Once upon a time there was a little band from Minneapolis that
\ncould\u2026 and did.<\/p>\n
The career of Semisonic — a trio of multi-instrumentalists with
\na gift for clever, melodic modern rock — to date forms a perfect
\nparabola. From the cool, comfy confines of the upper Midwest they
\nprogressed from a self-produced EP (1995’s
\nPleasure<\/i>) to a moderately successful major-label full-length
\n(1996’s
\nGreat Divide<\/i>), to a full-fledged hit album (1998’s
\nFeeling Strangely Fine<\/i>, featuring the massive international
\nhit “Closing Time”), to a subpar follow-up album (2001’s
\nAll About Chemistry<\/i>), to fading media interest, to getting
\ndropped by MCA.<\/p>\n
Their most recent disc, the self-published live compilation
\nOne Night At First Avenue<\/i> is, in its own way, the
\nmirror-image of the
\nPleasure<\/i> EP. With their fifteen minutes of fame apparently
\npast, the band that appeared to the East and West Coasts to have
\nrisen from nowhere, went home. First Avenue is one of the
\nMinneapolis clubs Semisonic used to play before MTV started
\nspinning their videos, before they got nominated for a Grammy,
\nbefore their worlds were turned inside out by the fame machine.<\/p>\n
\nOne Night<\/i> offers a tidy encapsulation of the Semisonic’s
\nrecording career, including songs from their initial EP (the local
\nfavorite “Sculpture Garden”) all the way through to the one
\nsoundtrack placement (“Over My Head”) they scored after
\nAll About Chemistry<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Semisonic’s self-invented genre might be termed love songs for
\ngeek-rockers. They revel in taking words like “fascinating” and
\n“delightful,” welding them to fat rock riffs that stick in your
\nbrain like an AC\/DC chorus, and then layering on keys and strings
\nand loops for depth and texture. The challenge then becomes, how do
\nthree guys with just two hands and two feet apiece translate those
\nfull, textured studio creations into compelling live
\nrenditions?<\/p>\n
I’m still not sure how they pull it off, having never caught
\nthem live, but all three guys — lead vocalist\/guitarist Dan
\nWilson, bassist John Munson and drummer Jacob Slichter — are
\ncredited with playing both their main instruments and keyboards on
\nthis disc. One clue: I’ve read that Slichter’s road kit includes a
\nset-up that allows him to trigger samples with his feet, a nice
\nlittle trick.<\/p>\n
That said, there’s also some interest in observing how these
\nsongs strip down a bit in a live setting. The now guitar-less
\n“Never You Mind” (Wilson plays piano instead) relies here on
\nMunson’s amped-up, rumbly bass line and Slichter’s loping yet
\ncomplex time-keeping. The way they execute the bridge is especially
\nnifty; the studio version featured dreamy, slowed-down tape
\neffects, which they duplicate live using only their own ability to
\nchange tempo on a dime while simultaneously singing dreamy
\nthree-part background harmonies.<\/p>\n
Wilson, whose airy voice contrasts nicely with his heavy, often
\nreverbed guitar style, solos passionately and tastefully on the
\nband’s ill-fated (and aptly-named) first single “Down In Flames.”
\nAbsent the layered sound of their studio work, the songs do suffer
\nin places, and Wilson occasionally struggles to hit notes with his
\nvocals. Fortunately, the teasing wit and brilliant rock hooks of
\nnumbers like “Secret Smile,” “F.N.T.” and “Delicious” ensures these
\nminor blemishes are quickly forgiven.<\/p>\n
\nOne Night At First Avenue<\/i> captures Semisonic in their
\nsecond-most natural environment (after a well-equipped studio), and
\nserves as a worthwhile document of a too-brief career that one
\nhopes may yet re-ignite.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":26861,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5970],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-38154","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-semisonic","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38154"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}