The girl at the raised, round bar table kept stashing the tens and twenties in an odd little wooden mail rack—the kind that grandparents always seem to put bills in—as opposed to the standard metal cash box. And there were a lot of tens and twenties flowing into her hands, or credit cards being flashed and lists being checked. Over the chatter in the bar area of Tangier—just past the cordoned-off pre-speed dating event, whatever that means—could be heard the same question over and over: "What time does Why? go on?"
As I waited for my photographer near the door and watched the steady stream of ironic t-shirts and skinny jeans walk through the curtain, I couldn't help but notice the crutches brigade sitting near the door—more on that later. It was pretty obvious that the house was going to be full for the Oakland, CA four-piece. It's a weird mix of spoken word, quasi-rap, and droning sung/barked melodies that characterizes Why?'s output; not having really listened to them since 2005's Elephant Eyelash—and only vaguely remembering it at that—I was expecting a full-on hip-hop show with flat-brimmed A's caps, hype men, baggy pants and hands in the air, waving like they just didn't care.
And it sort of was. Sort of. Needless to say, it made me pause when I finally stepped through the curtain and saw Cryptacize on stage. Each of the three members was seated, the drummer behind a floor tom and not much else, a weird mix of noisemakers which barely constituted a rhythm section, the female lead singer with an autoharp in her lap, and a lot of dissonant vocals. Not your normal get-the-blood-pumping opening act I was expecting. In fact, it was downright quiet, with only the twitchiness of the band providing some visual noise.
Then came the hype men, and it was obvious this was no stereotypical hip-hop show. Shoving their way through the crowd came two characters (so described because I'm not completely convinced that they weren't) claiming to be close personal friends of the band—one half of the crutches brigade in a button-up blue shirt with the kind of designs normally reserved for frat-boy ink, and the grown-up equivalent of The Sandlot's "Squints Palledorous" if he didn't get Wendy the lifeguard. It's easier to show than tell, so feast your eyes:
They claimed to be friends of the band from Cincinnati—a fact lead singer Yoni Wolf later verified, saying of Mr. Blue Sky "He's been staying on my couch for weeks"—there to warm up the crowd and offer lyrical interpretations of some of the band's songs. After announcing that one of the songs predicted 9/11, they urged Why? to play modern-rock covers, like Staind and Puddle of Mudd. Then they mostly surrendered the spotlight, choosing to hang out behind the band, but still on stage, playing air crutches and shouting at fans for drinks throughout the evening.
Front and center were two drums and a cymbal for Yoni to bang on, flanked by keyboardist Doug McDiarmid, brother Josiah Wolf on drums and xylophone, and a new guitarist named Austin who became the second person on crutches on stage due to a broken foot (Blue Steel said his own messed-up foot was the result of demonstrating UFC moves on an Igloo cooler). Yoni immediately announced to the crowd that they wouldn't be hearing old favorites, but that the band would be playing their forthcoming album Alopecia front to back. Then they launched into "The Vowels, Pt. 2" with Yoni on guitar and full singing. The night bounced back and forth between sung songs and half-rapped ones, including the first single "The Hollows," which provoked jump-around histrionics from the crowd (side-note to the asian kid with no rhythm continually bouncing around right behind the keyboard: dude, I was jealous of how much fun you were obviously having, and it was nice to see everyone, especially you, get into the show). Standouts of the evening included the drum-off between the Wolf brothers, "Fatalist Palmistry," "By Torpedo or Crohn's," and that part in "The Hollows" where I'm fairly sure Yoni sang "in Berlin I saw/two men fucking a dog" and not "two men fuck in the dark" like he says in the album version.
So maybe it was the juxtaposition of the hip-hop sound and the hick-hype setup. Or maybe it was the sight of indie kids with arms unfolded making glocks with their fingers and throwing up their imaginary guns. Or it could have been the fact that the guy in the farthest seat in the house could have balled up a napkin and hit the stage without throwing out his arm, if he could have gotten it through the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd, but the result was this: Why? was downright awesome. Maybe they're indie, maybe they're backpack rappers, maybe they're—as my photographer coined it—heeb-hop (there were a lot of Jewish references in the songs and in the banter), but who cares. Just like the crutches brigade and the bouncing kids on the riser and Squints and the guy behind me who kept thrusting his fist in the air and doing the heel stomp, the entire crowd had one thing in common—a damn good time.
Alopecia is out 3/11/08 on Anticon.
Download – "The Hollows" from Alopecia – [mp3]
Download Why?'s cover of The Cure's "Close to Me" – [mp3]
For more information, visit myspace.com/whyanticon
