Sunday, August 06, 2006

Aqua City Motel at the Terminal Bar

Friday night I went to the Terminal Bar in Northeast Minneapolis to watch Erik's band, Aqua City Motel, perform in their latest incarnation. By the looks of it, you'd expect the Terminal Bar (cash only) to be the home of 60-80 year old hard-drinking smokers, but the smoking ban, or the proximity to the college has driven them away, and I think I was almost the oldest person there, if you don't count the parents of a band-member girlfriend. Unlike last time, my camera was fully functional this time, and although the movies won't be great as my camera isn't designed for optimal sound - they should be sufficient for those people in my group who have never once been to see Erik play.

Aqua City Motel no longer has a keyboardist (although the keyboarding lawyer in point was in attendence), so their sound is a little less Randy Newman and a little bit less ocuntry, and with more feedback, more of a rock sound. So their progression has been sortof folk to sortof country to sortof folk rock. I like the new sound and Dan, Erik and Will, the guitarists/bass all sang at some point, only Bill the drummer refraining (and he pointed out that it was difficult to hear from where he was, so I imagine even if he can sing, it would have been difficult). Erik was much louder this time - a very positive thing, and I liked his new song, Never Coming Back (excuse me if I have titles wrong, I aimed for what I could hear in the refrain). Will only sang one song at the end, but it was good, particularly as he started out looking and sounding nervous and got stronger as he went along which jived with the tune.

So...without further ado, and because Erik said I could put them up here (at least until he tells me to take them down), here are four Aqua City Motel partial performances from the Terminal Bar on August 4.


Erik singing...there was some discussion between Holly, Will and I about whether this song was about Holly. Will said it reminds him of her, which worried her, because Erik's baby is leaving him and never coming back. Will clarified that it was the mood and beat, not the words that reminded him of Holly...

Will singing...

Dan Tanz singing...I'm sorry I couldn't catch one of the nice little three-person guitar dip transitions that happened a few times during the night - very funny.

Erik singing again (he gets double billing as he's my coworker)...he sang this song last time, in Dinkytown, but he's louder this time (though he still gets very quiet a few times) and I think they've got a better beat for it.

1 comment:

Mama Nabi said...

Ah, next time you're there, you should try to meet the owner of TB - his name is Flem. He's aptly named.