the Unlimited Sunshine Tour

I'm afraid to say that we had to sacrifice catching Kinky's set so that we could attempt to straighten out a photo pass mishap. As Synthesis photographer D.C. Ramirez went off to track down Abstract Entertainment promoter Brian McKenna, I sat down to catch the latter half of Modest Mouse's set. They had just begun the opening strains of "Dramamine," and I was quickly reminded of the detriment of playing Sacramento's Memorial Auditorium: Picture, if you will, a boom box blasting from the bottom of a tin garbage can. The room is too reverberant for a well-balanced rock concert. Of course, it depends on where you stand in the giant hall, but the sound at the back and sides of the room is horrible and the sparse crowd did little to absorb the sound reflections (they even closed off the balcony, I assume due to lack of a strong turnout).
Modest Mouse seemed fairly reserved, not nearly as spastic as I had anticipated. Their lineup was beefed up with the addition of a second guitarist, but Isaac Brock's guitar tone was unfortunately thin and Eric Judy's bass was too low in the mix, which made the whole thing sound unexceptional. However, their performance itself was tight and enjoyable even with the unfortunate sound problems. They played well despite the setbacks.
As Modest Mouse broke their gear down and De La Soul set theirs up, we were treated to the olde tyme folk-country sound of The Hackensaw Boys. Everybody who owns a copy of the Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack should track down these Virginia boys' CD. The eight-piece band consisted of all acoustic instruments; washboard percussion, stand up slap bass, mandolin, fiddle, guitar, accordion, dobro and (of course) banjo, and each member sang in old country porch harmony fashion. Splendid.
De La Soul, the only hip-hop group on the tour, thought themselves as an introduction to hip-hop music for a mostly rock crowd. It's fair to say that many of those in attendance probably hadn't been to a hip-hop show before, but for those, I wish their introduction had been with another group. Admittedly, De La Soul was kinda fun, but their old-school jams were cheesy and dated. Some members of the crowd up at the front of the stage were into it, but the overall vibe I got from the rest of the audience was mildly curious, but uncommitted. However, De La Soul had good crowd interaction and were proficient entertainers.
With stagehands and band members dressed in animal suits, gigantic mirror balls casting their lucent swaths in the hall, beach ball-sized balloons bouncing on top of the crowd and singer Wayne Coyle blasting a smoke machine and throwing handful after handful of confetti at the audience and his band, The Flaming Lips put on one of the most bizarre and unique shows I've ever witnessed. A giant screen behind the group alternated with scattered images of orchestral conductors, underwater / outer space collages, nude women, Teletubbies and close-ups of Coyle's blood-covered face (as he sporadically smashed fake blood capsules on his forehead for emphasis). The large amount of pre-recorded backing tracks the group used in conjunction with their live instrumentation was surprising, but I suppose you don't expect an orchestra to tour with them. The element of chaos crossed with the ultra-mundane fueled their performance with curious energy and made for a good show…but those with epilepsy should avoid The Flaming Lips' set for fear of seizures.
Cake closed out the evening, and considering they were playing on home turf, I had expected a more involved performance from them. They glided through old and new songs without error, but also without gusto. "This is a powerful city," deadpanned singer John McCrae from under a baseball hat and pill-popper shades. One would figure a powerful city deserved a powerful performance. Although the crowd (who had filled out considerably by this time) was way into their band, Cake didn't seem to be all that enthusiastic about their crowd. They were adequate, but Sacramento deserved more than that.
- Maurice S. Teilmann

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