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| From | "Sager, Greg" <greg.sager@bankofamerica.com> |
| Subject | Office/FoW |
| Date | Mon, 27 Aug 2007 03:10:49 -0500 |
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On Saturday night I saw Fountains of Wayne play a show at an unusually
small venue for them, the Double Door in Chicago's Wicker Park
neighborhood. I'm a big FoW fan, but I'm the first to admit that there
are many better live bands on the planet. But Saturday was the first
time that I actually saw FoW be decisively trounced by an opening act,
in this case Chicago's own Office.
A rather manic and theatrical five-piece, Office's throwback New Wave
approach has been described by frontman/songwriter Scott Masson as
sounding "if the Beach Boys and Wire got together with Roy Orbison and
the Supremes." What it sounded like to me was the Cars in a head-on
collision with XTC, with ABC and Talking Heads administering first aid
on the scene. The point of it all, though, was that the songs were
ridiculously hooky and inventive, and were delivered with great verve
and style. Their new album will be released on James Iha's Scratchie
label on September 25, and I'll definitely be buying it. I think FoW's
Adam Schlesinger is Iha's partner with Scratchie, since Masson made
reference to Office's nervousness at "playing before the boss" during
their set; Schlesinger later said during the FoW set, "How about giving
it up for Office ... the only band in America with interns!"
As for FoW, the debate on Audities as to the relative merits of *Traffic
and Weather* seems to have been resolved by the band themselves. As was
the case when I saw FoW at a street festival here in Chicago last month,
they only played four songs from the album: "Somebody To Love", "Yolanda
Hayes", "Strapped For Cash", and the title song. That was only as many
as they played from each of their two previous albums (not counting the
odds-and-sods *Out Of State Plates*, whose "Maureen" is now a live
staple), and it's also interesting that the first, self-titled album has
supplied no fewer than eight songs for the setlists of FoW's two Chicago
shows this summer. Both times they played "Radiation Vibe" and "Sink To
The Bottom", and this time around they swapped out "Leave The Biker",
"Survival Car", and "I've Got A Flair" in favor of "Joe Rey", "You Curse
At Girls", and "Sick Day". It's not a huge surprise to me, since I still
think that their first album contains their best collection of songs to
date. It's simply telling that they're playing more songs from their
eleven-year-old debut album than from the one that they put out this
past spring.
At any rate, the discovery of Office definitely made the night worth it
for me. As much as I enjoyed the two other shows I saw during the past
week (Crowded House at the House of Blues, and the Gin Blossoms at the
Cubby Bear), the live soundtrack of my summer was beginning to feel like
a nostalgia tour. I'm always happiest when I'm discovering new bands.
Greg Sager
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