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Cursive / No Knife / Appleseed Cast

live in San Diego
2003
live show

Review by: Bloody Murderer
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Published on April 29th 2003

I was looking forward to this show for a long, long time. Cursive and No Knife are easily two of the best bands on God’s green Earth, and everything I had heard from Appleseed Cast I had liked. Being from San Diego, I had already seen No Knife twice, and knew they would be putting on an awesome show. I had been kicking myself for missing Cursive the last time they were in town, and had been listening to them non stop and twiddling my thumbs to pass the time.

The night of the show, I got news from my friend who had just seen Cursive the night before in L.A. that they were “terrible” and it was “just a lot of screaming.” I tend not to listen to him because he is staunchly anti-screaming, but it still took away some of my pre-show anticipation. I reminded myself to kick him in the nuts when he got back from Coachella. What a bastard!

The Scene was packed, as the show was likely to sell out. Hundreds of kids in tight jeans, with messy hair and thrift store shirts were packed in like a bag of sticky circus peanuts, sweating and suffering slightly to see their favorite bands. How’s that for shitty writing!

The Appleseed Cast was up first, and let me tell you, I did not expect the lead singer to be fully bearded and look like my hairy father. Despite being hairy, the band still kicked a good amount of ass. They had the guitars set up so that the notes ring forever, which gave the music a sort of psychedelic quality. It was good mellow music for the most part, although it all started to sound the same by the end of the set. My friend went nuts over these guys and immediately bought two cds.

No amount of praise in enough for No Knife. Forget John Lennon, these guys are better than Jesus. The guitar work was jawdropalicious, the drumming was perfect and the bass was phenomenal. These guys write some of the craziest sounding guitar you will ever hear; they had to have been abducted by aliens at some point and injected with alien DNA that has slowly taken over their minds until they have been forced to create interstellar guitar sounds. The only complaint I have is with the Scene’s horrible acoustics. The bass kept resonating and making horrible kill-me-now sounds that pummeled my eardrums for most of the set. The Scene needs to fix shit like this.

Cursive was the band I really came to see. They built the tension up with a sample of “The Ugly Organist” then blasted into “Red Handed Slight of Hand.” They used a lot of samples during the set, which seemed stupid live, although it did give the music a fuller sound. Tim screamed himself hoarse for such classics as the Lament of Pretty Baby, the Recluse, the Casualty, Art is Hard, the Martyr, and a slow version of the Radiator Hums. He played keyboard on a few songs, which seemed a bit out of place but sounded good. Cursive finished their set with the epic “Staying Alive.” The song was one big crescendo, with Tim beating his guitar until it begged for mercy. Overall, the show was one of the best I have ever seen, and I can’t wait to kick my friend in the nuts when he gets back.

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Posted by th3space on 2003-05-04 14:00:22
My Score:

guh...not 'driftwood'...'the recluse'...whatever, I'm hungover.

Posted by th3space on 2003-05-04 13:59:45
My Score:

I caught this show last night, and it was damned good...with the exception of the carcinogents, who weren't so good (personal opinion). Tim's sister even did the bells for 'Driftwood'...that was pretty amusing.

Posted by burstandbloom on 2003-05-02 14:16:28
My Score:

I forgot, kick your friend in the balls once for me, too. The Henry Fonda show was great. As was the Glasshouse show.

The only complaint I have with Cursive is that they played the exact same set everynight and in the same order. Well, except for one extra song that they played at Henry
fonda.

Posted by burstandbloom on 2003-05-02 14:08:53
My Score:

I went to this show as well as the other two here in soCal.

I disagree with you on No Knife. They were awful everynight, including this one. Their guitars aren't crazy. And the chick that they added to the band? What's the point? My dog could play the instruments that she did (probably better, too). My guess is that she's just there for face-value.

You forgot about Books on Tape (unless you missed him).

Nothing that Cursive does is "stupid."

This was an awesome show. My favorite of the three. Tim said I was a "sweetie," and Clint gave me a drumstick.

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, May 2, 2003 at 12:17 AM (EDT)
My Score:

you stupid ho. fuck you and your bro

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, May 2, 2003 at 12:15 AM (EDT)
My Score:

Screw all y'all! This reviewer is not a girl, he's my brother. No, I'm not kidding, his name is Evan. Not Yvonne, but it's kinda pronounced the same. Anyways I am a girl and I say jawdropalicious all the fucking time. So there!

Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, May 1, 2003 at 3:58 AM (EDT)
My Score:

um no nothing like dashboard dont mention them and appleseed together again.

and no one is debating no knife is good or not, reviewer girl, but you equated them to the fucking beatles, dummy.

Posted by lieutenant on 2003-04-30 22:31:13
My Score:

I've never heard from the Appleseed Cast. I really like the name, though I've heard a good mix of positive and negative outlooks.

From what I can gather, what are they, accoustic-pop, Dashboard style?

Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, April 30, 2003 at 9:17 PM (EDT)
My Score:

"The night of the show, I got news from my friend who had just seen Cursive the night before in L.A. that they were “terrible” and it was “just a lot of screaming.”"

Your friend was right.
I saw them at the Glasshouse, and to be honest, it wasn't very good. I was expecting a very good show, but a lot of it was very average. There were a few good highlights, but overall, I wouldn't give their set more than a 7 or 8.
No Knife closed their set with Mission Control, a song I despise, so that kind of ruined that for me as well.
Appleseed Cast were very pretty, but boring as hell.
Overall, definitely not as good a show as I was anticipating.

Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, April 30, 2003 at 12:44 PM (EDT)
My Score:

Oops like I said I write everything fast without checking it, so shove everything up your ass. And I do think No Knife is pretty innovative, maybe I just havent heard the bands that plays guitar like that but I sure as hell would like to see em. I apologize for jawdropalicious, that was pretty retarded

Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, April 30, 2003 at 12:40 PM (EDT)
My Score:

I agree with most of what everyone here says, I wrote this review really fast and crappily, I didnt think it would get posted. However, No KNife is fucking good so shove everyone you said up your asshole.

Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, April 30, 2003 at 9:23 AM (EDT)
My Score:

Cursive owns my soul... and all of yours too. Well written article, terribly saddened am I that Cursive will not be hitting up Rochester. Im goin to go listen to Bright eyes and cry about it.

aim sn - trueloveandwar

Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, April 29, 2003 at 4:57 PM (EDT)
My Score:

such classics as the recluse and art is hard? you bumb bastard, even tohugh they are two damned good songs, you can tcall songs that have been out for a few months "classic".... possibly stuff off semantics of sound, or domestica could be considered classic

Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, April 29, 2003 at 2:43 PM (EDT)
My Score:

and "jawdroplicious"? what the fuck? i hope this reviewer is a girl

Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, April 29, 2003 at 2:41 PM (EDT)
My Score:

seriously though this review sucks. the samples are awesome, the keyboards are awesome. dont mention them being "out of place" and then say that they worked in the same sentence. and that guy is right no knife isnt that good.

Posted by th3space on 2003-04-29 13:37:41
My Score:

yeah! the pn.o spirit prevails! heh. anyway...yay, I get to see cursive again on saturday, and after the faint last friday, I might just o.d. on saddle creek goodness.

Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, April 29, 2003 at 1:20 PM (EDT)
My Score:

I can't even begin to imagine how you garnered that from the last comment.

Thursday?

You know, I love the sense of community that often accompanies these punk message boards...the family atmosphere and the opportunity for people from any corner of the world to express their opinion. But without a doubt, there are an abnormal amount of kids who are simply giant dicks. And it's definitely more on the punk sites that I frequent. The hardcore zines, on the other hand, foster more of that do-it-together climate. Hell, even when they insult each other it’s with an air of courtesy and constructive criticism. It’s really very precious.

In conclusion and - in the unfortunate spirit of the punk rock message board - abileneinlove has been eating retard sandwiches. And no, I’ve never been a huge fan of Thursday. Why would you really care though?

Posted by abileneINlove on 2003-04-29 11:53:15
My Score:

I bet this dude likes Thursday.

Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, April 29, 2003 at 11:21 AM (EDT)
My Score:

No disrespect, but c'mon...No Knife? I'm sure they're great musicians - better than me, certainly - but No Knife definitely hasn't blown the doors off any musical conventions or reinvented the wheel in the past four years, let alone done something that warrents a comment equating them to Jesus. Jesus has a lot of fans, and he can do this thing with a guitar where he shoots lightning into the crowd...it's crazy shit, but he's the savior so wadda ya gonna do?

Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, April 29, 2003 at 2:19 AM (EDT)
My Score:

"They used a lot of samples during the set, which seemed stupid live, although it did give the music a fuller sound." "He played keyboard on a few songs, which seemed a bit out of place but sounded good."

uhhhhhhhhhhhh....no

Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, April 29, 2003 at 12:58 AM (EDT)
My Score:

cain't front, its ma city!