Gadfly, Never Plenty, Computer and Cryptyds: another great gig outside my demographic

(Poster for last night's show)

So Pete Campbell -- y'know, of Pink Steel -- and I were chatting at a gig, possibly the Alienated in Vancouver 20th anniversary show this past fall -- and he asked me something like, "Do young people even go to shows these days?"* 

Understand, the average age of people at the shows Pete plays or goes to seems to be about 60, even if you don't factor in his self-designed-dayjob playing to seniors (discussed here, and pictured above -- that being the seasonal variant, "Sing Along with Pete at Christmas," which, say what you will, pays better than NO FUN at Christmas). You just don't see a lot of 20 year olds coming out for NO FUN or Coach StrobCam, Pete's two current (non-dayjob-related) projects; and while I don't know which bands Pete actually goes to see when he is not himself onstage, I would guess a lot of them are from the 1970s or 1980s -- the bands he loves and remembers from his formative years (like, if the Young Fresh Fellows ever come back to town, Pete will BE there, but Scott McCaughey, the leader of that band, is now 71!).

This phenomenon -- sticking mostly to your own demographic -- is in fact, only natural. If Pete ever SHOULD find himself at the Red Gate or Green Auto or so forth, surrounded by 25-year-olds, he will no doubt feel (the first few times anyways, if he's like me) self-conscious as hell. I speak from experience: You survey the crowd, all at least 40 years younger than you, and think, "Jeezus I'm old," you feel a shiver of dread for your impending mortality, and wonder if people feel suspicious of you, like you're some creepy old guy hanging out near the high school, selling drugs, perhaps, or drawn by the allure of, how to put it delicately, "young pussy" or something: "Will people think I'm a creep?" (The alternative is the judgment that you've somehow failed to grow up, like by the time you're in your 60s, you're supposed to have turned into Ned Flanders or somethin').  

I have gotten beyond this, really. Somewhere I crossed a threshold where I started finding routinely myself in rooms filled with 20-to-25 year olds. Some of these shows are, in fact, classic punk bands with a youthful draw (I would guess the average age of the crowd at the Black Flag gig last month was mayyybe 30?), but then there are nights like last night, when I saw the Crypyds, Computer (who I shot no vid of; sorry), Never Plenty, and Gadfly (note: each of those links to a clip I shot last night), where the band members also all seemed to be mostly under 30 (Never Plenty might have been the relative seniors on the bill, though I would guess even Night Court have a few years on them; I wouldn't be surprised if a couple of them were in their 40s, and one of them DID have a bit of an "encroaching on Ned Flanders" vibe, to be honest).

Thinking he might be interested, I even shot Pete an email before the show, apropos of our conversation: "Want to come out to a great show of youthful local music?" But, like, his back was sore, I think he said? 

I mean, so was mine, but I still took shrooms and danced my ass off, for a few songs, anyways. I probably stood out, but my back is LESS SORE NOW, Pete! And hell, I wasn't even the oldest person at the show! (Art Perry said hello: he's a big fan of Computer, turns out, who were by far the most avant-garde band on the bill; I thought of them as akin to Norway's Supersilent, but in a much more ROCK way, and enjoyed the more abstract moments of their jamming quite a bit, but they seemed to work best when I was seated with my eyes closed, hence the relative lack of imagery -- that's them above). 

Someone who has been around the block a few times might have been a bit surprised at how able and tight and experienced the musicians yesterday were; it was a highly professional and smoothly-run gig, with about the only weird note being that never once did I see someone manning the merch table. I know from past experience that Gadfly don't make shirts in my size (yes, I am not only old, but fat), but I still would have confirmed it, had someone been there to ask.  

Anyhoo, you can click the clips above to check out the music, or go here, here, here, and here for the bands' respective bandcamp and Instagram pages, given in the order I saw them in last night (Gadfly, who has a new album, Sura, were actually the headliners, and performing in two-piece form). 

