BUILT TO SPILL @ Le Tulipe

By Cody Hicks - Breakfast of Champions - 07/12/2007

I have a long, strange relationship with the music of Built to Spill. It’s based on three classic principals of youth: road trips, high school and pot smoking.  Now that I’ve outgrown two of those three things and have no access to a car, listening to Built to Spill has ceased.

As an obsessive vinyl collector I have recently been purchasing albums of theirs, just based on the fact that they were cheap, and available.  I think I threw Keep it Like a Secret on the table once for posterity’s sake, but other than that, the sounds of a scruffy Neil Young imitator just haven’t done it for me ever since I quit smoking pot.

But, the show was amazing and I had a great time, but I felt out of place.  When going to a Built to Spill show, one must realize that their hey-day was ten years ago. I felt about ten years younger than most of the crowd and I even saw a few kids on their father’s shoulders in the audience. 

The only concert goers to move a muscle were a group of frat boys doing the Barenaked Ladies head-bob dance while playing air guitar and flubbing the lyrics in their meathead moshpit. And, I don’t know how old Doug Martsch is, but he looked as stoic as an old soul on stage.  He barely moved a muscle apart from his bobbing Joe Strummer leg and nimble wizard hands.

That guy makes axe-slinging look easy.  Doug Martsch is a bona-fide indie-guitar-god, and he dealt out meaty riff after meaty riff with gusto.  I used to dream of the day when Doug Martsch and J Mascis finally had the flaming guitar duel for the Neil Young’s dirty guitar-hero throne.

I was a little worried after listening to the double-live Built to Spill record, in which there are two twenty minute songs.  As a rule, I hate jam bands.  Phish make me want to puke all over myself.  Thankfully, it seems that BTS have reeled themselves in a bit and the jams were economical and only the final few minutes of the encore ("Randy Described Eternity") left me bored and zoned out.

I was also wary of the setlist.  Since their peak in 1999 with Keep it Like a Secret, Built to Spill have been on a real slope into mediocrity.  Despite opening with a track from their new album, "You in Reverse", they ignored their two most recent records almost entirely.  I was thrilled to hear some of the killer guitar-workouts from Perfect From Now On and I nearly lost my shot when they played some of pop jams from my personal favourite, "There’s Nothing Wrong with Love".

I actually lost my shit when they launched into a blazing cover of "Third Uncle" by Brian Eno, which is as furious as I could imagine Built to Spill ever getting.
Ultimately, I’m a little torn over the show.  On one hand, they played all my favourite songs, and that made me grin.  On the other hand, it was like seeing some classic rock dinosaurs show up and play a greatest hits compilation onstage.  And that’s sad.

But, in spite of the frat boys, "Carry the Zero" is still one hell of a make-out jam and Built to Spill do classic rock better than most these days.