Back to back shows at the SOhO in Santa Barbara, Thursday night October 9th, merged into one long evening of indie music, featuring three distinctly different performances. The evening started with a dinner show by former “Ride’ member, Mark Gardener, playing an acoustic loop show. For those not old enough to remember, “Ride” was an English rock band, whose 1990 album, “Nowhere” was hailed by many international music critics as one of the finest albums ever produced in the “shoegazing” genre. Gardener made the leap across the pond from his Ox-4-Sound studio in Oxford, England, to play a show featuring, some “new old and middle age songs”. According to Gardener, “I’ve recently finished a new Robin Guthrie (Cocteau Twins) / Mark Gardener album that I’m very happy with, so I will reveal some of these songs for the first time but will, of course, play a few old songs for the nostalgic element”. He did just that in a mellow evening of luscious vocals and acoustic guitar. Occasionally, Gardener would employ looping tracks to form harmonies with himself and different rhythms on the guitar, reminiscent of a pioneer in that field, Leo Kottke .
The second show of the evening featured a double bill of indie rock veterans. Sebadoh, featuring Lou Barlow of Dinosaur Jr. opened with a raucous performance of their trademark “lo-fi” sound, which they helped pioneer back in the late 80’s. The “classic” lineup of Barlow, Jason Loewenstein and Eric Gaffney took a 14 year hiatus before reforming in 2007. Their distinctive sound put them in a category all their own, sometimes sounding like an old school punk band and more like classic rockers at other times. Their powerful ninety minute set was well received by an early Soho turnout.
Thurston Moore closed out the evening with a near two hour set featuring the band he put together for his new solo project album titled The Best Day, set for release October 21st. The band includes his former Sonic Youth drummer, Steve Shelley, English veteran rock guitarist James Sedwards, and former “My Bloody Valentine” bassist Debbie Googe. The powerful quartet played a fierce-some set of jam laden gems from the new album. The longest song on the new recording, the 11 plus minute “Forevermore”, became one of the more intense jam songs ever played at the Soho. Gardener stayed on to watch the set and seemed awestruck as he stood in the crowd for the entire set.
In an earlier interview, Gardener had been asked about how he felt playing on the same night as the other bands. His response, “I just found that out. There has already been some musical cross-pollination as Thurston Moore and Sonic Youth, along with Sebadoh, have both been influences on me musically. I was a fan of both of those bands so I’ll hopefully stay around that evening and watch the late show. That’s a great coincidence or maybe it’s fate that we all play the same venue on the same night!”
True to his word Gardener did in fact stick around for the whole set. Moore’s new group played together as a completely cohesive foursome, sometimes sounding like a jam version of “The Cure”, while at others sounding more experimental like early “Sonic Youth”. The band’s sound is in fact so sophisticated that it is hard to pigeon hole them into any particular genre. A sweaty Moore stuck around until the clubs closing to chat with fans and sign merchandise along with Gardener and some other band members. It was another historic night of music at the SOhO.
