Helium, Alkaline, and Juicy at Terrace Club, Princeton, NJ, 1/30/93
Openers were Juicy - 3 women from NYC, I think, though I also heard that one of them is in Scarce. Regardless of hometown, this was the embodiment of all the arguments I've seen in the past two years AGAINST the D.I.Y. "scene" and style. This was somewhere along the line of Bratmobile-Lite - zero talent, zero compassion, zero interest in actually playing as long as "they're having fun and being cool." (I'm probably being a little harsh, but hell, I'm entitled, it's just an opinion... which was common to much of the crowd...). I love Bratmobile because they care about what they do, they just don't have the technical expertise of other bands. Juicy didn't have the concern. At least they played only 5 or 6 songs... (...) Helium. Wow. I don't think I can listen to my singles now... they'llpale in comparison to the show they did last night. Mary Timony is thequeen of creative, quiet feedback as an instrument in the songs, whileBrian and Shawn (both ex-Dumptruck) keep a beat and a path going behindMary. Very intense and enjoyable - rumor has it that a new EP is due inFebruary on Matador, with LP to follow sometime... I just hope that thisband is allowed to do what they want musically as they move up - unfortunately, their current sound won't "move product" in a commercial sense... it's too complex and interesting for teeny-boppers, even if Helium could be marketed on their appearance. [No, I'm not implying that they're following a pipeline to major-labelness by being on Matador, and I'm not saying that physical appearance had anything to do with my enjoyment of the band.] Good luck to them - they deserve it after the nightmares of Dumptruck and the implosion of Autoclave (see Wind-Up Toy #1 for more on the Dumptruck shit...). Sean skmurphy@phoenix.princeton.edu from the Indie-List Digest |
