Rock Aesthetics 101

People playing music?

Serena-Maneesh
First Unitarian Church
10/5/06

Heard from a reliable source that S-M lead singer Emil Nikolaisen once said on the record that "S-M has come to save Rock & Roll." And they really are trying. Shit four of these guys must take an hour to get their jeans on. I think you can tell which four.

Obviously:

1. Serena-Maneesh has undergone some lineup changes since the last time I saw them. New drummer, new bassist, additional keyboardist / female vox (Asian) that I couldn't get in any pics because of the asshole kid standing in front of me.

2. Serena-Maneesh had no new material to play.

After closer Inspection:

1. Emil's second guitar, and clearly no.1 / right hand man, Sondre Midttun, who I guess is constantly changing his look, maybe to give the illusion that Emil got a new guitar player too, but was using the same guitar as he used the last time I saw SM live, was still touring with the band.

2. The new bass player was far tighter than Emil's half sister.

3. Maneesh's musicianship was waxing. This show they distanced themselves miles from the recorded material. I went to this show hoping to hear just one new S-M song. I heard not one, but eight. There was a good two minute motorik buildup before they launched into "Selina's Melodie Fountain." And throughout the set, the two guitarists simply went off, soloing then coming back to the main riffs for just instances before venturing off again, always in different directions, yet totally on the same page.

The best thing about the Serena-Maneesh show was visual. These guys and girl fucking played. You saw how hard it is to produce sounds this good. You appreciated effort and you felt like you were getting your money's worth.


***** Click 2nite @ Fluid, Julian's birthday bash *****

*****Philebrity tomorrow @ Transit *****