I saw Ratatat and Clinic at the Grog Shop last evening. Ratatat was surprisingly good. Just two guys and their guitars, some groovy bells and whistles [and a cool projected psychedelic accompaniment] and lots of jamming. They didn’t have any lyrics but since each song seemed like a blend of experiment, improvisation and virtuosity, words probably wouldn’t have helped them much. The guitarist in charge was hammered and was knowingly making lame comments to the crowd. He also invited people to come up on stage and dance around. Only one crazy [and I do mean crazy] guy took them up on it and he stayed up there the rest of their set and did weirdo robot movements. The drunk guitar guy sincerely thanked him afterward.
Ratatat is the kind of band that I would like to do the soundtrack for one of the movies I’ve not yet made. Last night I couldn’t really think of something off of the top of my head for the type of film it needed to be but after some thought I think that perhaps ‘Convenience Charge’ could be adapted to work with something like it.
Clinic was much as I expected them to be. 4 Brits in surgical scrubs and masks, jamming away. I was a bit surprised at just how much of The Beach Boys/surfer rock vibe that their guitars had. That never really came through to me on any of their albums. Incidentally, I didn’t realize they released their newest album a few months ago. From what I heard live, it sounds promising.
We bailed a bit early because we had to get up early for work, and so I am a bit groggy still. In an hour I get a back massage though. Ver’ nice. I also think that the overuse of the word ‘like’ in description and conversation is nothing more than an aborted attempt at metaphor. Perhaps if folks were a bit quicker on their feet and could come up with an appropriate metaphor, ‘like’ wouldn’t be so, like, annoying. The schools must change! or something.