Whoever booked The Promise Ring to play the 10PM show at the Harley stage on Thursday night should probably be fired.
Going
up against established mega rock stars Foo Fighters or the piano-pop
stylings of Ben Folds Five was never going to work out anyway for
Milwaukee’s own The Promise Ring -- they were never really that big
nationally. But the turnout of 200 or so (and that’s being a bit
generous) was pitiful for a band that was kind of a big deal locally
back in the 90’s.
Rocking an 80’s-era Brewers cap, lead singer Davey von Bohlen was unfazed.
The
band started off with “Size of Your Life” from their last album, which I
totally didn’t recognize until writing this. But then they kicked into
the one-two punch of “Happiness Is All The Rage” and “Emergency!
Emergency!” from their poppiest (and my personal favorite) album Very Emergency.
The former features one of my favorite lines in all of indie rock --
“We could do more outdoor things if we weren’t so busy getting busy.” --
and the latter’s chorus of “It’s an SOS! Very Emergency!” is featured
at Brewers games when there’s a pitching change.
(Side
note: “Happiness Is All The Rage” is the first TPR song I’d ever heard,
and on some level is responsible for getting me into indie music. I
like to think that the song could get other people into indie rock as
well. Of course, if you don’t like it, your name is probably Ken and you
suck so whatever.)
After
that, it felt as if they were playing just for me (not just because of
the low turnout, assholes) because the hits just kept coming and coming:
“Make Me a Mixtape,” “Skips a Beat (Over You),” “Tell Everyone We’re
Dead,” and “Stop Playing Guitar” (“With so few people there, he SHOULD
stop playing guitar!” said the Statler and Waldorf ripoff. Har Har.)
just to name a few. In an alternate (and probably hipster) universe, a
crowd of thousands would have been shaking their asses to the anthemic
and bouncy rhythms.
At
one point midway through the 75 minute set, von Bohlen cracked “I’m
glad they have these Jumbotrons on for all those people stuck in the
back.”
Overall
the band sounded pretty tight, as if they hadn’t missed a beat since
they broke up in 2002. They maintained a good energy throughout, even
with the slower, lusher tracks from their swan song Wood/Water.
Davey’s voice didn’t sound bad at all, despite reports of that nature
from their show at Turner Hall earlier this year. More importantly, the
band seemed to be having a good time on stage. They could have mailed it
in, but didn’t.
After
some deliberation on stage -- “We already played the fuckin’ encore, so
we’re trying to figure out what to play next!” -- the band decided to
send the small crowd off with the Milwaukee-street-referencing title of
their first single, “Watertown Plank.” It was a good way to end an
enjoyable set of music -- a rare nugget for those that stuck it out
against the allure of much bigger (and, yeah, on some levels better)
bands.