First up were Cryptyds; note that the song I posted is maybe a bit more Southern-fried boogie rock than their norm, which tends to a classic garage punk sound, like they could break credibly into "Psychotic Reaction" at any point, or perhaps "Pushin' Too Hard" (I think the DJ before they took the stage actually played some Seeds, or maybe that was Yardbirds?). It was actually my second time seeing Cryptyds (and it's now my second time writing about them; looks like I made note of the "punk rock demographic divide" in that previous blogpost, too). Great band, in any event! 

Then came Computer (see above), then Never Plenty: I snapped a photo of their guitarist with his ample effects board. 

The Never Plenty song I shot and posted (see above) was one of their more abstract, in fact (I actually shot a couple of clips of them but that one will suffice for now; you might notice my camera wanders a fair bit for that, but, like, I really was on shrooms, folks). They rocked quite hard on some tunes, and had maybe the most enjoyable physical dynamic of the night. 

Truth is, having never seen them before, I fell especially in love with Never Plenty. Maybe it's just that I was peaking (I danced hardest for them) but they were really, really great: crazy-good guitar solos, lots of energy and texture, and songs that I can't even begin to place in a genre box. I found myself wondering if they were into Manchester bands, if that helps, which was validated when the bassist said something about Charlatans, in the course of mentioning a liquid visuals guy who apparently died (Bill Ham, maybe? I can't find an obit for him and I didn't hear the name the bassist said). "Is this kind of like Primal Scream?" I wondered. But I barely know my Primal Scream -- my reference points in music are actually earlier than that!  

The most startling moment of the night came for me when I turned around during the Never Plenty set -- I'd been dancing right up at the front, where there was a fair bit of space -- and realized, holy shit, there's quite a moshpit going! So for awhile I had my back to the band, checking that out. I'd have snapped more photos, but there were tons of cute girls in their 20s and, seriously, you don't want people to think you're a perv. 

Some of them were real cute, tho'.  

But even if Never Plenty were my "big discovery" last night, there's no disrespect intended to the mighty Gadfly, interviewed by me here, and a band I will see again. They still carried off being tough and compelling and energizing in the absence of a bassist, last night, though Homa could probably have gotten deeper into soloing if there'd been a third member!). She reminds me a bit of Marissa of Screaming Females -- tough, hard-edged guitar, muscular as any dude's. There was a time when I think even Patti Smith was wont to observe that rock and roll is a boy's club, but people like Homa make it seem like those days are over and done with... 

All told, a terrific Thursday night out. Big congratulations go out to I Am the Eggplant, the promoters last night: it's a great idea, having an affordable weeknight gig at the Pearl with four bands with that much energy (it was a bit weird that tickets were actually cheaper at the door than I believe they were online, but I haven't paid that little money -- fifteen bucks!!! -- for that much fun in quite a while. I'm not factoring in my trip to Zoomers down the street in the cost, mind you!). 

And the Pearl was a great place for a gig like last night's -- they'd probably want a fuller house for a weekend show, but for a Thursday, it was perfect. Hard to believe that I've been seeing bands in that venue, under one name or the other, for 20 years now: I saw Bison there, Mission of Burma, DOA, and probably other bands back when it was called the Plaza. I think that might even have been where I saw Star Wars theatrically back in 1977 (or maybe it was Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger? I had gotten my Dad to take me to see that, and then he surprised me by taking me across the street to the other, which might have been at the Capitol 6).  

(Yes, folks, that's how old *I* am: I saw the first Star Wars movie when it was first-run: "Did I ever tell you about the time..."). 

The end result is, I'll be paying attention to the I Am the Eggplant Facebook page to see what other bills they assemble, because (trust me, Pete) there's some terrific rock is coming out of Vancouver's youthful punk scene. I urge my readers OF ALL AGES to check it out: it's worth the price of feeling old and mortal, and maybe you'll feel less old/ mortal afterwards! 

It's worth a shot, anyhow... 

*Pete points out that, "What I really asked you was 'Is there a local "scene" of young bands, and do they have, like a club or two they hang out at?' We had The Brickyard and The Cruel Elephant. All the local bands knew each other and basically went to shows every weekend. We had a glorious youth and a great local scene. It sounds like the local scene is thriving...great reporting." Check out this amazing footage of Pete's mid-1990s band The Sweaters, live at the Horseshoe Tavern. They would have fit right in on the bill last night!