Ken's Top 10 of 2017 - #5: Versing - Nirvana

It's getting more and more rare to just stumble into a band at a live show these days. Back in the pre-internet days, you'd go to see a band you loved and had absolutely no idea about the opening band. The first time I ever heard Mogwai was when they opened for Pavement at Lupo's in Providence, RI in 1997. These days, I'll see that some band I've never heard of is opening a show and look them up to see if they're worth checking out. Sure, you get to miss terrible openers that way, but you lose out on that blown away out of nowhere experience.

Back in October, I went to see The Courtneys and Weakened Friends last minute, and got to experience that again with Versing. Back then I wrote that Versing reminded me of early Superdrag meets The Dismemberment Plan, and after hearing Nirvana, I stand by that statement. The songs on the album have the epic feel and power pop noise of Regretfully Yours and the slightly quirky alterna-punk of the latter. It's a fun 90's throwback sound mixing two things I never knew I wanted to hear together.

Songs of note: "Body Chamber," "The Draw," and "Chorus As."