Helllllllllllllllllll yess!!!!!! Swervedriver at The Casbah in San Diego.
Back when grunge music was taking over this stupid country, my friends and I were listening to bands you'd never heard of back in 1991. Verve. My Bloody Valentine. Lush. Chapterhouse. Radiohead.
Swervedriver.
Swervedriver was always the dark horse band of all the Shoegaze artists we listened to, but damn, they were something else. And then, before I could see them live, they broke up.
I saw Spiritualized two nights in a row at London Hammersmith on a somewhat misguided trip to catch up with my friend Bill back in like 2001. I remember he didn't show up the first night, but then I hung out near the will-call window the second night, stalking his ass, and heard his unmistakable voice heading in my direction. We spent an hour outside with some distinguished guests trying to get rid of extra tickets, and saw one helluva show from the balcony.
After the gig, Bill caught up with Tim, the keyboard player, who he'd known for some time. Tim got us all backstage for the afterparty, but while we were waiting, Bill pointed out a person of interest to me.
"See that guy," he said, "you know who that guy is, right?" he asked, somewhat rhetorically.
"No, who is he?" I replied.
"That's the lead singer from (the then-defunct) Swervedriver."
"Really?!" I was amazed. "I'm going to go talk to him. You wanna go?"
"Nah," he scoffed, "I got nothin' to say to that guy."
I walked up to Adam Franklin, a little chuffed, and simply said, "Hey, I just wanted to say thanks for all the great music."
He looked at me quizzically and asked, "Who do you think I am?"
I replied, "You're the lead singer from Swervedriver, right?"
He just kind of smiled and admitted, "Yeah, I am."
That was cool.
Now they're back together, and touring with Film School, who proudly and reverently carry the tradition of shoegaze into the modern day.
To quote our own Three Mile Pilot:
"What is the lesson in this? Bliss! Bliss! Bliss! Bliss!!!!!!"
1 comment:
oh sr. perro i didn't know you met the guy from swervedriver! you are full of barking surprises heh heh
oh your post was a time travel to some grunchier happy and dramatic yet less contempt days... spiritualized, and oh not sure if i will make it to this one but... coachella...
Post a Comment