OMG! The Joker and STS9 Had Make-up Sex, Are Back Together

I am a pretty big fan of STS9, but over the past year my confidence has waned a little bit. The last really good shows I saw by STS9 were in March ’07, when they played 5 consecutive nights at the Boulder Theater without repeating a song.

Since March ’07, I felt that STS9 were doing 3 things that I did not like on a consistent basis:

Playing the same performance over and over, without improv

Being too predictable in song selection (playing the same shit all the time)

Overplaying (in my opinion) what I call the glitchy-laptop-sample focused (newer) songs, while forgetting some older gems

I basically had gotten bored with a band that I loved, and the newer stuff that they were playing I thought sucked. I felt like STS9 and I were drifting apart. It wasn’t you, STS9, it was me. I pretty much had broken up with them after the Langerado '08 set. I just wasn’t that into it.

I had discussions with a lot of my fellow STS9 fans here in Colorado and we started talking about how we liked the “old STS9” and didn’t like the “new STS9.” I am an infrequent visitor of their message board, thelowdown.org, but it seemed like the few times I went there the messages posted seemed to echo what I was feeling.

Pauly checked out their recent show at the House of Blues in Hollywood last Saturday 5/17 and called me to tell me that he had a great time.

Honestly, this surprised me. I thought he would come back saying “you know, it was an average show…kids in flat billed hats, crystals and spun out wookies kinda thing.”

I listened to what Pauly had to say. I checked out the boards to read what others had to say. The set list looked pretty good on paper. I downloaded the show from their web site.

As I am listening to it now, all I can say is:

Holy shit, STS9 listened to me (and are good again)!

But we are talking about music, so listen for yourself. I have a few selections from the show:

5.17.08 STS9 - House of Blues - W. Hollywood, CA

Set 1: Unquestionable Supremacy of Nature, Tooth, 118, F Word, We'll Meet In Our Dreams, This Us, Breathe In > Arigato

Set 2: EHM, Glogli, ABCees > Evasive Maneuvers, From Now On, Rent, Open E

Encore: Moon Socket > Breathe In

Here is what they did that I like, and I hope they will do more of:

1. Longer intros and building some tension, being patient with the song and building into an uncontrollable dance party: GLOgli

2. Segues, mixing up the old and new: Abcees>Evasive Maneuvers

3. Segues without finishing songs, then finishing the song later: Set I: Breathe In>Arigato and Encore: Moon Socket>Breathe In

So check it out, and check out STS9 this summer late night after that second has roll kicked in. And if you like what your hear, get the whole show at STS9music.com.