Ravari Room, Thursday June 19, 2008
Burning Brides (band site) (Myspace)
Evil Queens (band site) (Myspace)
Micah (Two Cow Garage) (Myspace)
Last thursday, my lovely companion and I strolled on over to the Ravari Room for a little booze and a lot of rock ‘n roll. To be perfectly honest, we went there to see the Evil Queens, with whom i’ve had a musical crush on since I saw them open for High on Fire many years ago at Little Brothers. or did they open for the Melvins? Jesus, I must have been drinking that night.
anyway, I’m familiar with Two Cow Garage’s work to some degree, but not familiar with Micah. The following is the story of my first encounter with Micah from Two Cow Garage.
…
oh yeah, i didn’t actually ‘encounter’ him. I just watched his set. I probably should have been more clear on that.
Seeing a lone guy with an acoustic guitar take the stage always makes me instinctively wince. In fact, I remember precisely the only two times that I didn’t cringe when confronted by a lone acoustic guitarist on stage: the first time I saw Derek Deprator (but only the first time) and the couple times I saw Wolfgang Parker’s solo act at Andyman’s Treehouse.
However, this particular time seeing Micah clamber up the stage at Ravari Room, I immediately felt The Fear overtake my senses. It wasn’t until he started singing, that I knew why.
Micah is a wild eyed, wild haired guitarist who likes to make earnest, angsty faces while playing. He’s one of those dudes who is SO into what he’s singing that his body crumples into itself by the sheer weight of his depressing acoustic rock. His knees together, feet far apart, hunched over with his eyes closed, explaining how a girl who takes her clothes off for money is a product of circumstance.
All of his songs had an everyman (or everywoman) quality that reminded me of John Mellencamp. And that is when I smacked myself in the forehead.
Micah is Columbus’ own John Cougar, John Cougar Mellencamp, John Mellencamp, John Whatever-the-fuck-he’s calling himself this decade!
Musically or lyrically, there is no discernible difference! The lyrical content of the songs is strikingly similar; rock ‘n roll failings, country woes, sad strippers, bad luck, redemption, and generally sad shit.
His banter with his crowd of supporters was by contrast very upbeat and he seemed like a very personable fellow.
Before his last song, he struggled with a handless harmonica set-up and jokingly warned the crowd that the last song might not work as planned. He then said, “This is my last song. I might need some help from my friends.”
Impressively, he played guitar and harmonica at the same time, to the amazement of the crowd. The guy in the Confederate Stars and Bars cap was especially impressed. The song started slow and much like the previous songs.
Halfway through the song though, a bunch of dudes jumped on the stage and started plugging guitars and bass into amps and a big guy jumped behind the drum kit. I turned towards my ridiculously hot companion and said, “I think this is about to become awesome.”
And it did become awesome.
The song dropped from acoustic tear-in-your-beer douche-baggery to a full scale electric assault. The “friends” Micah mentioned earlier were none other than the Evil Queens! They (along with Micah) played fast and furious and ended the set on a definite high note.
The Evil Queens are hands down my favorite (and therefore the best) hard rock band in the city. Guitar-driven madness, I tells ya. So guitar driven, that a few times I completely forgot about the drummer. Not that he isn’t any good, in fact, he’s bad-ass too. He has to be, in order to be in such a kick ass outfit.
The Queens played some oldies, but also at least one new song that they never played in Columbus (and perhaps elsewhere) before.
Sorry if I can’t go into more detail about their set, I was too busy rockin’ out on the floor and drinkin’ pints of PBR (hey, I’m poor and PBR is cheap). There were a lot of people at the Ravari Room for a Thursday night, which the Queens’ singer made note of at least twice.
The Burning Brides were up next. I’ve previously seen the Burning Brides at least 4 times, and probably more than that. To be honest, I don’t remember much of this particular set. But i’m sure it was pretty much the same as the other ones that I do actually remember, as all of those were pretty much the same.
The dudes rock out, the chick rocks out (why is it that virtually all lone girls in a guy group play bass?), the crowd rocks out, the end.
well, that’s it. I suppose it’s funny how the meat of this review dealt mostly with the Micah, whom I didn’t care for, and very little with the two bands I do actually like.
Until next time, enjoy our Wild America.