Music with Jameson & Lone Star: Bright Men of Learning and The Gary @ Rudz 11 Nov 2008

Yeah, as you can tell by the picture above, I wasn't feeln' too well Saturday. Likely I was ill from running around all day and not eating properly. I'd actually planned on running down to the White Swan early and catching some of the metal showcase but thought better of it given my state. Nevertheless, I did run by Rudz to catch a last minute show. You know those shows where for some inexplicable reason there is an open date on a bar and a few bands jump on the opportunity to play outside the rehearsal space. They're always dodgy affairs given the short notice and more often than not they become glorified rehearsals. The charming thing about these type of shows is the bands can be pretty loose and laid back. They aren't worried about knocking it out of the ballpark in front of a big crowd. It's just intimate and chill.

Austin's The Gary (with Trey of Sad Like Crazy) opened with a nice set. The bassist's vocals were a nice baritone with a talky/singing style that reminded me of those Minutemen songs where Mike Watt would talk through a song. It was a nice juxtaposition with the melodic bass and guitar lines. Good stuff. Then Bright Men of Learning followed. Third guitar slinger Chris wasn't there (this was a last minute show after all) and I, for one, missed what he brought to the band. BMOL isn't about one person after all but the collective unit and what they each bring to it and Chris does help in filling out the canvas. That small quibble aside, it was nice to hear the BMOL songs live for the first time in a long time. The rythm section is great, Marshall Preddy's vocals are always wonderful and horribly under appreciated, and Ben Murphy's lead work is one of the best in the city. Perhaps because the sound was more sparse with Chris' absence or just because this was a last minute show, Murphy even got a bit free-form and noisy with his guitar work at one point which was kind of a surprise and admittely fun to watch. But in the end, was it a wild and woolly night? Nah, but I did get to catch two solid bands play it loose and laid back which was great and more importantly I didn't throw up.

The Gary from Austin
showing off some nice guitar and bass work