Show Review – Black Lips
Thursday morning, I woke up at 7 am feeling like shit. For the past 6 or 7 days I had gotten 5 hours of sleep or less each night and it was finally taking it’s toll. I called my boss and left her a voicemail before passing back out until 11:30. Once I woke up, I continued to acquaint myself with Black Lips. I have known about them for a very long time and I have had their albums on my computer for about a year but for some reason I never really got too into them. Well, if that hadn’t changed from listening to them so much in the past week, it certainly changed after seeing them live Thursday night.
My friend Adam picked my up around 5:30 and we got some food before heading over to the Beachland. When we walked in we caught the last two songs of the opening band (can’t remember their name). Clevelanders Hot Cha Cha took to the stage next. Made up completely of beautiful young women, they stormed the stage with a great deal of energy and enthusiasm if nothing else. Their lead singer walked through the crowd during one of their songs and danced around on random people. To be honest, I thought it was a bit too gimmicky. She was wearing bright yellow leggings and a black leotard, which made her look like a comic book character (I’m looking at you, Silk Spectre). This is when Gentleman Jesse and His Men took to the stage. Hailing from Atlanta, Georgia along with Black Lips they played a passionate interpretation of rock music. I really can’t wait to hear more from this band because they were damn good. It was a solid mix of country rock, indie rock, and garage rock that made for a really awesome opener..
During Gentleman Jesse’s set, Ian from Black Lips was shouting things at them from the floor near me. He started preaching some drunken half-baked philosophies to the kids in front of me. Initially, he was talking about space and how it was ever expanded. Then he started speaking about imperfections. “My girlfriend has a scar on her face . . . ” he said as I nodded along wondering how many shots he had just taken down. He talked about how they only recorded with analog and if they didn’t make a great take, then that’s fine because rock isn’t perfect. I could appreciate this sentiment of being content with your best.
Before I even start writing about Black Lips’ performance, you should know that this was one of the most fun, rowdy, and memorable shows I have been to in my entire life. Cole came onto the stage donning a poncho and black farmers hat. His band members followed soon thereafter. They played their songs for a time and everything was right with the world. Somehow, I had managed to get to the very front of the stage and some scene girl who was taking pictures next to me kept on trying to push me away. I pushed her back hard and she didn’t try again. While they were about 5 or 6 songs deep I felt someone tapping my back. I turned around to see that it was my friend Maggie who I usually just see at shows. I made room for her in between scene photo bitch and myself. Maggie had a PBR tallboy, which I took a sip of while bobbing my head and moving my body to the beat.
The next thing I know, scene photo girl takes the almost full PBR and splashes it all over Cole while he is in the middle of a song. Thinking that it was Maggie who splashed Cole, Jared walked right up to her and emptied a full beer on her head. Luckily, I had enough time to sidestep away from the stream and I stayed dry. Maggie’s friend noticed that Maggie was not deserving of getting soaked so he poured a beer on the photographer’s head. Jared put down his bass, started running in my direction, and flying tackled Maggie’s friend to the ground. Cole became extremely apprehensive and couldn’t decide whether or not he should jump off of the stage or go around the side to help out his band member. Cole jumped off the stage and grabbed Jared so that they could resume playing. They got back on stage as if nothing had just happened.
Maggie and the photographer were arguing, after the incident, while the show was still going on and the photographer said something along the lines of “That’s how we do it in ATL, bitch!” even though Maggie later told me that she is from Parma a.k.a. the white trash capitol of the greater Cleveland area (BIG SURPRISE!).
I decided not to let the incident ruin the show for me so I just turned around and watched the band perform. Projected on their backdrop was what I can only describe as a multi-colored swirling lava lamp, which can be viewed HERE. Update: It’s called an oil projector. Cole announced that the next song was Bad Kids, but the drummer said something about it and Cole followed up with “nevermind”. I was pretty bummed because I really wanted them to play it and they made it up to me by playing it a few songs later. I ran to the left so that I could be in the crowd of kids who were moving around. The kids in the very front were smoking cigarettes (illegal in Ohio) and soon all of us were. It was actually a lot cooler than I am sure it sounds.
They had been saying the entire night that they had “a few songs left” but I knew when their last song started that it would indeed be their last song. Not wanting to waste the opportunity I looked at the guy to my left and pointed up. He nodded and I grabbed his shoulder and the shoulder of the person to my right. Falling back onto the hands of strangers is such a surreal and awesome experience. It’s something that I feel everyone should experience if only once in their lives. I made it around the room before being brought back to my original position without falling once.
Their set had ended and my friends and I walked outside. Maggie was speaking with the security guard who was acting as a middleman for the cop parked across the street. Apparently, Jared had sent her friend to the hospital and they wanted to press assault charges. I don’t think that they were successful because I didn’t see anything on the Internet about it the next day. UPDATE: They are pressing charges.
I left feeling exhausted, tired, and incredibly happy. All in all the show was human. It had imperfections and slip-ups. No, it wasn’t perfect at all, but I wouldn’t change a thing about it.
“The kids in the very front were smoking cigarettes (illegal in Ohio) and soon all of us were. It was actually a lot cooler than I am sure it sounds.”
lol