I can't claim i was a fan when the band first started (I was six) but I did get into and love them soon after the new word shoegaze passed through my ears. I was already resigned to the fact that I'd never see them live but was pleasantly surprised to see their myspace had announced dates 2/26 philadelphia, 2/27 New York and 2/28 cambridge(mid east). I wisely bought tickets early cause the show was sold out that night. Anyone else go to this show or any of the others?
Another new upcoming shoegaze band called Bullpen catcher opened who unfortunately didn't have a cd out. The swirlies played fantastically on saturday with mostly the original members. The main guitarist Damon Tutunjianhad a huge effects board that he put to good use. I loved the fact that some songs he would play the whole way through using the whammy bar to strum or play notes. This caused him to have to switch guitars every other song while a friend retuned them on the side of the stage, not sure if it was in standard tuning, probably not.They played a bunch of songs off their classic
Blonder Tongue Audio Baton which sounded even better live.The night ended with an imprompt jam of flipper's sex bomb where the mike got handed to one enthusiastic crowd goer who put his all into it.Overall a great show, I want a new record by them! Not sure if anythng they played tonight was new.
But here comes the best part......I get the feeling that many fans of the swirlies on here might not have heard about the show in time to go see them. Well i got your back because i recorded the show (audio) and will upload it to the board in the next day.In the meantime you can download all of their albums here
http://evil-office.net/swirlies/discography/index.html