penultimate snakes

September 3, 2005

August was a pretty dry month for me, as I spent most of it trying not to die of the California heat. The one and only show I went to was the absolute 2nd to last Hot Snakes show EVER, at the Troubadour.

It wasn’t remarkably different from the other time I’ve seen them. It was the same hammering rhythm section and the throbbing sludge from Froberg and Reis on guitars. Like last time, the band was very tight and extremely loud. I wasn’t situated in front of Reis stack this time, so I had better mix and I could actually hear Froberg’s screaming.

The setlist was a good assortment, opening with string bending “I Hate the Kids” and pounding away all the way to “Let It Come.” Inbetween were sense shattering versions of “Automatic Midnight and No Hands.” The encore was non-stop brilliance though, with “This Mystic Decade” and “LAX” exploding through every speaker before Rob Crow from Pinback hopped on stage for the Drive By Jehu classic “Luau.”

It was an intense show, but it was really fun too, with pretty much every song I wanted to hear and a tip of the cap to the band’s legendary roots. I have a hard time believing this was really the last Los Angeles Hot Snakes show ever, but if it was, it was a 21 gun blowout of a sendoff.

Posted in From Blown Speakers