Saturday, October 02, 2004

Long Live Rock

Two phrases to describe the awesome PJ Harvey show at First Avenue last night: "Tribal" and "Holy Zep, Batman!"

Her band was: a bass player, a guitarist who doubled on drums, and a drummer who doubled on keyboards and also did Polly-like backing vocals so eery that I thought it was a sampler at first. The sound was pounding and magnificent - two drummers at the same time sometimes - and Polly was on top of her game with her vocals and axe skills. (Note to guitar geeks: most songs played with a Fender Mustang played upside down - Holy Jimi Batman! - and "50 Ft. Queenie" done with a Nuge-like Gibson.)

She busted out three songs from Dry: "Dress", "Victory", and "Happy and Bleeding." She did "Queenie", and did solid stuff off of her last three albums. Throw in "Taut" off of Dance Hall at Louse Point and encores that included "Meet Ze Monsta" and "Shake Your Hips" and you've got proof of one of our very finest live rockers around. (Note to hipster dorks behind me who talked all pre-show about whiny girl problems like Not Having The Kind Of Girlfriend You Could Take To A PJ Harvey Show: "Shake Your Hips" isn't ZZ Top, nor is it truly the Stones either.)

So may the Lord be with you, Polly Jean Harvey, you in your blue pumps and tiny red tube dress with white birds on it and your haircut with bangs that came down to your eyes so that I could swear that you looked at me three times and no one would know the better. You are so goddamned cool that you could pass as an American.