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Wednesday, November 15, 2006
| The Slits @ Emo's in Austin, 11.11.06 |
"Do you know what it means, the Slits in Texas on Veteran's Day?"
No. And we never found out either. Which suited me just fine - the Slits were at their best when carving out a space based on the commonality of sexuality's terrors ("Or What Is It?") and a appealingly trite rejection of consumerism ("Shoplifting," with its gleefully anthemic "I pay fuck-all!"), rather than grandstanding about the usual political suspects.
Original Slits Ari Up and bassist Tessa Pollitt led their merry band of fellow travellers (six Slits in toto) through the changes at Emo's (lol) in Austin on Saturday night. In attendance were myself and fellow FF7ers lady k! and senor shoup - another merry band, though slighly less large and dread-y. (Budgie was no where to be seen.) It must be said, the audience didn't seem to know quite what to make of things, a rather vocal contingent up front excepted. Perhaps it was the band's determination to avoid nostalgia (Cut dominated the proceedings somewhat less than expected), perhaps it was their repeated demands upon those in attendance to make "bird sounds." Most likely it was a sense of being completely dominated by Ari Up's alarmingly fit, nearly stentorian stage presence, which seemed to treat the audience as though it should, you know, actively become involved in the performance or something. Goodness. End result - the thrashing or at least happily bopping majority had a good old time, the rest went home to sit in front of their X-Box.
The band's sound vacillated between old-guard punk, trad reggae, punky reggae, and some indefinite other, in which something even more deliciously, suffocatingly primal than their Earth Mother riddims began to rear its head. This was made most clear when the Slits alternated rebel rock and lover's rock within the context of individual songs, and when they played material from their daring and overlooked second album, Return of the Giant Slits. All told, only three songs from Cut, the only album most concert goers could be reasonably expected to have heard, made the... setlist ("Typical Girls," "Shoplifting," and "FM"). Instead, the crowd was treated to a new song ("Slits Tradition") from the quickie EP Revenge of the Giant Slits, an oldie ("Number One Enemy," available on that release and the shoddy Live at the Gibus Club) and some more traditional reggae material, such as Ari's rasta polemic "Kill Them With Love," which originally appeared on her solo record of last year. We were also treated to some rather odd statements, such as the one that the Slits "invented New Music." I think Schoenberg and Stravinsky, among others, might have had a thing or two to say about that, but we'll let that pass for now.
But don't you let them pass :
Not so much a live show as an event,
the remaining dates for Slits Tour 2006,
an uproarious and almost dangerously wholesome good-time:
11.16 Thu - San Diego, California. The Casbah
11.17 Fri - Los Angeles, California. Troubadour
11.18 Sat - San Francisco, California. Mezzanine
11.19 Sun - Oakland, California. The Uptown
11.20 Mon - Eureka, California. Synapsis
11.21 Tue - Portland, Oregon. Dante's
11.22 Wed - Seattle, Washington. El Corazon
11.26 Sun - Chicago, Illinois. Logan Square Auditorium
In the meantime, treat yourself to two songs from their undervalued sophomore album:
"Earthbeat"
"Animal Space / Spacier"
Cross-posted with S&M 'cuz it's like that.
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Posted by Mallory
on
Wednesday, November 15, 2006 at 7:16 AM | Permalink
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| © 2006 The FunkyFunky 7
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| The FunkyFunky 7 Are: |
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A group of kids with WAY too much time on their hands.
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I traveled to Alabama to see and hear the Slits play in Birmingham. The band and performance was FABULOUS. The reggae tunes were spot-on, the punk rockers roared and the new songs were 100% excellent. The new members add a lot of pleasure to the group and I’d go see, hear and dance to this band of musicians again tonight and tomorrow night. The new record is worth buying, too!
Chico Harris
Oxford, Mississippi
http://www.oxfordland.net/groovytimes
Posted by
Anonymous |
11/15/2006 10:40 AM
I want pictures of The Funky Funky 3 reunion.
Posted by
Alfred Soto |
11/16/2006 8:16 AM
They don't exist. There is a picture of Shoup rockin the Guitar Hero game on my blog though
Posted by
Lady K! : |
11/16/2006 6:08 PM