I went to check out Dirty on Purpose last night at The Echo. I knew they had done a little remodeling but I didn’t realize that they were opening a whole second venue downstairs (dubbed, “The Echoplex”). It looked decent enough, with some new seating & lighting. But truthfully, it is a dingey basement venue that is far too long with a low ceiling. With a smaller crowd you can see the band but it feels empty. With a large crowd it you won’t see anything.
So it goes without saying that it is a downgrade from the upstairs… fine. But the real problem last night was the sound. Or rather the sound guy. He cut off openers The Besnard Lakes after 4, maybe 5 songs, and then let D.O.P. play a 20-minute, 4-song set before cutting them off. And for what? So they’d be off by 10:30? They got to play “Mind Blindness,” “Monument,” and 2 new songs that sounded great despite the sound being so distorted that I might as well have just stuck a drill down my ear to see if I could find oil. Congrats, Echo… you might even be worse than the Hollywood Knitting Factory. And why didn’t they just put the “dub party” downstairs where there was more room and put the bands on the better stage upstairs? The world may never know.
The Helio Sequence sounded pretty good.
: The Helio Sequence – Everyone Knows Everyone :
: Dirty on Purpose – Mind Blindness :
