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Why I hate reggae night; or Church and Moggs mini-review
By nick g | May 26, 2009
Church is generating a big buzz from Portland, Oregon (not Maine). Moggs is a great 
band from Petaluma. Other bands were playing. Combine this with $2 Pabst bottles and you’re looking a good night right in the smiling face. But throw in reggae night and that smiling face gets turned upside-down, revealing a sour old woman. This is what happened last week at The Casbar in Santa Rosa.
The Ocean Floor opened the show with four short songs. Not bad, but nothing extremely memorable. Then the players all switched instruments and Church was suddenly on stage. It’s amazing how dramatically different the two bands are. Keyboards, drums, percussion/sampling and guitar were accompanying the singing, with the keyboardist handling the bass duties with his left hand. The songs were far superior to those on Church’s Myspace page. There is something lingering and though they’re not quite catchy, I want to listen to more of it. Apparently a couple of the members are originally from Santa Rosa, too, so there’s a local connection.
This band is definitely worth seeing live, though I hesitated buying a CD because I only got to hear four songs. I keep kicking myself, though, because there’s this lingering “what if they’re really awesome on that cd” feeling that keeps creeping up on me. And they’ve got like four CDs, too. I could have at least bought one to help defray the cost of touring. God, what an asshole I am.
Moggs was up next. I own both of their records (and one cd of a record I bought - it came with the record. Can I say record again? Good). Moggs played a total of five songs. They were very good, as usual. Precise and sonically divine. Guitar and drums that make the White Stripes sound even worse than they already are, and that’s pretty bad. Moggs knows how to kick ass, in fact they teach the asskicking class at the JC, which everyone knows is tougher than the one at State. It’s like the Melvins learned how to make their songs less boring and added vocal harmonies. Mmmmmm, delicious.
They split the set with The Highlands, who were not my thing. Punk rock with drums, mini acoustic guitar through a distorted Marshall amp, cello and screaming vocals is like pooping into a skinny funnel, it all gets stuck and nothing comes through. Sorry, Highlands, but you should stick to the powerpoppunktrio sound of electric guitar, bass and drums.
The show was not bad, considering each band only got about 20 minutes to show their stuff. It started an hour later than advertised and ended two hours later so a DJ could play reggae music. Whatever sells booze, I guess. Can’t wait for Church to come back. They’d be awesome at a house show.
moggs photo via JESSAMYN HARRIS
Topics: Music News |
May 27th, 2009 at 7:00 pm
WTF?? Reggae night was supposed to be in a completely separate room!! Lame-O.
May 29th, 2009 at 7:44 pm
Yeah, it was balls deep in bass n’ drum dub style…