Live Shows: Mission of Burma and Guerilla Toss, 3S Artspace, Portsmouth, NH 6/24/15
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Photo by Ken Sears |
3S Artspace has been open for about three months. It's a combination restaurant/gallery/performance space. Seeing a show at a "performance space" is always a bit iffy, but these guys seem to have it together. The diamond shape of the space and the chairs lining the walls gave off a bit of a rec center vibe, but once the show started that was all forgotten. Great sound, great lighting, and an air conditioned room made this one of my new favorite venues. Their calendar tells me I'll be heading up to Portsmouth more often than not from now on.
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Photo by Ken Sears |
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Photo by Ken Sears |
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Photo by Ken Sears |
Mission of Burma are the absolute ideal band going through a reunion. At no point do they seem bored or just going through the motions for a paycheck. They seem genuinely happy to be playing together for the few shows they do a year. Roger Miller particularly seems thrilled for every song and has more energy than a musician half his age. It shows how strong a band's reunion is that they can make up half their set with newer material. Then again, the reunion has produced more of an output than their original run, so it makes complete sense. What is truly telling is that no one in the crowd seemed to care and reacted to all songs with enthusiasm. A song like "2wice" stands right up with classics like "Max Ernst." They even played a brand new song, "Buzz Your Soul." Peter Prescott was downright chatty behind the drum set, remarking that the crowd had the same make up they've always attracted: All men in the front row. They did go back to classics to close out their main set ("That's How I escaped My Certain Fate," "Max Ernst," and "Academy Fight Song") and closed out their encore with the one two punch of "This Is Not a Photograph" and "That's When I Reach for My Revolver."
Unfortunately, Mission of Burma doesn't have too many more live dates currently scheduled. Unless you're in NYC or Washington DC (or want to pay a bazillion dollars to watch them with the Foo Fighters), you're out of luck. If you are in those cities, go to their website for more details.