Built To Spill
Saw a band Friday, October, 29, 2010 at The Fillmore here in The City. Named "Built to Spill" from Boise, ID, this was a first for me though they've been around since 1992 in one form or another.The band is made up of leader, singer/sonqwriter/guitarist Doug Martsch; Brett Netson, a second quitarist who played some leads andslide; a third guitarist Jim Roth who, when I could hear him, played slide too. All three traded lead and rhythm parts. The band was rounded out with Brett Nelson on bass and Scott Plouf on drums.
Their sound, as one can imagine with three talented guitarists, was a powerful wall of ringing quitar sounds. I thought the mix was a little muddled, though it could be my own defective ears. I could occasionally pick a lead or other tuneful lick from Martsch or Netson but to my ears, Roth pretty much stayed in the background. It did get pretty powerful when all three guitars played together.
Lisa Simpson (I may have misheard the name) added another voice for a few bars on one tune and a violinist introduced as being with "Camper Van Beethoven" joined them on another. The name of the violinist may have been Daniel Blume. Both 'Simpson' and Blume certainly seemed capable and appeared to fit in quite well but I could really listen to only a few notes from from each as the mix, in my opinion, was not very good.
I've learned that "Built to Spill has released 7 albums to date, the last being August, 2009's "There Is No Enemy" on Warner Bros. I don't know any of their songs but I understand that tonights show was most likely comprised of material from that album. The songs were pleasant, one I thought may have be in 3/4 time, something I like and something unusual for a rock band. In the band's early years I've read that they began to be associated with the Northwest Indie scene but I wouldn't know much about that. One of their founding members, drummer Andy Capp passed away in his sleep in May of 2006 but the band flourished tonight. It was a lot of fun.
