Wooden Shjips - Phish phans beware

On a whjim I went to see this psych band from San Francisco.  Ok, it was more than a whim, but not by much.  I really hadn't listened to them ever, but they came highly recommended from Aquarius Records, down in S.F. and aside from being highly supportive of their local scene, AQ have amazing taste in music.  They are a big reason I am so knowledgeable now.

After some depressing Sunday Night Football, I took my intoxicated self a few streets away over to the Anza Club.  It took me at least ten minutes upon entering the quaint gymnasium-esque room to realize that the ambient music was being played by actual people.  They were on the floor, not the stage.  Ok.  The next band was local act Von Bingen, whose bassist is also Magneticring.  The bassist is my neighbor, Josh.  Julia and I often hear manic and groovy business coming out of his garage across the street, so it was great to be pleasantly surprised by an actual performance.  And wow, he's got a great bass synth sound going, feeding his axe through a pretty bulky analog something-or-other.  I wonder what his BC Hydro electric bill is like.  

Wooden Shjips are no-nonsense GROOVE.  Like, i mean, get in it, will you?! If I wasn't feeling as pedestrian and voyeuristic that evening, I would have been dancing up a storm so fierce that flowers would have bloomed in a crown over my hippie head.  It's not furious music, no, this is psychedelic rock to the core.  Simplistic drum beats and consistent bass riffs that hardly ever change supporting the mutational synthscape and the fuzz guitar wizard.  Oh, and vocals so echoey they sound like you are at one end of an abandoned airport and someone makes an announcement at the other end.  You get lost in this stuff, which means:  Very hard to play, despite the apparent simplicity.  You have to be focused or else you get lost.  And if you're lost the audience sure is, too.  One psych rock mis-step = the end of your psyching career!  

I am amazed, then, by drummers in bands like this.  How do they motivate?  Perhaps this drummer trances out, which is highly possible, and the best explanation.  The challenge comes not from the technical aspect, but in the stamina and focus department.  Bassist, too.  He rarely changes things up.  That is the nature of a jam band.  

Outside the club, I overheard some people talking about how this was the third straight Shjips show they had seen, this one the best show so far.  They were following Wooden Shjips, like they were Phish or the Dead.  Once you groove you can't stop, right?  If they get you once you just gotta get that groove back.  I was content to imagine my groove.  I moved a little bit, but it was pretty tame movement.  Very anglo of me.  Not next time, though.  Next time I will park my bike at home, and I will arrive at the show in a VW van wearing bell bottoms, sporting wizard's sleeves and a beard.  

Yeah, these guys are good.  Not usually my cup of tea, but definitely good.  Total worshjippable band.  And yet, unless you're in the mood, pretty bland to watch play.  Aging hippie types, unable to stop the groove.  Still recommended for dancing.