Another One out of Athens

My girlfriend likes to joke that my overwhelming passion for music completely stifled her's. Lucky for me, she introduced me to the Whigs prior to her interminable silence.

Tuesday night's was the second Whigs show I've been to, both at the Basement. First off, fuck what you heard: as the recipients of a mountain of hype, the Whigs have to fight for jerks like me who react so negatively to that sort of thing. Yeah, they were listed as one of the top ten acts to watch for by Rolling Stone; yes, they just inked a deal with Dave Matthews' ATO records (home to My Morning Jacket and, er, David Gray); and yes, their name has engendered a fair amount of debate as to whether it improperly approximates that of the Afghan Whigs.

Considering all of this hype, the Whigs, of Athens, GA, are endearingly unassuming and straight-forward. Their songs are taut and raw, their performance energetic and honed by exhaustive touring, and their presence sincere and terse. This is a touring band in the best sense of the term; they show up, set up, and throw down. Drawing mainly from their recently re-released debut Give 'Em All a Big Fat Lip, the band brought a weight to their material not present on record. The band plans to begin recording new material for their ATO debut in early 2007, and the new tunes played ("There's Blood in the Bathroom Sink" and another untitled one with "Looking Down the Barrel of a Loaded Gun"-drums and a verse that stubbornly refuses to change chords) promise great things.

A quick word on openers Shirock. In short, everything great about the Whigs is cast oppositely, and unsuccessfully, in their melodrama. The lead dude looked beautifully strung out, like heroin chic had passed him by while at boarding school. At odds with this look and finely coifed mohawk/mullet is the dude's carefully constructed Bono/Chris Martin amalgam (yeah, 80's Bono did have a mullet, but not like this one). This is the sort of guy who would call a rock show something ridiculous like "a communion of like minds," the sort of guy that doesn't drink but is totally cool if that's "your thing." I kid you not, he introduced the third song of the set thusly: "We played this song at my dad's 50th birthday. It's about how we all deal with life's changes. It's called . . . 'No Regrets.'" There's no doubt in my mind that this band will get a record deal. They're pretty, competent, and the lead dude's voice is admittedly Jeff Buckley-esque, but do we really need another non-offensive band to line the soundtracks of Sandra Bullock movies? I say no. I also say that if you're wearing tight black jeans tucked into designer brown boots, you better come like David Johansen or not come at all.

MP3s
The Whigs - Technology