|
Ignorance
Park
Beerland, August 9, 2003
All
hail fucking Ignorance Park! First of all, I want to make
it clear that I have panned punk rock legends in this paper
before. When I see bands that suck and when Wendy bullies
me into writing reviews for them, I pull no punches. This
is an important point to make because if you rifle through
this paper you might get the impression that a few too many
people have taken the old "if you don't have anything
nice to say, then don't say anything at all" adage a
little too seriously. Dear reader, you deserve nothing less
than my totally honest, albeit subjective, impressions. So,
now that I have begged you to take me seriously, on to the
review:
All
hail fucking Ignorance Park! The first time I caught them
was last summer at the Flamingo Cantina. They took the stage
after punk rock geniuses Brewtality, Inc. simultaneously stunned
and whipped the crowd into a frenzy. I doubted whether IP
could hold their own after such a display of searingly furious
rock prowess, but they did. And then some. Then Joe Strummer
died.
Fast
forward to August 1, 2003. For their ninth (!) anniversary
IP rocked the hizzie with verve and aplomb. They also happened
to reinvent themselves for the occasion. Deftly rising above
the shortcomings of Beerland's sound system, IP showed themselves
to be leaner, meaner, and smarter than before. But what the
hell, everybody has to grow up a little bit now and then,
right? The only thing that hasn't changed is their passionate,
zealous delivery. Friendsters or not, these kids got some
soul. I think it was obvious to everyone in the room that
the ghost of Mr. Strummer lives inside Johnny Walker.
But,
their songwriting has changed. One of the hallmarks of a good
pop song is that one part flows easily into the next, that
it "makes sense" to the listener. IP had that part
nailed down tight. The arrangements had a subtle, clever,
sparse economy of notes that I hadn't noticed before. They
have moved away from the "sonic onslaught" rock
technique and towards the "these songs are so freakin'
great that they pretty much play themselves" method.
(Has somebody been practicing?) Sure, they snarl and sing
about drugs and girls and play in 4/4 time but they easily
avoid banality thanks to their composure and cool. I felt
as if I was watching a pride of lions devour a zebra, only
with table manners and beer.
-Peter Elliot
|
