Acrobat Down
Where: Denver – 15th St. Tavern, CO.
When: 1999-05-21
Eric Bachman was the frontman of one of my favorite punk-rock-noise bands, the Archers of Loaf. Unfortunately, the Archers have broken up. That means Bachman, who was always willing to work on side projects before, is now on his own, and was he ever.
Bachman played at the 15th St. Tavern (a real dive!) completely solo, with a deep-tuned guitar and an occassional tape loop as backup. He played the deep lines and the rhythm simultaneously, a neat feature in itself, but it’s always been Bachman’s voice and songs that make the man interesting. His voice is deep and gravelly, not Tom Wait-ish, but more Mick Jagger-ish (of course, better). His songs are sort of modern folk songs, telling stories and having a slightly bitter look on life. I liked them very much!
Bachman is apparently touring solo right now, practicing his new music before kicking off his new side project, which, I am told, is called Crooked Fingers. Some favorite lines from his new songs: “Never lend a broken man a broken hand,” “The night is black because it’s rotten,” and “She spreads her legs and flies away.” I love the Archers, and I really enjoy Bachman’s solo music! Unfortunately, he only knew so many songs, and despite the strong enthusiasm of the audience, he couldn’t even play an encore.
Acrobat Down was mentioned above. They played a few covers, but their set this night was nothing special. The sound quality sucked, which hurt the band quite a bit. They could do better, I know, I’ve seen them do better shows.