Watching the Drones freaking haul the planet’s ashes (in a good way) in front of a less-than-capacity crowd at Cafe du Nord Friday night got me thinking the same thing Gareth Liddiard was essentially singing: what’s wrong with people?
I can understand that the Drones’ bleakety-bleak-ass spitfire might not be to everyone’s taste, but there’s clearly an level of talent, passion, and professionalism going on that should be filling venues twice du Nord’s size at least. I mean, who doesn’t like a slim, angry dude with his guitar slung real low, railing against the world and whaling and whammying the goddam bejeezus out of that guitar until it’s about to snap in half?
The Drones are substantially more popular (like, game-show popular) in native Australia, but a peek around the American internet just reveals more “why aren’t they huge?” questions. I wondered that myself earlier in this post, but this is about as long as I ever like to think about anything besides the actual music itself, so I don’t really wonder it any more. Let’s just enjoy this great music.
Here’s a sample of the live fireworks – “Six Ways To Sunday” (May 2009, Barcelona):
and for a more intimate stay with Liddiard’s worldview, here’s a gentle, hippieish take on “Oh My”:
[photo of Gareth Liddiard by Daniel Campbell]
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I woulda gone, but, y’know, I couldn’t…