Low Turnout, Fantastic Show

By Matt Beshear
Staff Writer

Last Friday night there was a show in town featuring the Old 97’s. For those of us in attendance, there were two things burned into our minds: first, the show was amazing, with both bands tearing up the stage. Second, where the hell was everyone? It was the most sadly under-attended show that I’ve been to since Frank Black’s appearance here back in 2006. Fortunately, for those that did show up, we were treated to an amazing, intimate show.
The opening band, The David Wax Museum, made a lot of fans with their mix of folk, bluegrass, country and Mexo-American sounds. Led by David Wax, who spent time working in Mexico before finishing his degree at Harvard and then returning to Mexico where he honed his craft, also features Jordan Wax on accordion and Suz Slezak on fiddle and quijada, or donkey jawbone as most people know it.
The band ripped through a half hour of music before unplugging and wandering into the crowd for a set of songs from the middle of the floor. Not that it was just a Fargo thing, they do it at most shows, but for those in attendance it felt like our own. Of course, now they’ll be expected to do that every night, but that probably won’t bother them at all. When I spoke with Rhett Miller (Old 97’s singer-songwriter) a few weeks before the show, he bragged them up a lot and he was right.
“I hand-picked him after he opened for me on a solo acoustic gig. I was blown away by his songs and his presence; he’s just awesome, “ Rhett said. “I do this so much and see so many people and there’s rarely somebody that I see that I see being around ten years from now and I feel that way about David and his band. They’ve already done Seattle and Portland and I think they sold out of every CD they had at both shows.”
The 97’s hit the stage a little after ten for a set that lasted around two hours. The first song, “Niteclub,” with the last line of its chorus being “I just might get drunk tonight, and burn the nightclub down” fit well with a set that featured a lot of rockin’, sweat-drenched songs. And the band was on fire, no pun intended: Rhett possessed a perfect mix of rock-star swagger and country charm; guitarist Ken Bethea shredded on a telecaster most of the night; drummer Philip Peeples was quiet behind the mic, but his drumming made up for that; and bass player Murray Hammond laid down fat bass lines and sang a few songs himself.
The rest of the set was a good mix of tracks from their first disc through their last, 2008’s “Blame It on Gravity,” including its best song “No Baby I.” The band is currently on tour supporting a four-song EP of covers called “Mimeograph,“ but only one track made the cut, a very faithful version of REM’s “Driver 8.” They also played two from their upcoming release, “The Grand Theatre,” and fan favorites “Four Leaf Clover” and “Jagged,” which were played much more aggressively than on the records, and then ended the first set with a rousing version of “Doreen.”
After about a break of about a minute, Rhett came out and played a couple of songs by himself. One of the songs, the first he ever wrote, was about Charles Manson and was written when he was a kid and used to summer in Brainerd. David Wax also came out to duet on “Wish the Worst,” which he said he performed at a school talent show a long time ago. When the rest of the band returned, they played a few more numbers before ending the show with concert staple “Timebomb.” And if they felt insulted by the low volume, they didn’t show it as both bands spent a lot of time at the merch table after taking pictures with fans and signing autographs.
Questions and comments: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)