AJJ -- an inspiring night with Sean Bonnette

It's nice to see kids -- I'm not entirely serious about that word, but when you're 56, anyone under 35 looks like a kid -- getting so enthusiastically into a band as artful and strange and naked as AJJ, who, in a very stripped down form, played a packed house at the Pearl earlier tonight (Ben, the bassist, had a family emergency so it was essentially a Sean Bonnette solo acoustic set). 

Truth is, the youthful audience -- I figure the median age was about 27, but if you removed a few dozen old fuckers like myself, the average would drop lower -- knew the band's catalogue better than I do; I could only sing semi-confidently along with a couple of songs, like "Getting Naked, Playing with Guns," but the gathered crowd seemed to know a lot more lyrics than I did, and generally got passionately into Bonnette's performance (which wasn't entirely solo: Jim of Pigeon Pit, the AJJish opener -- and also of Foot Ox, whose song "Lucky Strike" Bonnette covered -- joined him for a couple of songs). The songs were quiet enough that you could hear the rumble of the moshers' feet on the floor of the Pearl, like a small stampede was passing through. It was a very enjoyable and even inspiring night -- if you are old and jaded and not used to seeing young people behaving in such cool ways -- though jeepers, I've never seen people mosh to an acoustic Roger Miller cover before (there was even some crowd surfing!). In fact, Bonnette semi-chastened people for getting a bit too enthusiastic at times (pointing out for his performance of "White Ghosts," say, off their newest album, that the song works better if people don't stomp along; he also quipped something mid-set about playing a few bangers so that the people in the pit would burn off their energy, but they never did). He also fucked with us a bit, in a way that reminded me a bit, weirdly, of Jonathan Richman, playfully doing four sequential readings of "The Michael Jordan of Drunk Driving" (which is about a minute long) then a couple of other songs ("Body Terror Song" off Good Luck Everybody, and a cover of Neil Young's "Tell Me Why," noting that Neil is his favourite Canadian) before doing a fifth take, the audience tittering but maybe also wondering what was going on. After a few more other songs -- he did a final sixth take of it as an encore. Never quite seen it done that way before! He flubbed his lyrics a couple times, over the course of the night, and abandoned one song outright -- "shit, I don't know that one!" -- but they're complex, dense lyrics he's singing, and, I mean, heck, Phil Ochs used to forget lyrics all the time, and he's practically a saint, so fuggit). In fact, Bonnette played with incredible energy -- check out "Normalization Blues," a Trump-themed song from the previous album; it was amazing to hear live. I wish it wasn't relevant again! (There were a few references to the current political situation, which runs throughout Good Luck Everybody, previously linked. Bring on the mega-guillotine, indeed).  

Sean crosses off his setlist, which was based on requests made on a clipboard at the merch table (!)

I shot one other video, for "Kokopelli Face Tattoo," which, fittingly enough, was the song I recorded the last time I saw AJJ play, ten years ago at the Biltmore, when they were still using their full name (and had a full band. Sean's hair wasn't as good back then!). Unless you count a fairly bad Roky Erickson thing I shot on my wife's cellphone at the Electric Owl, then posted under her account, that song was the first video I ever put onto Youtube!

Anyhoo, I don't have much to say, but it was a great night, and I loved that there was at least one person there who came BECAUSE OF MY RECOMMENDATIONS on social media. One person! Who also really loved seeing the young'uns getting into such creative music, and bought an album off the merch table (this one, which features the fascinating "Bad Bad Things," probably their most horrifying song -- yet somehow a very moving one). At the end of the evening, Sean squatted at the front of the stage and signed things, and politely ignored a drunk girl who kept calling him "Andrew" (?!) and insisting he play "Skate Park," a song I barely even know, but that obviously runs deep with her. Me, I'd had "Bad Bad Things" on my brain all night, but it's so terrifying I didn't mind that he skipped it. Still, I sang it to myself as I walked down Granville Street -- "Do you remember me? I killed your family" -- amidst large numbers of 20somethings, also carrying AJJ records. 

Kids these days: I like'm.