5 Becomes 1

Sheezer

Friday night at Lee's Palace, there was a Halloween show hosted by Sheezer. Since they were competing on the same night with heavyweights like Death From Above 1979 and Dan Mangan, it was a smaller crowd than previous shows.

First up  was Donlands & Mortimer, an indie-rock band backed by a sax and trombone duo. The singing duty was split even between the drummer and the female guitar lead (Carmen Elle of Army Girls). They had a jazzy sound to their repertoire, sometimes sounding funky/Motown, sometimes avant-garde with discordant harmonies. I took to this band right away with their great tunes.

Donlands & Mortimer

This was my second encounter with The Elwins, a hipster-esque twee indie pop band. They certainly seem to enjoy performing on stage and engaging their fans. These fans were also cut from the same mold. I have nothing against hipsters - they're young, so go ahead and have fun. But I did snicker when the craggy bartender fixed his gimlet eyes on a fuzz-face lad inquiring for a PBR and spat out: "Never stocked 'em, never will!" Though they have clever hooks and lyrics, it's not coming together for me.

Sheezer came on stage dressed as the Spice Girls: Baby (Robin), Ginger (Laura), Scary (Alysha), Posh (Magali), and Sporty (Dana). They didn't chat much except to remark about some mic troubles early on. With 20 songs from Blue and Pinkerton, they had to split it up into 2 sets, which deflated the evening's energy somewhat. But the hard-core Weezer fans were unfazed and sang along to every song. As a casual Weezer listener, I felt some of tunes could be cut. Just gimme the good stuff! The first set ended with the upbeat The Good Life and the second set ended with the jammy Only In Dreams. They came back for an acoustic encore. Aside from the mic glitches (and a too quiet mix for the lead guitar) in the first few songs, it was probably the best sound mix I've heard recently (a testament to Lee's longevity) with all instruments and vocals shining through.