Mermaid Lounge, 12/10/04

Briefly, the Mermaid is great, but Schlitz for $2? Christ.

I missed Dylan Posa (formerly of the Flying Luttenbachers, who now lives in Metarie, LA) for, like, the third time. Fuck. He has had an EP down at WTUL for a while that I like quite a bit. Oh, well.

I arrived just in time to see the Public, who despite being Joy Division/Smiths ripoffs, play quite well and are a great band to go see live. There's not really much else to say about them; if you have a friend who you're looking to introduce to the New Orleans music scene, the Public are probably a good band to get him/her started with, since they're pretty innocuous. A bit like an unpolished Killers without the synths - a little bit noisier and grittier, but not much.

Next were the Paradise Vendors, who I've heard much about but never seen. They played sort of loungey stuff, sounding at times like Stereolab and at times just like a bunch of old dudes jamming (which they were, with the exception of their frontlady). The vocals reminded me at times of the Fiery Furnaces in that overenunciated, show-tune way, and the songs had the same type of specificity in the lyrical content, even if this girl was singing about giving lap dances as opposed to losing her puppy. Not as annoying as the Fiery Furnaces, but probably not a band I'm going to pay $5 to go see.

Finally, Bipolaroid sound like Pavement doing San Francisco speedballs while playing in Yes' basement. Oddly proggy, incoherent stoner rock. Fun, but I probably would've been in a better mood for it if it weren't 2am. At another time I probably would've loved it.

Tonight is White Bitch. Thank God.