Parts + Labor & The Evens @ The East River Ampitheater 05/21/05

This show was put on by the East River Music Project , they took a page from the free outdoor shows that have been taking place in dc for like the past 25 years+. They are totally non-profit and volunteer, so if you go to one of thier shows this summer, drop em a few bucks so they can do it again sometime. The Ampitheater itself was really cool, i had never seen it before, probably because its so tucked away, i guess its about even with grand st. but you have to go through a tangled mess of roads to get there, i suggest the bike, it makes it like 30 mins easier. Check out that view.

I missed Cause Comotion and Greenpot Bluepot due to work, but im sure they were great.

I got there just in time to catch Parts + Labor, a band i have seen many times, but enjoy always. They play spacey wall of noise type rock. Their drummer is crazy insane, and the other 2 members are guitar and bass with a seemingly endless supply of manipulation pedals that they have set up like a keyboad would be, the best part about this performance was that there was some space in front of all the seating and there were all these kids playing in the gravel burying plants and trying to make them grow and dads playing catch with like 2 or 3 years olds, a great time, let the kids know the rock early.



This was The Evens first show in New York, which is not surprising as Ian McKaye doesnt play clear channel venues and thats what we mostly are. This was a different Ian, he was way more fun loving and jokey between songs, but you can still feel that signature song style when they started playing, its like a stripped down fugazi, Amy Ferena brings the drum skills, and she brings them right, they played fourteen or so songs, some slow and melodic, others that abbrasive throat took control and gave that gutteral restrained yell we all know and love. Sadly they didnt play their "hit", the hillarious "Vowel Movement" they wrote for the kids tv show Pancake Mountaion (if you havent checked that stuff out yet, do it now) because they dont play it live. Highlights were "Mount Pleasent Isnt" where Ian asked every one to sing along for the verse of "The police will not be forgiven, the police will not behave" because he doesnt believe a show is a show unless there is some audience interaction. Another good one was the finale "Washington Liar" which was a really good, classic anti-govt song, but it was about how those politicians are there for a few years, they plunder, then they leave, but how us people are still gonna be there through it all and cant stand to hear the same lies over and over agian, pretty powerful stuff.