Flashback: The Drones at 400 Bar, Minneapolis (09 April 2009)

Setlist

Opening up for The Drones is Little Man. I’m actually embarrassed to admit talking to singer Chris Perricelli before the show that I didn’t know Little Man the warmup band. Andrew seems to know all about Little Man and filled me in about how there was a local television commercial that showed Little Man playing while some student explained how he got his degree in video editing (apparently the ‘acting’ in the commerical really stunk).

Anyway, Little Man played a pretty full set, which is a relief since I was so used to the 30 sets from SXSW. Sometime they would pause for applause and sometime each song leads directly into the next.

Halfway into the set, Perricelli picks up his acoustic guitar for two songs (I think “Seal Of Secrecy” and “Love Of All Time”), before going back to electric for the rest of the set. The acoustic was a nice treat, especially with the harmonica (which sort of made me think of Bob Dylan).

You can tell right away that Perricelli is an excellent guitarist with his left hand moving quickly up and down the neck of the guitar. It’s no surprise why the City Pages called Little Man the Next Big Thing on their cover story for February 27^th, 2007.
I did ask Perricelli the story behind this and he told me that they had sent someone over the house to interview and take some photographs. He honestly didn’t know it was going to be a cover story, so he was a little shocked when he learned about it.

Anyway, I have their latest album Of Mind And Matter since early February, but haven’t had a chance to give it a listen. (If you’ve ever seen my ridiculous pending review pile, you can understand why it takes me so long to get to things).

Listening to the album post-concert, I did recognize many of the songs on the album. This is evident on songs like “Everyone On The Floor”, which is my personal favorite. Slower/sensitive songs like “Did You Now” was left off the setlist, probably for pacing.

“Tarots And Arrows” is catchy, although I felt was kind of repetitive with the lyrics at the end, but hearing this live, it made sense. The repetitive lyrics of “she’s into tarots and arrows” suddenly comes to a halt, by the way.

Little Man

The majority of the album feels very 60s, early 70s to me. Some people cited that they sound like T.Rex, and I can see where they are coming with that. In some songs, I thought I hear Beatles influence (“Don’t Pray To Fantasy”) and even a bit of The Zombies (check out “Talisman” with that “ch-ch-ahh” sound). So if you like “classic rock”, you need to check out “the next big thing” Little Man.

Clicking on the ‘discography’ images on the sidebar will take you to websites to buy the album. You can find out more about his record label at Eclectone Records.

PS, when I talked to Perricelli, he was generally really excited about being interviews by life-sized muppets. So I leave you with part one of the Buzz Show:

The Drones came a long way to be here at the 400 Bar in Minneapolis. I have previously mentioned that singer Gareth Liddiard had a “heavy, heavy” accent. I have to correct that by adding that I did not understand a word the man said.

Kidding aside, but it was seriously hard to understand the man. They were also surprisingly louder than I thought, lots of distortion and odd feedback (probably unintentional). Listening to their Havilah album and seeing them live are two very different experience. I have concluded that this is a LIVE band.

There was no set list, I think the song order were all given out by bassist Fiona Kitschin. They started out with “Nail It Down”, followed by some song, and then “The Minotaur”. Right after Minotaur was an amazing bass-y song “Six Ways To Sunday”, from their first album Here Come the Lies (and also their very first EP). Clearly one of the band’s favorite song to play live.

I also caught “She Had An Abortion That She Made Me Pay For”, from their third album, so basically their set is a mix-mash of new and old songs – making it for an effective playlist.

There were no encores, which didn’t surprise me, as it was a work day and there was a moderate turnout for the show.

They have a few more US dates left, so be sure to catch them in Seattle and Portland if you can. Their latest album is called Havilah and it is available for purchase at ATP Recordings.