Review: Pinback @ Echoplex 10/20/08

Hailing from San Diego, Pinback is a band comprised of two principal players: Armistead Burwell Smith IV (Zach) and Rob Crow.

Review written by Scott Perraud:

This was my first time at Echoplex. It's a sweet venue. There's a big bar in back, and then it opens up to a stage that was quite low to the ground. There's a small, small, small area for the audience. We were very close.

The opening band, Mr. Tube and the Flying Objects, was an octet of all kinds of instruments including a keytarish keyboardist who looked like Christian Bale with a beard, 2 drummers (one standing) and a guitarist who looked like a Hispanic Josh Brolin with a mustache and soul patch. We didn't know their names, so Brandon and I shouted, "Brolin, Bale" and "Don't Bale on your Brolin!" all night, excited by the possibility that these guys could be performing live music in front of us. We never confirmed whether or not it was actually them.

Pinback was incredible. They usually stick closely to the recorded versions of their songs, but this time It felt like they were jamming a little bit: Changing pace, mixing the level of noise (the drums would get really quite at parts). It seemed like they were just having fun/changing up the way they normally play songs live.

All of the songs were faster than the record, but not the normal zip-through it pace of their live shows. This time they played a little slower and it was more enjoyable. The exception was Loro, which was sad and slower than the record, but very nice sounding. I wanted to hear B and BBtone, so we yelled out, "BBtone! B!" all night, but they never came.

Rob Crow seemed melancholy throughout the show, due to their keyboardist Terrin Durfey's battle with cancer. Durfey was unable to play, so there was a local replacement who managed to learn the songs in a few days. Rob asked the audience to give to the Terrin Durfey Foundation. And followed the request with, "You live in L.A., so just go one day with out hair product and help someone else" or something like that.*

Rob's sadness and anger seemed to amplify the performance. His vocals and guitar were phenomenal (more phenomenal than the last phenomenal show at the Avalon). During Sender, Rob changed the second verse lyrics to: "I sing this same line every fucking night", which was funny because it sounded right and fit into the tune beautifully. I don't think anyone noticed. Before playing Boo, Rob joked, "Here's another upper from our treasure trove of feel good hits." During Tripoli he scratched his "turntable", which was basically a plastic Fisher Price record player (I think I had one when I was 4). It also put him in a kind of Fuck-It mode. At one point, he dumped half his beer on some dude in the front row, as he tried to pull it from its cup holder, and just said, "Shit. Sorry dude."

A video was projected behind them during the performance. Rob gave a little speech before Off by 50. It talked about how people try to make us fear numbers throughout our lives. His response was that they got the wrong number - they were off by 50. A million different images of 666 were projected behind them during the song. I'm not sure if he was saying we should be scared of 616 or 726? Why are those worse? The video's highlights: A few John Carpenter Dark Star clips & a fan video during Fortress (though they should have played this). Rob said the fan-made Fortress video was better than the one they had paid professionals to make. He offered to show fan videos in concert, so if you want to make a Pinback fan video, get on it and send it to the band.

They also showed a video photo album of their days on this tour. It included their soccer ball that was run over by an 18 wheeler. And their sound guy in a cast, after he tore his ACL trying to kick the replacement soccer ball. During the encore, Zach Smith sat at the keyboard for all four songs.

All in all - It was a phenomenal show.

*Ed. Note: Terrin Durfey has just passed away. He was 36 years old and is survived by his wife and six-year-old son. A fundraiser was set up to offset his medical costs. Contributions can still be made to the Terrin Durfey Foundation and his myspace page.

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View Scott's photos from the show.

View Pinback's setlist.