Okkervil River at Sokol, Eagle*Seagull at O’Leaver’s

Category: Blog — @ 1:23 pm November 3, 2005

Two good shows tonight. The marquee act for me will be Okkervil River at Sokol Underground with Lawrence’s The Minus Story and Omaha’s own Fizzle Like a Flood. Okkervil is touring in support of a just-released addendum CD-EP from their last full length, called Black Sheep Boy Appendix. I assume these are the tracks that didn’t make it onto their amazing full length. Three of the seven tracks are keepers, though, the rest are dour or found-sound collages, but those three (titled “No Key, No Plan,” “Another Radio Song” and “Last Love Song for Now” are as good as anything they’ve done before. They travel large. When they played at O’Leaver’s last April (review here) there must have been six or seven of them, most were drunk or sounded drunk. Still, it was a good show. Okkervil’s label, Jagjaguwar is also releasing the new Minus Story CD. From the couple tracks I’ve heard online, they sound like a good fit. Who knows what configuration of Fizzle Like a Flood will show up. Last time it was just Doug on drums and vocals and Travis bearing an ax. $7, 9 p.m.

Meanwhile, at O’Leaver’s, straight-up indie rockers Sam Champion take the stage: My review of their new one on Razor & Tie is on the Reviews Matrix, but here it is for the lazy reader: “Starts off as country by way of Johnny Cash (without the ornaments) and shifts into grind rockers with the snarly Cash drawl. Meanwhile, track 3, is a stone-cold Pavement rip. So yeah, I guess you could say they’re all over the place. In the end, the Wowee Zowee-era Pavement wins out — which is an easy way of saying this is slacker indie rock. It’s not bad, but it’s been done before, and better.” Rating: No. Consider it melodic Pavement-lite. Most will be on hand to see Eagle*Seagull, which has become something of a breakthrough local act. They’re even better live. More on them later. $5, 9:30 p.m.

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1 Comment

  • saw them last night… not so good…

    Comment by Worst Weather Ever — November 3, 2005 @ 11:42 pm

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