The Daily Collegian

Issue date: 4/2/07 Section: Arts & Living

Media Credit: the space lab

Reunion tours can sometimes be used to make money after a once-successful band's popularity dissolves. The shows on these tours are usually superficial, over-priced and often seem unnecessary.

Fortunately for the crowd at Northampton's Pearl Street Ballroom Thursday night, Sebadoh does not give these types of shows. The solid performance of these pioneers of independent rock fulfilled any fans expectations .

Netherland-based band, The Bent Moustache, warmed up the crowd with their mixture of punk rock and dance punk. Ajay Saggar, lead singer, started the night off on keyboard, thrashing around on the instrument almost causing it to crash to the floor. The music was comparable to the Talking Heads or Devo, herky-jerky and danceable. Saggar picked up a bass guitar that he used for the remainder of the nearly hour-long set. Pim Heyne was on lead guitar with Wilf Plum on drums.

The rest of The Bent Moustache's allotted time was spent performing songs from their release, "Forst," recently made available in the United States. While overall not an original or outstanding performance, the trio managed to provide the crowd with an exciting way to wait for the main attraction of the night. The Sex Pistols-inspired punk songs sometimes sounded too similar, but repetition was avoided with the band's ability to build songs to intense climaxes.

Saggar at one point called Western Mass. a retirement home for indie rockers, something not too far from the truth. The average age between both bands had to be around 40. The mixture of college students and middle aged hipsters could've caused a generation gap, but luckily both bands were able to corral each group.

The personality dynamics of Sebadoh were interesting to observe, especially through the varying demeanors and quirks in the trio. Eric Gaffney clearly was the comedic relief, joking that audience members were noodles in a big factory. Gaffney went on to reminisce about working at the Pizza Factory and cruising around the Northampton area eating mushroom pizza. Lou Barlow was the typical laid-back guy who would've been fun to hang out with in college, while Jason Loewenstein was quiet, humble and sometimes overshadowed by the larger personalities of his bandmates.

Luckily, the band worked well musically, which is interesting since the last time the band played a show together was 14 years ago. This gap in time made the fact that they stayed on cue for over 30 songs a remarkable achievement.

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