the appleseed cast 4/14
Published by james April 21st, 2006 in music, reviewsafter a great dinner with monica at the venerable tortilla press, craig from engineer and i shot on over to the first unitarian to see victory at sea / aloha / the appleseed cast. unfortunately we got there just after aloha’s set. i was a little disappointed but that’s what happens when you staunchly refuse to pay for parking. a lot of people were complaining about the heat. it’s only april, just wait until summer when sweat from the room condenses on the ceiling and drips back down on you. kids today are such lightweights.
craig was really excited to see appleseed but to be honest, i was never terribly into them. my introduction to the band was end of the ring wars, which is as mediocre of a take on mid-90s emo as it gets. i’d heard that over the next few albums, their focus had changed to a denser, more layered and almost progressive approach after changing the lineup. two conversations on tiger style was a bit better but i still wasn’t that interested in seeing them. it’s funny how a bad first impression of a band can turn you off and leave you unwilling to give them another chance. god forbid that bands get better over time!
i ended up eating those words and leaving the church totally impressed. with christopher crisci looking like an indie version of tommy chong in his huge graying beard and headband, AC opened with a long instrumental and played a totally inspiring set of songs that were rocking, complex and atmospheric. if i had any complaints it was that their set was too short; i’m pretty sure it clocked in under an hour.
Search
when i first heard ‘end of the ring wars,’ i thought i was gonna throw up. terrible album that is. but their second album, ‘mare vitalis,’ was a huge departure from that. i was quite impressed and still enjoy listening to that one. ‘low level owl’ was ok. the two-volume album was a bit overkill, but still listenable. i haven’t kept up with any of their newer stuff, but i think i’ll have to check it out now.
I agree. It was very easy to write off the appleseed cast after “ring wars”. That cd was pretty bland and a complete Sunny Day knock off, however “mare vitalis” was a nice step in a new direction. Then the “LLO” series came out and WOW! I thought they were pretty awesome. Then came “two conversations”, which was a step back into the “emo” direction and in 2003, not that interesting to me. Now with “perigrine” they stepped it back up. A great cd and might possibly be their best/consistant one overall. Anyhow, what I am trying to say is that they definitely are a band easy to write off, especially if you dont hear the right cd.
i *just* got perigrine (peregrine?) last week and i like it a lot!