Thursday, November 20 at the Cactus Pear
"What a lovely atmosphere" I kept saying to myself, at this, the first rock concert ever held at the Cactus Pear restaurant on Ludlow. Wall to wall kids in a plush, dimly lit room listening to bands whose members had probably never entered this kind of establishment for anything other than punching a time-clock somewhere in the back of the kitchen. As opening act France rolled through their low thunder set of malicious love/hate songs, a funny image kept popping into my head of some lingering patron from the restaurants regular yuppie crowd, stuck as he couldn't finish his steak fast enough, and being forced to digest his meal as the first band tore down the eatery's usual low-key atmosphere and replaced it with a howling burst of distortion. Of course I never saw the imagined yuppie, but what I did see was a vision of youth taking over. I'm not so sure the restaurant's owners will ever host live music again, but for a few hours this night, the Cactus Pear was transformed into the cities hippest new nightclub.
France has certainly grown since their former Beel Jak days to become one of the more interesting live acts this side of Husker Du. Lead singer Damien never broke his menacing stare once throughout their thirty minute set, and the audience responded by hanging on his every word, apparently too spellbound to even leave their seats. The music is somewhat slow and plodding, perhaps explaining the lack of dancing, but something tells me that's not what France was aiming for anyway.
Up and comers 300 Watts completely switched directions for the audience, turning on their bubbly-pop charm for a typically energized set. The guitar player was practically falling over his own feet with excitement, while lead singer Dave Koenig, busily thumping away on the bass, was amusing in his mad dashes back to the mic to be on time with the next verse. Dressed in T-shirts and chain wallets, this unpretentious trio is making a quick push up the ranks as one of the best of a new generation of local acts.
Head liners Struggle Unit seem to be popping up everywhere except Vine street these days, making the Cactus Pear only the latest stop in their quest to expand Clifton's underground rock scene. The P.A. problems that seemed to plague the first two bands of the evening became almost a moot point as Struggle Unit unleashed a kind of Sonic Youth like swell of feedback and white noise on the revitalized audience. A good portion of the crowd rose to their feet to slam around to the Unit's short set of fragile harmonies blanketed by guitar overdrive. If nothing else, tonight proved that good bands and emotional sets will compensate for the comforts of an established club any night of the week.