Review: the (International) Noise Conspiracy 11-23-2005

#47
November 23, 2005
the (International) Noise Conspiracy
Danko Jones
Nightmare of You
The Whips
Ottobar

Since I couldn't go see Coheed in Hawaii, I headed up to Baltimore (in the freakin snow) to see my favorite Swedish pinkos and three other bands I never heard of.

The Whips are from DC and were pretty good. Regular old DC indie stuff.

Nightmare of You were great, although not at all my kind of music. I think the singer must have recently graduated from the New York School of Rock Posturing.

Danko Jones. Whoa! I had no idea what to expect, especially considering the other openers. Anyway, apparently the Canadians have invented some kind of device where they blend old musical styles to create awesome new bands. In this case it seems Robert Johnson and other Delta blues musicians were combined with The Clash, somehow resulting in a multi-cultural, Green-Day-esque blues-punk combo. I don't even know how long their set was because they just ripped through it. I was blown away. Go check it out. Now!

Then, finally, at midnight, the (International) Noise Conspiracy. How could anyone not love a bunch of Swedish pinkos who were deflowered by capitalism? It was a good thing I wore my hipster jacket - which is not only plenty warm but also looks a lot like INC's costume jackets (black, vaguely militaristic, inexplicable zippers). The first (and last) time I saw these guys was in the pre-witchhunt days at 9:30 Club with somebody-or-other. While I don't remember those details I do remember that INC was awesome and I was happy to see them again. After Danko Jones, I think my ability to be completely blown away was gone, but INC kicked ass. I think most of the songs were new ones (I only have their debut album and one single). The big encore closer was, of course, Capitalism Stole My Virginity. Awesome.