Mogwai were great. For 40 minutes. And then they kept playing. And playing. And playing. And that unnecessary second 40 minutes was too filled with the same thrumming drone and plodding rhythm that the first 40 minutes were filled with, and too many Moody® half-step progressions. The final 10 minute feedback drone leave-your-guitar-leaning-volume-up-against-the-amp-and-walk-off-stage trick is very old, very tired, and was just plain annoying.

It was just too much of something that wasn't dynamic enough to warrant that amount of time. I'm kind of let down about it, because they were good, and if they'd stopped at about 45 or so minutes, even maybe an hour, I'd be saying they were brilliant. I really wanted to keep loving what I was hearing...but couldn't. I want to be thrilled, dazzled, blown away, and left wanting more, not aching for it to end.

Trail of the Dead were shockingly lame. Not at all what I expected. Bordering on cartoonish, and unsure about whether to reference The Who, The Clash, Sonic Youth, Circle Jerks, or X. Nothing felt authentic; every antic and tic seemed practiced. Guitar changes between every song and wrecking the drum set THREE times are, at this point, nothing more than bad gimmicks. There's more, but they were dumb enough that I don't think there's any point in writing more about them.

The kids seemed to dig it though, so who am I to say...

Wished we'd stayed for The Fall (we got in to that too, but they played too late, and my host was dead-set on Mogwai). One funny detail there was seeing all the old crusties--like me, some even older--from the punk rawk days. I'm bad with faces so I couldn't put names to them, but I swear I saw a few familiar ones...but with twenty years between us, who the hell knows.

Musical misadventures aside, it was a good night out. Thank you to Neil for the hookups. I've not been to anything like a rock show in so long. It was a nice change of pace, the Henry Fonda theater is a good space, and I enjoyed myself, and the company. We also got to eat at Rodeo Grill, across the street from The Echo; a place I love. Wicked salsa!