The above is a taunt from the lead singer of The Bitter Tears, after no one in the audience would join in an improv game during one of the band’s songs that involved shouting out a preposterous situation to be followed by the band’s barbershop-quartet style chorus “That’s whyyyyyy I couldn’t come home last night” (Example: “I was murdered at the bar .. That’s whyyyy I couldn’t come home last night,” or, Best Example: “I was donkey-punched by Barack Obama at the bar … that’s whyyyy I couldn’t come home last night”).
Went to see Califone at The Rock and Roll Hotel last night, but Califone (who was headlining) was far outshone by it’s opening band, The Bitter Tears.
The Bitter Tears do this whole costume business. I think they switch it up at different shows, but last night we had: a dead bride, a live bride, a cat, a Sherlock-Holmes-style detective, and a trombonist dressed as if he was attending a gay pride parade in the 1980s but also wearing a bride-style headband and a handlebar mustache (he’s a complicated man, we decided). I was wary of the gimmicky-ness when they first came out (and somewhat terrified by the creepy faces made by the creepy lead singer/bride), but they turned out to be really good! They have a cellist and a trombonist, and they sound a bit like the Decemberists. And they were just a lot of fun, really campy and energetic and over the top. Most fun performance I’ve seen in a while. I felt sorry for their lead band for having to follow them.
I’m not going to say much about The Bitter Tears, who I wasn’t especially impressed with, insane costumes and campy theatrics or no, but I’m surprised you don’t mention opener (and local boys) These United States.
They’re the only band that managed to sound good last night; they had their own sound guy and it made all the difference. They played a fantastic set, lush and polished, and then the sound just went to shit. You could see the frustration on the faces of the guys in Califone. They were subjected to a real indignity in the still-terrible sound at the Rock & Roll Hotel.
I wasn’t there in time for the first opening band…