Camper Van Cracker

Saturday night Rob and I went down to the Mystic Theater in Petaluma to see an old fave band. Camper Van Beethoven/Cracker is really two bands with some interchangeable members centering around main man, David Lowery. Camper Van's been around since the early Eighties which was when we got to know them. We had an odd mix tape of their stuff and liked their sound so much we wore it out. They're hard to describe. They've called themselves "surrealist absurdist folk" and they do mix it up. Punk, ska, alt rock with a country folk twang. Some high energy violin weaving throughout and occasional accordion flourishes thrown in give a kind of Eastern European flavor. Lowery's got this boyish voice with a nice flat edge perfect for deadpan delivery of dryly goofy lyrics. (Unfortunately, several shows I've seen at the Mystic have had poor sound mixing and the vocals were a bit too receded and fuzzed out for my taste. That's my one complaint). Their songs are funny with dark undertones, political threads and bright flashes of stark beauty. It was like a teenage dream to be at front and center watching music you love breaking over you three feet from your face. Too cool. After a break, they reconvened in a new constellation as Cracker and played a satisfying eclectic set. Highlights included audience faves "Eurotrash Girl" and "Low". These guys together can really build a wall of sound. For the encore they did a hypnotic Brides of Neptune and then segued into an unknown (to me) song that waxed into a sonic juggernaut. I swear, it was like the launching of the mothership. Needless to say my ears were very wacked afterwards despite earplugs but oh so worth it.

Mystic Marquee

The Mystic Theater in Petaluma, California. A pretty great place to see bands if you want an intimate setting and don't mind blowing your eardrums out. This place used to be The Plaza back in the Seventies and Eighties, a movie house with plush red interior that screened a double feature plus every few days. It was where all us kids would congregate to smuggle in booze, see rockumentaries and thrash in the aisles. It's where I saw Tommy and Quadrophenia. Eraserhead. Freaks. Odorama. Pink Flamingos. The Holy Mountain. All the weirdest films. Classics, too. The burning of Atlanta is something on the big screen. Rob and I saw The Lady Eve with Peter Fonda and Barbara Stanwyck on our second date. You could buy carrot cake and tea instead of popcorn and coke. Now it's a club but still pretty cool. I'm glad it wasn't razed in the foolish years when they set the bulldozers on anything with character, like the old Cal in Santa Rosa. Vintage infrastructure put to new use. It's what we need more of.