Black Light Burns at the Recher - 6.29.07

finally got to a show/race on time and arrived at the recher in towson, MD while roadies were setting up for the opener, guys by the name of Horse the Band from LA, i guess to distinguish themselves from Horse the Band from Ohio and Horse the Band from the Hole of My Ass. they were pretty insistent on the LA bit, anyway.

the stage set for Horse-TBFLA includes screens of fake trees populated by a colony of stuffed raccoons, rabbits, squirrels, you name it. a stuffed fox and turtle perched atop the keyboard. why?? your guess is as good as mine, and i was there.

turns out the roadies WERE the band because at one point they were all gathered onstage at the same time and without ceremony kicked into their set – jacked-up thrash that stirred up a mosh pit right away. not my music of choice, but when Horse chilled the thrash you could see the guys aren't too bad, the drummer & guitarist esp. dudes didn't take themselves too seriously and had good repartee. when someone in the crowd eloquently expressed his desire that Horse get the fuck off the fucking stage, the synth player grinned and asked, are you people always this dour? -which i thought was effin' priceless. look it up in the dictionary – Horse's frontman suggested - it IS a word.

though their music is not my thang Horse the Band FROM LA are fun to watch.

next up was Black Light Burns, wes borland's new hobby. BLB the studio band includes danny lohner and josh freese, but freese is committed to touring with some other band this year; and i heard lohner still suffers from PTSD brought on by two tours of duty with trent reznor. borland didn't launch any mic stands or pitch his bassist into the crowd but he's pretty ripped and probably could.

BLB opened with Mesopotamia, a ramones-y, post-punk wake-up call for the douchebag faithful who came to see wes borland cover Limp Bizkit. the live band is tight and sounds good: sean fetterman and marshall kilpatric are solid on bass and drums; borland's voice is good enough you wonder why durst did the lion's share of LB's vocals; and nick annis wrangles some heavy axe riffs (and is a nice guy, to boot). would have loved to hear him open up on that ringing, ethereal Noose-y guitar of I Am Where It Takes Me but that track didn't make the setlist; shame. need someone to pick up napolitano's parts? i will! i know the lyrics – just ask fetterman.

soundboard guys were on -- there were only a couple times when borland's vocals dropped away in Stop a Bullet – and i gotta say that BLB at the recher sounded 500% better than BRMC at the TLA... plus the recher serves jameson – hellyeah!!

the only bummer of the night was the paucity of the setlist, which comprised the first 10 tracks of Cruel Melody, shuffled. guys i know you're getting this shit rolling but how about tossing in some Damning Well or Eat the Day, eh? we could use more axe work from annis and borland too. open up those songs; make 'em something different live.

the show finished when borland hopped off the stage and walked through the crowd to the back of the venue, where he and the rest of the band hung out, signed autographs and fielded questions. what a PR coup. if you don't have the material to support the marathon shows fans expect, why not chill out with your homies afterward? must be like having conversation with my grandmother, though: how many different answers can you come up with for the tired questions: do you still talk to fred? where's danny? is Limp Bizkit dead? what's danny doing?

seeing these guys again in lancaster in a couple weeks, at the chameleon club. wooo.