June 16, 2009
Lassie foundation come home
The crowd made me feel comfortable as skinny white boys wearing extra medium shirts, short asian girls with cute haircuts and people with horned rimmed glasses stood around the floor at the echoplex waiting for the band to play. The Lassie Foundation was a shoegazy "fuzzy pink noise" band formed in 1998 and received a strong indie following but broke up several years later, I guess due to real life - Jeff schroeder went on to tour with the smashing pumpkins as their new guitarist and happy tagawa banta began raising a family. But for whatever reason, eight years later, the band decided to play a free show at a small local venue. Who the hell knows why but I told my friends wendy and angelyn, that I was making my way to the front row to be close to the the music that at one time, enveloped my heart, made me feel carefree, hopeful and in love.
Man they played a short set but all their shows are always too short. Standing five feet away, I could watch the weeng weeng ricochet erratically through the air but with intent as jeff manipulated the notes of his guitar to do his bidding. Happy is playing the vibes providing a soothing backdrop while wayne, in his soulfully blissful voice sang about "good times coming" and "stealing to be your one in a million". One of the best things about the band is that I don't know all their songs but when they play, it just all sounds great and by that I mean it doesn't hurt my ears even standing so close to the amps without earplugs. Man, I wish this could have lasted all night.
Wayne ended the show with a song dedicated from happy to her husband Brett standing in the crowd. She had asked the band to reunite and play for their 10 year anniversary. And than it all made sense.
Posted by yumyumcha at June 16, 2009 09:00 AM