You Say Party! We Say Die!… May 3

You Say Party! We Say Die!
with the Doers, the Dirty Dirty North, WCB, and Velvamatics
at the McCallum Activity Centre, May 3, 2008
Reviewed by Stephen Jersak being increasingly obtuse

The Velvamatics are at a good start. That’s weird, ‘cuz I’ve been seeing them (not in this configuration) for two years and now they’re at a good starting point. It’s reasonable, they’re seventeen. Their garage rock climaxes at its noisiest, and with a few less repeats they’d be handling some nice fuzzy econo-rock.

Who are the WCB? It’s taken two years and no one knows. I think that means not anyone. Can I go now? 15 minute sets are not unreasonable. A TV show is the perfect attention span and the WCB seems to have an idea of when they’ll get boring. It’s beat time / quit the crooning.

8 hours from the Dirty Dirty North’s home is unabashed environmental devastation, and 10 hours in a different direction they got me excited with catch/dance/grime-y hooks and stage presence directly contrary to their concise line-up. It’s throwing new pickups on the guitar you buried in your backyard and scraping the filth off by playing fast and fun.

Hold on. Two Dead Milkmen covers? The Doers are really fun, and punk? They were always called acoustic punks, but now that they’re finally living up the punk, Shammy traded his acoustic for a nice hollow-body job and slide that makes sense. Without caring what people want to hear, they hand it to you. They’re five years old now. I had already seen them a few times when kids at Turd Ferguson were hiding their drinks from the most obvious cops ever, and I’m not convinced that they’ve ever been better than now. Gaiety is the best record they’ve released. The only thing even close is Plastic Bass, and a quarter of it ended up on the set list. The Doers are either perfectly self-aware, or luck out every night.

You Say Party! We Say Die! dished out new tricks that sounded like their appeal for a slot on No New York. They wouldn’t put it that way, but maybe they’re biting back against the accessibility of Lose All Time. I liked it more than the first time I heard Dancefloor Destroyer, but it sounds like a half-hearted dance-infused shot at something short of Teenage Jesus and the Jerks. I don’t know what they want to be; they’re a dance-punk band, with some non-committal no wave being shoved in there. Prove me wrong. Ironically, their self-titled anthem ended up being easily the harshest song of the night. To go with it, Becky urged the guys to circle jerk around the girls, easily the most confrontational thing they’ve ever said, even unintentionally.