CMJ 2009 Roundup: Day 2, October 21st

Deastro Photo via PopMatters.

Last night provided an easy way to see a large amount of bands in a small amount of time. CMJ aside, the occasion was to celebrate showgoing resource Oh My Rockness's fifth birthday in style with a festival style concert at Santos Party House in Manhattan. With ten bands on two stages in four hours, one could catch at least a few songs by each band, all of whom have many scattered shows across the city this week. Sadly, many of the bands didn't live up to the hype, and were instead hit or miss.

The night started out strong with a set from Beach Fossils, another lo-fi beach pop band from New York. While their sound is similiar to many other bands that have sprouted up over the last year, there's a bit of melancholy in the lyrics and delivery of the music that suggests it lends itself to the winter months as well. After that, we once again caught Free Energy, who played to a similarly-sized crowd from the night before. The band's late start caused them to rush their set and play a few songs less than intended, but the bigger stage at Santos let the band break out more showmanship, with the guitarists and bassists playing off one another from time to time.

After that the showcase saw one disappointment after another. The first was Virginia's Eternal Summers, whose lo-fi drums-and-guitar setup got monotonous quickly. After that, Norweigan band Ungdomskulen, who came off as a band that who must watch nothing but Adult Swim's Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! and Metalocalypse. They performed passable metal while wearing every ironic accessory imaginable: glittery shirts, spandex, short shorts, ironic mustasches, and thick framed glasses. While some elements of the setup seemed to work, the various elements caused an irony overload, and we couldn't help but question some of the sincerity behind it.

The biggest disappointment of the night belonged to the one act we were truly curious to see, Detroit's Deastro. The laptop electronica project of 22 year old Randolph Chabot, Deastro's sound and content always aims for the fences, and you'd hope the live act would do the same. However, Chabot's band ditched him days before his recent European tour, causing him to perform across the continent with just a laptop. Last night, he tried a new setup, playing guitar for the first time in what he said was awhile as a friend thrashed on bass guitar and the rest of the sounds came via laptop. Between the rush to set up and the sloppiness of the band dynamic, Deastro sounded more like a new garage rock project than seasoned electropop. Given the circumstances, he can likely be forgiven.

From there, rising New Yorker Small Black played a spirited set downstairs. While most other acts are showing signs of fatigue, Small Black gave off boundless enthusiasm, so much so that they overcame the sound trouble plaguing many bands on the second stage, which caused the previous act, Evan Voytas, to have a fairly uneven set beforehand. The sound trouble continued as summertime faves Real Estate took the stage as well. After one song with some of the weakest-sounding vocals known to man, the band took ten minutes to tool around with the stage monitors. While half the crowd dispersed upstairs, Real Estate eventually overcame the toxic speakers by adding some jammy elements to their already-tight live show. We've now seen Real Estate three times in five months, and while this performance was the weakest, it also showed them at their most versatile.

Unfortunately, catching Real Estate meant missing the showcase's final band, Cymbals Eat Guitars, and according to PopMatters it was foolish of us to have done so. Luckily, there are still a few more chances to catch them in the marathon's final few days.

What We Missed

Well, we don't even know yet! It seems as if most of the bloggers are either still recovering from their hangovers or checking out Thursday's afternoon parties. For now, there's more coverage of what we missed Tuesday. The Village Voice has many, many kind words for Detroit rapper Invincible, who they claim owned CMJ's first night. In terms of what actually happened last night, Pitchfork checked out Surfer Blood, who are apparently checking 12 (!) shows this week, but are not exactly ready-for-primetime, while they also caught late night sets from Raekwon and Jadakiss, and they also wax philosophic about hip-hop's decline (?) in the post as well.

One band that no one seemed to see last night were the XX. As we biked down Houston Street hoping to possibly get in, there was a line stretching around the block to see the Brits in a far-too-small venue.

Trendwatch

Today's buzzword is fatigue: everyone's got it! As evidenced by the lack of actual coverage of last night's action, bloggers and music journalists alike still seem to be rolling out of bed after their second late night in a row (not that we can blame them). The same could be said of the marathon's bands. While most of the first night acts were excited about their opening performances, the fact that many are playing multiple shows a day has many souring affects: they're tired, ill-prepared, and their enthusiasm is waning. Free Energy was a little lacking in showmanship last night, while many of the other bands we saw for the first time were frantically trying to set up in time. While we can sympathize, it's also tragic that many worthwhile bands are probably leaving a bad taste in the mouths of showgoers.

The Day Ahead

As always, Pop Tarts Suck Toasted has a killer daily preview. For those of you lucky enough to have the afternoon free, first-rate blogs Aquarium Drunkard and BrooklynVegan both have stellar day shows, the latter of which has complinterary booze. The "impossibly packed show" will belong to the XX every night this week, and tonight they play an absolutely stacked showcase for British hype rage NME alongside personal favorites Delorean. As for us, we're breaking out our dancing shoes after a night of uneven buzz bands... the always excellent YACHT will be performing with many of the DFA Records DJs, including James Murphy. As always, check our Twitter for some updates, navelgazing, and snarky CMJ-related comments all night.