For stretches of its set on Friday night, the The might almost have been an English blues band. A chugging beat, simple chords and a hooting harmonica carried songs from the The's new album, "Dusk" (Epic). But as the rest of the concert showed, the The has less to do with musical style than with attitude.
Matt Johnson, the The's guitarist and songwriter, is a mope-rock exemplar. Since 1981 he has made an album every two or three years, singing dire, pessimistic views on everything from romantic love to the Americanization of England to the imminence of Armageddon. His lyrics are plain and direct, mirroring the ceaseless torments of sensitive adolescents: "I can never, never, never find peace in this life," he croons in "Bluer Than Midnight." In his latest songs, Mr. Johnson ponders love, telling one partner, "You're the strangest feeling I ever had," and another, "You make me cry when you look in my eyes." When he's not long-suffering he's ominous, but he concludes, in a tune with Beatles harmonies, that "Life's too short to be alone."
Through the years, the The's music has been orchestral or rocking, gentle or harsh; the melodies are concise and unshowy. The unifying element is Mr. Johnson's voice, quiet and breathy or rising to a baritone with a desperate vibrato. On a stage set suggesting a decrepit warehouse's wall of windows, his current six-man band chugged along calmly, topping basic blues-rock and folk-rock with bits of distortion or stereo-panning guitar. The shaven-headed Mr. Johnson didn't get overwrought as he sang. He was just a dutiful bad- news bearer, nearly sure that there's worse to come.
The pseudonymous Frank Black, who opened the concert, used to call himself Black Francis when he led the Pixies. His new band, and the songs on his album, "Frank Black" (4 A.D./Elektra), draw on the Pixies' ingredients: fast punk-rock, slower heavy- metal stomps, twangy California pop and touches of cheesy surf and soundtrack music. They're all tossed together in erratic proportions behind oblique lyrics about things like U.F.O. conventions, Fu Manchu mustaches and John Denver (the inspiration, Mr. Black revealed, for the sympathetic "Czar"). Mr. Black has a guileless pop voice that he sometimes pushes to an exasperated snarl or a scream, yet staying deadpan. His songs are cranky but utterly sure-footed, daring listeners to delve for meaning between the catchy guitar riffs.
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OLDMANOTY
Posted - 05/27/2007 : 02:12:50 Wow, I never knew FB supported The The - what a show that must have been. I saw them a couple of times but not on the 'Dusk' tour, did FB support them in the UK I wonder? If so - damn!
