World Famous In San Francisco

Next was Nero's Day At Disneyland. Its kind of completely backwards that the first time I finally catch this is in Texas because this guy is from Oakland. Anyway, I was kind of reeling from being on my knees between the two drum kits to get photos of Foot Village so the sheer cartoon virtuosity of this music didn't hit me right away. But once it did I was blown away. This guy plays crazy piano with the flare of a totally insane inbred Germanic prince or something and he embellishes it with some screwed up electronics a la Venetian Snares. Completely hyper,insane and overly indulgent, true to his namesake. I was so into it. Don't be dumb like me. Nero's Day at Disneyland is out of Oakland so there is no need to travel hundreds or thousands of miles to catch this, which you should definitely do.





Sadly, I didn't get any photos of Kevin Shields and her sewing machine of doom. But, it was a pretty neat performance and I kind of loved watching the crowd head banging to her harsh noise thrash in rhythm with her hand motions on that machine. Maybe you had to be there though.

And then, for something completely different, Devon Williams played some seriously gorgeous pop music. Ok, actually first they played a few covers including a messy but totally spot on cover of Alex Chilton. Then they played some seriously gorgeous pop. What I like about the live set up of this band is its so rock 'n roll. The recorded stuff is pretty and orchestrated and sweet and earnest (in a good way) and melodic and people make comparisons to Nilsson, but live the band is really dynamic, the guitar is assertive, and the songs are bursting with energy. I get excited watching it.