After a completely exhausting night and day seeing Japandroids and Bear in Heaven the night before and staying up until all hours of the night (well, compared to when I normally go to sleep on a school night), it was time to do it all over again. This time, it was to see the triple bill of Pictureplane, Small Black and Washed Out for a night of music and action. I expected just as much energy as the night before, but a different kind of energy. And I got what I was looking for.
The night started out on a bad note when I wasn’t on the list as scheduled and was trying to show the email to the bouncer. He was all, “Who’s Ernest Greene?” and I was all “Washed Out, the guy who’s playing tonight.” So after telling him I’d just pay, he ended up letting me in anyway. Then he asked me if I was drinking, then immediately stopped himself. “What am I thinking, of course you’re drinking. You’re a photographer, you know, take three pictures then enjoy a great show.” All said with the snarkiest of snark (a recurring theme of this post). To which I replied, “Hey now, take it easy there.” Then I met up with Mike, Jessie and Natalia and we waited.
When the clock struck 10PM and the show hadn’t started yet, I knew Wednesday was going to be a long day, but at last, it was time for Pictureplane to begin. He had his setup on the floor in front of the stage and the crowd gathered around him, eventually completely circling him as the energy picked up. I knew picture taking was going to be pretty much impossible with his minimal lighting, especially when he requested the stage lights to be turned down (unless I wanted to be like the kid who was flashing in his face the entire time, which I didn’t), but it was worth it. The whole room was dark except for this sort of tri-colored strobe thing he had going on and the crowd was totally rockin out hard, especially the kids who had made their way behind him. Well, the whole crowd except for the three guys standing directly in front of him who couldn’t even muster up a head bob, which was sort of unbelievable based on the energy spewing forth from the speakers. Clearly I’m tired and snarky as I write this. But don’t worry, more pet peeves to come. Travis Egedy informed us that the tour was making its way into Canada the next day, but that Canada wouldn’t allow him into their country, but he insisted that the reason why wasn’t even a big deal. What was a big deal was his set, which may have even been my favorite of the three that performed that night. And now, I present to you, the one picture that didn’t turn out all black. Enjoy it, because that’s all you get.
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Next up was Small Black. I had actually never heard this group, or at least didn’t know it, but I was familiar with their last track “Despicable Dogs”. But I was pretty impressed and enjoyed them quite a bit. It sort of sounded to me like a combination between Washed Out (or any other “chillwave” artist) and Rusted Root. A bit tribal, but still electronic with high energy beats and drumming. Their set was really fun as well, despite the group of 4-5 guys standing next to me screaming “That’s my jam!” before every single song. I don’t know how old those guys were, but they were definitely old enough to know better. [/snark...well, at least for now] Oh yeah, and the lead singer looks exactly like someone I know, or someone on TV, but I can’t for the life of me figure out who it is. Does anyone know?
Small Black – Despicable Dogs (Washed Out remix)
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And last but not least was Ernest Greene, known to many as Washed Out. I think I read somewhere that this whole tour came about by Small Black approaching him and asking him to tour with them, to which he obviously replied yes. And I’d seen video from SXSW, so I already knew that the two musical entities would be performing together. But what wasn’t clear was how the energy of Washed Out would stack up to the two acts before him. Because all you ever read on the interweb is “chillwave this, chillwave that”. And the songs most have heard are for the most part super chill. But chillwave needs to be renamed (sorry Carles) because this performance was anything but chill.
Ernest came out solo to start the set out and started things out right away with high energy tunes that had the entire crowd jumping and dancing like banshees (well, dancing banshees I guess. I’m not familiar with the typical banshee activity). All of the music was way way WAY more high energy than I expected and it was a great way to end the triple bill since the other two acts were all energy all the time as well. He was totally gracious, ending each song with a humble “OK” before the crowd erupted into applause and shrieks and introduced himself just as humbly, saying “My name is Ernest Greene and I’m from Georgia.” Just seemed like a real nice kid. He played probably 5 or 6 tunes solo, including what he called “a new old song” which sounded like a really sped up version of “Feel It All Around” with a much faster beat (although I’m not positive on that) and some other new tunes that were extremely enjoyable and much more uptempo than what we’re used to, and then welcomed Small Black to the stage for the remainder of the show.
It was at this point that I cashed in my “Hey guy in front of me, can I stand in front of you for one song to take pictures?” card. Luckily, unlike my experience the week before, this guy wasn’t a dick, so he said yes. The first song with the full band was “Belong”, and I was glad that I chose that tune for my tune up front. The full band just totally brought this song (and the rest of the set) completely to life. After taking my pics I moved back a bit to rejoin my friends and we all shook our bottoms like no other until there was no more shaking to be done. Mr. Greene was sweating profusely by this point, always the sign of a good performance, and they closed it out with the original “Feel It All Around”, which was perhaps the most low key song of the set, which still had the crowd going all the way. The Majestic Cafe is such a perfect venue for a show such as this.
All in all, the show was just an extremely fun 3 hour dance party. We were all a bit sweaty when we walked outside into the beautiful 70 degree night, and it was clear that the drive home would be windows down all the way. Which just so happens to be my favorite part of summer — windows down driving at night. My Wednesday at work was grim to say the least, but it was oh so very worth it. As Missy Elliot says, “Is it worth it? Let me work it. I put my thing down, flip it and reverse it. Its your flemminificanplandon. Its your flemminificanplandon.” And my response? Yes. It’s worth it.
Oh yeah, and if you’re wondering what that insane final picture is, I have no idea. Someone made it for, I believe, Small Black. And it’s weird and wonderful. And sorry for the blurry pics. I blame it on all the movin’ and shakin’ I was doing.
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