Oct 25, 2012

Its not very often you have two headlining acts, playing different venues on the same night in the same town, combine forces at the last minute to share a stage and fan bases. Last night Jon Spencer Blues Explosion were set to headline at The Basement and Divine Fits were to do the same at Newport Music Hall. Assuming, due to sluggish sales the folks at Promowest decided to put both bands on the larger stage at Newport bringing each of the opening acts along for the ride. As a result we got four bands on a Wednesday night and the inevitable jockeying for headlining respect… needless to say I never lost sight of the nearest exit.

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion is obviously a band from another era, playing heavy guitar driven rock n roll impressive for any three piece. Imagine what Green Day would/should sound like if they weren’t awful and refused to perform tracks reminiscent of the dookie days. JSBE did have a large and attentive stage-hugging crowd and I was pleasantly surprised by the overall sound and stage presence displayed by the weathered showmen. Nevertheless, nothing actually exploded (bummer) and the true blues of the evening was probably having to open for Divine Fits, which I suspect is why they took so long getting off the stage. Way to stick it to the man!

True-to-form headliners, Divine Fits (horrible band name) have been referred to as a “supergroup” which absolutely needs to be addressed. What is a supergroup? Well, when interviewed by CD102.5 when the band was in town last August, they scoffed at the idea and referred to themselves as a super, group… as in “its super duper fun to be in Divine Fits.” Now before we get nerdy and crunch some numbers let’s all reflect on the last indie rock supergroup that changed the landscape of popular music forever:

First and foremost, Divine Fits only have 3 official members and despite being from Columbus, drummer Sam Brown’s resume isn’t impressing anyone. Dan Boeckner on the other hand, experienced some success with Wolf Parade though they never had a top 40 album (thiiiis close). Boeckner’s next project, Handsome Furs, really isn’t known for much despite all the provocative half-naked promo pics with his wife and band mate Alexei. GRRRRRR

Britt Daniel, best known for his work with Spoon, is the final member of Divine Fits and obviously the most successful. Spoon’s last release, Transference debuted at #4 on the Billboard charts, but it only moved 54,000 units in its first week… womp womp. However, GA GA GA has sold 300,000+ copies to date and only reached #9. So its official, Brit Daniel would be qualified to join a supergroup, but his pals certainly are not, mystery solved!

Oh, and in regards to their performance, here’s how Divine Fits opened there set last night… cool visuals of the iPod commercial variety.