in the city).

Lake Trout's been kind of scarce in the area over the past couple years, recording a lot and only playing out of town, although it didn't occur to me til someone mentioned at their show on Friday at the Ottobar that it was their first show in Baltimore in a year and a half. They've got a double album coming out this year, and the 2nd disc is supposed to be mostly instrumental, which I'm pretty excited about. A lot of their best material has been kicking around live sets for years and is mostly instrumental or features their keyboardist Matt (who's not the lead vocalist on most songs) screaming nonsense through a ton of distortion. That stuff is the main reason I still go to their shows and it's never been featured on any of their records, so that disc 2 should be good. Their set on Friday was about half familiar stuff and half new stuff with vocals, most of which wasn't especially promising or different from the last album. They encored with a cover of Helmet's "Unsung", which was kind of awesome. Everyone who came to the show got a free CD at the door, of 2 songs that are going to be on the new album, one of which is their okayish cover of "Street Fighting Man".

What I left the show remembering more about, though, was one of the opening bands. Not the first one, though. When I was first walking into the club, I honestly couldn't tell if there was a band onstage or the soundman was playing Interpol or something on the PA. It turned out to be the first band, Bettersea. I don't necessarily think every band that sounds like that is chasing a trend. In fact, I think it's pretty plausible that there are thousands of guys who have been waiting for years for a chance to play in a band that sounds like that. But that might be even more shameful, in a way.

I was really impressed with the 2nd band, Apollo Sunshine, though, who are from Boston. You know how when you're watching a band you've never heard before and they turn out to be good, first you think oh, I think I'll stick around for them and wait til after their set to go to the bar/bathroom/Ms. Pac Man machine? And then a few songs in you start checking your wallet to make sure you have enough cash to get whatever they have at the merch table? Apollo Sunshine had that effect on me. Most of the stuff I've looked at about them on the internet has pointed out comparisons like the Flaming Lips, Elephant 6, Beck; basically reference points that would usually provoke fear and apprehension in me. But they were seriously good live. Like, 3 songs in they have a roomful of strangers cheering as much as they would for the headliner, that kind of good. Just some goofy bearded guys (I overheard Mike from Lake Trout say to someone that the guitarist from Apollo Sunshine looks like the Burger King, like the one from those weird "wake up with the king ads", which he really does) making really upbeat tuneful guitar music with unpredictable song structures and some bitchin' solos. Not necessarily something I'd enjoy on record, but they really really sold the material live, and were clearly having a lot of fun doing it. When a band from out of town drives all that way and puts on that good a show (and they took long time setting up and started late so they ended up having to play a short set, probably not much more than 20 minutes), I feel almost obligated to buy something and give them some gas money for their troubles. They only had a live CD to sell, one of those Instant Live dealies, and it was recorded less than 3 months ago, so it has pretty much the same stuff I saw them play (although the drums are mixed too low so it lacks a lot of the oomph). They have one studio album, but it's a couple years old and most of their set appears to be newer stuff, so I'll have to wait until their next album to see if they can translate those songs to the studio. Definitely something I'll be looking forward to.

Labels: Apollo Sunshine, Baltimore music, concerts

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 24, 2005 at 4:47 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.