Battles/Police

So it's been a whirlwind week - three shows in seven days, in three cities. Whew! I've already given the dirt on my Prince Minneapolis experience (see below). This will be less substantial, but thought I'd put some thoughts down anyway.



This past Thursday, I caught Battles at The Picador in Iowa City. I'd been anticipating this show for about a month. A friend of mine hipped me to their record, and they are doing some truly unique stuff. I have great difficulty describing them to friends. Usually I say something to the effect of "mostly instrumental rock/experimental." Yet this description fails and makes them sound like a jam band, which they are not. Here's the video for their single, "Atlas."



So that should give you some idea. Live, they are both masters of their instruments and of samplers. Note that none of the samples they use in concert are pre-recorded; they sample themselves playing live, then manipulate it as they see fit. This was seriously one of the most intense rock shows I've ever been to. Jucifer is the only other band that I can think of that matched Battles in intensity. Also, The Picador was packed, which is rare at least from the shows I've seen there. It was 8 of the best spent dollars this year. Their album, Mirrored is available on Warp Records and is a contender for album of the year in my book.

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The very next morning, I made my way to the bluegrass state for another highly anticipated (albeit more expensive) show, the reunited Police. The Police are in my top 10 bands of all time. They have no flaws in their catalog in my opinion (barring "Don't Stand So Close to Me '86"). I got into them through a bandmate in high school, and along with the Talking Heads, were one of the bands I most wanted to see reunite, but knew there was no chance that it would happen. Or so it seemed.

At any rate, we got to Churchill Downs intentionally late. We were hungry and didn't care about the opener. After scoping the merchandise (again overpriced) and making a pit stop, we were hopelessly trying to find our seats when we heard "Message in a Bottle" kick in. Cripes. We made it to our seats by the end of the song.

So how was it? I was nervous, as the tour had met with mixed reviews thus far. I felt it necessary to evaluate it song by song. Many of the performances were tight and well executed ("Roxanne," "When the World is Running Down," "So Lonely," "The Bed's Too Big Without You") and others left a bit to be desired ("Don't Stand So Close to Me," "Driven to Tears"). The songs that I felt were lackluster were generally because they dropped the tempo significantly. One of the great things about the Police is the energy of their songs. Drop the tempo by about 1/8, and that energy is lost. I was also a little put off by the use of DAT backing for the vocals in "Roxanne" and percussion in I think "Walking in Your Footsteps." I understand why it was used, but not having it would not have detracted from the performances by any means.

So it was a bit of a mixed bag. I didn't leave feeling disappointed or that I'd wasted my money. But it wasn't as solid a performance as I would have hoped. But it was still the Police, fer Chrissakes.

"our so called leaders speak"

This quote has become ever so relevant in recent years, eh?



Alright folks. It's been a long (but productive) day. I've been sitting on this entry for a few days, so here's something else to cross off of my list.

No doubt my fellow music geeks have heard the news of the impending reunion of The Police. This is huge. The Police are one of two bands that I've most wanted to reunite (the other is The Talking Heads). I figured both would never happen, aside from the little one-offs they've done. Rumours have been flying for the last few months about The Police, but the cat is now out of the bag. After what will likely be the only redeemable performance of the Grammys on February 11, the band will continue rehearsals for their upcoming tour. I'm pretty much resigned to the fact that this show will be incredibly expensive. I'm equally certain that I will do everything in my power to see it.

The Police are undoubtedly one of my top ten bands of all time (although I just said this about the New York Dolls below, I assure you that I don't award this status willy-nilly. Just a coincidence!). The Police are an incredible power trio. In addition to Sting's incredible voice (which has sadly been matched with a fairly uninteresting solo catalog), each member is simply a master of their instrument. Beyond that, they were/are great songwriters. There is not a single song in their proper catalog that I don't like (the qualifier of 'proper' bars "Don't Stand So Close to Me '86" and the like).

I was certainly aware of The Police coming up. My parents most definitely had a few of their tapes that were road trip staples. It wasn't until I started getting heavy into music that I really appreciated The Police, and dug deeper than their hits. My first high school band, Dead Uncle Frank (the name is an interesting tale which I'll save for another day) practiced in my parents' basement. I learned a lot from those guys, both in terms of playing and music in general. At any rate, the guitarist left his backpack behind one day, which had a number of tapes in it. One of them was Zenyatta Mondatta. After listening to it I was hooked. I dove in and bought the Message in a Box: The Complete Recordings collection, which ended up being one of the most worthwhile purchases in my music-buying history. It still gets pretty heavy play, and I recommend it to any music fan.

This reunion is something that I and millions of music fans have been waiting for. I'm still sort of in shock that it's happening. I mean what's next, Van Halen touring with David Lee Roth??

In celebration of this occasion, here is a show from 4/28/80 in New Castle. I believe this comes from a BBC broadcast, but I'm not sure on that. It's also the first time they played "Driven to Tears" live, and the last show of the Regatta de Blanc tour. Enjoy!

Thanks to the original uploader.

Part 1
Part 2