Seattle Subsonic

The Ponys Played The Tractor (Last Week)

May 5th, 2010

Been meaning to report back to the SS Faithful on the Ponys show from last week at the Tractor. I’ve really got nothing bad to say about this band, as I’ve been on their wagon for awhile now, and their performance that night was spot on. They played mostly new stuff, much of which I hadn’t heard before (they have a new EP out called Deathbed Plus 4—listen to slow-burnin’ “Check The Door” here), plus “Double Vision”, their single from Turn The Lights Out. They also culled their stellar debut Laced With Romance for quite a few tunes, including “Let’s Kill Ourselves” and “Sad Eyes”. Much to my dismay (harrumph) the Chicago quartet ignored Celebration Castle; I feel it’s their best record.

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Unfortunately, the crowd was sparse and its energy low, but there were some local musicians in attendance. Like the Dutchess and the Duke and Unnatural Helpers, whose new guitarist Andrew Gregor plays in the first band that night, Scraps. They were cool: sort of a ramshackle outfit of guys and gals with an affection for the Pixies and off-kilter harmonies. Disappears, the newish band of Ponys guitarist Brian Case played second, and I really dug their hazy, Fall-inspired guitar whirlwinds (here’s an .mp3 for “Gone Completely” from their website and another from Sound on the Sound, “Magics”). I could tell from this band just how much Case influences the Ponys’ moody and rhythmic garage-pop, even if the songs kind of melted together into one long (entertaining) exercise in hypnotic reverb-rock.

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Jered Gummere wasn’t on his knees much like the last time I saw them but his caustic swells of guitar chicanery still interloped beautifully with his band’s pop (if gloomy and enigmatic) foundation. His wife Melissa played bass with her usual disaffected deftness and Case still can’t quite stand on his own two legs. A cartoon drunk, he is. Glad to see these guys still havin’ a go of it.

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