SnowGhost Music

The Sea and Cake have been around for a long time. Since I was in high school, I think, which is exactly what I meant by the last sentence. They were one of those bands that people always told me about but I never got around to actually seeing live. This is largely due to spending a healthy majority of my life in Miami, a black hole of a music scene and a bit of a stretch for any bands not headlining arenas. Every now and then I’d get lucky, but most of the smaller bands or artists that I liked never made it south of Atlanta or Gainesville. I understand that many Americans live in rural areas where no bands ever go, which I’m sure is difficult for music-loving youngsters, but Miami is different because it is a big city with a small town selection of music.

I was fully reminded of this last week in Boston when I randomly bumped into an old friend of mine from Miami at The Sea and Cake show at the Middle East. He was in town visiting his fiancée for barely a week, and he couldn’t believe how many shows he was preparing to see. He actually coat checked his luggage after coming straight from Logan.

“Dude,” he said, “You must come here all the time. There are shows every night here!”

”Sure,” I said, though that’s not exactly true. I live an hour and change from either Boston or Providence. Laziness and the inefficient gas economics of my cargo van usually keep me from becoming a regular in either scene. But hearing the enthusiasm and wonder in the voice of an old indie-loving friend who had struggled equally through the dearth of quality shows in a major market has got me calendar circling once more. This will of course provide ample blog fodder for me as I provide you with wildly inconsistent and barely coherent analysis of the shows I see on my new solid music scene binge of the Northeast. Heck, we’ve even got our own Portland out here up in Maine, though I think it is officially frozen from now until April. And speaking of officially, let’s go ahead and get started with our music scene binge analysis.

Highlights from The Sea and Cake show at the Middle East in Boston

- The venue itself! Finally a decent sound at comfortable levels. Some shoe-gazers were prudently sporting ear plugs, but I kept mine in my pocket. Cheers as well to good beers on tap and a TV behind the bar so we didn’t have to miss the thrilling conclusion to the Celtics/Hawks game between sets.

- Running into bass player/artist Eric Claridge before the show. Not only is Claridge a way better bass player than you realize, but he’s also a very nice guy. My Miami friend swore that he had seen The Sea and Cake in Miami years ago, but Claridge helped prove my point by affirming that his band had never played there, nor would they likely be heading there anytime soon. Turns out my friend had been to a Tortoise show, which is still pretty cool for any place, especially Miami.

- Tight schedule. There were 3 bands on the bill, and they all played on time. This might make me seem even older than my earlier high-school reference, but I am secretly thrilled when bands start on time and everybody gets home at a decent hour. Of course, I didn’t actually get home at a decent hour, because when in Boston…

- The Sea and Cake are exactly as tight live as they are on their records. Though Sam Prekop’s vocals were a tad on the indecipherably soft side, the sound and the set were absolutely top notch. Nobody smashed an amp or tossed a drum stick, but the selections covered plenty of ground and got my head nodding. I was so fired up emo-style that I even spilled my beer attempting to applaud an encore song while still trying to appear slightly indifferent.

- 15 bucks. For 3 bands, one of which is indie-rock royalty, 15 dollar tickets at the door are the biggest bargain this side of a sweatshop. Not even your cheap friends can come up with an excuse for skipping shows like these. And now that I have my scene binge going, I’m giving up on excuses too.