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Spanish Love Songs Live in Asbury Park

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Melody Bot, Oct 10, 2018.

  1. Melody Bot

    Your friendly little forum bot. Staff Member

    This article has been imported from chorus.fm for discussion. All of the forum rules still apply.

    In March, Spanish Love Songs put out my favorite album of 2018 so far, Schmaltz. While they’ve spent the entirety of the year since touring in support of the album, I didn’t get the chance to catch a show until Wednesday, October 3rd, 2018, but it was well worth the wait.

    The venue was pretty small, but it was packed by the time the band took the stage – which is to say, set up in the front of the room, a couple of feet in front of us. They played almost all of Schmaltz, save its phenomenal acoustic closer “Aloha to No One,” unfortunately, beginning with “Nuevo.” Sadly, the band’s keyboard player Meredith Van Woert wasn’t at the show, so “Nuevo” became a different, more guitar-driven song live. It set the tone for the entire show, as every song felt even bigger live than on the album. The exception to this was “Joanna, in Five Acts,” the climactic guitar solo of which was cut short when vocalist/guitarist Dylan Slocum accidentally hit his mute switch. They all took it in stride though and pinked the energy back up in time for the song’s finale. Even though it was well past 10:00 pm by the time the band took the stage, the crowd couldn’t have been more energetic; perhaps the best moment of the night came during the bridge of “The Boy Considers His Haircut,” during which the band stopped, and the audience took over. It was powerful to hear everyone together singing, “I don’t wanna be depressed.” For a moment there, everything seemed alright, if only in that room.

    Things wound down when the band played their single “Buffalo Buffalo,” which got an expectedly huge reaction from the crowd. After a short intermission, they encored with “Beer & NyQuil (Hold It Together),” my favorite song off Schmaltz, and the show ended on a high note. I have to imagine this is how Spanish Love Songs is meant to be seen – sweating in a small room, only feet away from the audience. It felt like how I imagine Fugazi shows must’ve felt when that band was just getting started. It felt like, to quote Slocum himself, the beginning of “something great.”

     
    Larry David and theasteriskera like this.
  2. theasteriskera

    Trusted Supporter

    This is definitely one of the best albums of the year & was one of my most anticipated shows as well, I caught the Brooklyn date. Thanks for the review!
     
    Zac Djamoos likes this.
  3. Great show! I was there, so fun.
     
    Zac Djamoos likes this.
  4. RileyWitiw

    more like absolutepop.net Supporter

    Great band
     
  5. sean_rugy

    select all delete Prestigious

    salt in the wound for missing them. nice write-up, Zac.
     
    Zac Djamoos likes this.
  6. terps12

    Regular

    Disappointed they play nothing off of Giant. Still don't understand how Schmaltz can be as popular as it is and for people to not at least enjoy Concrete and Nervous People off of Giant.
     
  7. Leftandleaving

    I will be okay. everything Supporter

    I like giant a lot - especially concrete - but I think it’s the lyrics on schmaltz that sell it for a lot of people
     
    Larry David likes this.
  8. terps12

    Regular

    Yeah I've seen you comment on Giant, was just my takeaway from the Brooklyn show in April along with what they said in Asbury about dropping the Giant songs from their set. I think in Brooklyn they played Concrete and Mexico.

    I feel like Giant is more depressing, which is why I probably like it more.
     
    Zac Djamoos likes this.
  9. Leftandleaving

    I will be okay. everything Supporter

    Yeah I can’t pretend I don’t wish they’d played concrete or something haha, but they seemed to be pretty done with that record when someone shouted for them to play bad day

    I can get that I guess actually, about giant being more depressing - it doesn’t have anything like beer & NyQuil or haircut where there’s the hope for getting better
     
  10. gravedanger

    Newbie

    Also my favorite album of 2018 so far. I saw them in Denver and they killed it. Similar atmosphere....super small bar, stage in the corner 2 feet away from the audience, etc.

    Live performance was even more impactful and raw than the album.
     
    Zac Djamoos likes this.
  11. copey

    Regular

    Caught them in Chicago a couple weeks ago, so good.