Wild Flag w/ Grass Widow and Eux Autres at The Hub – 11/17/10

I think that most music fans live for this kind of show. They are the kind of concerts that you can point to and say, “I was there.” This was certainly the case on this night when the Wild Flag dog and pony show came to Sacramento. The band and it’s openers played in what was almost certainly a space five times too small for their draw. The Hub in Sacramento boosts no stage and only the bare minimum sound system. There is a “No Hanging Around Out Front” policy and a rule that alcohol must not be in the container it was born in lest the cops come and shut the place down. All these elements pulled together to bring a group of professional musicians into such an intimate setting that it felt like watching the band in their practice space, but without all the mistakes and restarts. At the end of the night I left amazed and with the thought, “concert of the year”.

Wild Flag is an indie-rock super group, formed  of Sleater-Kinney members Carrie Brownstein and Janet Weiss, Mary Timony from Helium and Rebecca Col of The Minders. Whether or not you are familiar with these bands the take away is that these are all veteran performers and know how to rock hard, and rock they did. There were jumps off the drum kit, high kicks, and right hand tapping forming into one perfect evening. The long jammy song, “Racehorse”, was the definite highlight, going on forever, never boring, and leaving Carrie writhing on the ground mere feet in front of me. The thing I will always remember is when Carrie Brownstein hit me in the stomach when she did a high kick durning a rippin’ guitar solo. Definitely a badge of honor. The band seemed a bit weirded out by the whole experience, but from my prospective it was great. One thing I was bummed about was that the band had no music for sale. I know they have only formed very recently, but a four or five song tour/demo EP would have been great, especially if it had “Racehorse” on it.

Grass Widow is a rather raw garage-y, surf-y, and punk-ish group out of San Francisco. That may sound like the description of a lot of bands from coastal California these days, but for m,e the signing sets this band apart. The all girl band is also an all singing band and does a pretty good job of putting their different parts together. Also the reverb has been dialed back which is a step in the right direction. Somebody needs to buy the poor guitarist a new Boss Super Overdrive, though, as the jack on her’s is broken and the power plug is fried. I had to come to the rescue twice and plug the pedal back in after she had knocked the cord out but was happy to do so. Go buy their new record so that they can fix some busted equipment, you will not be disappointed, I know I wasn’t.

Eux Autres are a jangle-y, upbeat, glockenspiel playing, indie rock band from San Francisco with a name that I can’t pronounce. Simple guitar riffs, a little piano, smooth female vocals with just the right amount of grit, and even a song or two in French. You’d think this would maybe a little too sweet and rot your teeth, but in the mix it just works. The band had their new album available for purchase a few days before release which always makes me happy and with the satisfying set they performed I was more than happy to drop a few bucks on it. They were quite the nice appetizer for the night.

---