Show Review

The mood was set; Built to Spill was going to be playing three nights at Irving Plaza in New York City. The decision was made, split the difference and catch the Thursday night show. The boys from Idaho had traveled East to NYC for the first time since September 2003 and Internet postings were abuzz about a new album that is currently due out in the fall, so the live dates were an obvious next step.

For those unfamiliar with Built to Spill, the band has been playing together since 1993 in various incarnations constantly evolving through the years. When their first major label release emerged, 1997’s Perfect From Now On, the band had expanded from quirky Idaho punks to full out Rock and Rollers (minus the attitude and tight pants). Songs emerged from the long and tedious recording sessions that sounded as if the band had been inhaling Crazy Horse’s power jams, while exhaling Neil’s sensitive songwriter side. It was a major breakthrough and the band followed it up with the acclaimed Keep It Like A Secret. Yet the band never really made much of dent in “mainstream” music world and they still have managed to keep a firm hold of their Indie roots.

The players on stage Thursday Night were bassist Brett Nelson, drummer Scott Plouf, guitarist Jim Roth, guitarist Brett Netson and guitarist/lead singer Doug Martsch. When discussing “the band” it is obvious both on stage and with their studio work that Doug Martsch IS Built to Spill. He writes the songs, leads the band on stage and periodically thanks and waves to the crowd. Some reviews have described him as a “guitar god” yet, while he is a great player, when you see him he looks almost the polar opposite of what the mind conjures up as a “guitar god”. Doug (or Dug) looks like you neighborly accountant who you would play pick up basketball with at the Y. Only instead of driving home ion a mini-van post-game, he would strap on a Strat and crunch out a soaring melodic solo. Whether it is his Mid-Western “everyman” vibe or his impeccable writing skills, it can not be denied that fans feel they have a unique connection to him. At one point mid set the crowd was yelling/requesting certain songs and Doug politely apologized to the audience (many who no doubt would be attending all three shows) that the band hadn’t rehearsed those songs and that they were sticking to their Setlist. That moment gives a great insight into this band.

They honestly care about their fans, yet have their own set of rules. Built to Spill understands that seeing the same song three nights in a row might not be amazing, but yet they wanted the quality of their playing to be top notch. On the other hand the fan base is incredibly knowledgeable, and like most devoted fan bases, forgiving. This leads me to question why the band wouldn’t play without a net a bit more?

Throughout the show Doug tightly monitored the songs. Both of the other guitarists would look to him during their solos for when to wrap things up, and he would turn to the rhythm section as to when to step back in. The three-guitar attack seemed to be restrained throughout the evening never fully sizzling. For the majority of songs during the night, the minute the band seemed ready to push over the mountaintop into the Promised Land they instead seemed to slide back down to the foothills reclining in the shade. Rather then cutting open the songs and seeing what was inside Doug choose to wrap things up neatly and move on to the next scheduled song. While the shorter tunes (You Were Right and Carry the Zero) where played with precision, other longer songs (Plan, When Not Being Stupid is Not Enough, Hurt a Fly) were truncated for whatever reason, leaving fans wanting.

The loosest that BTS became in their set was covering a Caustic Resin song Alien Fugue, (Brett Netson is also in Caustic Resin) and with their new song entitled, Going Against Your Mind, which leans in a different, more prog-rock, direction for the band. They opened this song up and took it for a ride with crisscrossing solos, and riffs for an extended session. These moments along with the feedback soaked encore of Stop the Show left me wondering why wouldn’t the band push the whole show out into these uncharted waters and see what happens? They are obviously capable, further proof can be found on the official Live release (specifically a cover of Cortez the Killer).

Martsch is an excellent songwriter and the twist and turns the songs take both lyrical and sonically, is always interesting. For the majority of the show he was playing excellent songs, but playing them safe. Overall, a good show with a feeling that the band’s playing was restrained; perhaps they are saving it up for Friday, and a pumped up BTS on Friday the 13th could be quite scary indeed.

Plan> When Not Being Stupid is Not Enough, Strange, Distopian Dream Girl, Alien Fugue, Sidewalk, Hurt A Fly, Going Against your Mind

Stop the Show

Photos courtesy of uprecords.com.