Live Review: Get Him Eat Him at Southpaw [1.26.08]

Get Him Eat Him hits Southpaw's elevated stage at 12:12 a.m. Check that, the band begins its set at 12:12. The quintet has been awkwardly soundchecking since 11:57 p.m. without the aid of the closed curtain used by Chicago stoner rock openers Mahjongg. Nothing destroys confidence in a band faster than watching them soundcheck. It shatters the already tenuous illusion that said band is more than the sum of its parts. Get Him Eat Him is just five dudes playing their respective instruments. The parts play together, but they don't make each other better. There will be no magic tonight.




By 12:12 when lead singer Matt LeMay kicks off the set with a quick "We're Get Him Eat Him from Providence, Rhode Island," and the band launches into its first song, the crowd has thinned out. The beautiful girls and the boys who want to love them have retired to Mahjongg's backstage room where, I gather by the frequency with which one of them exits the door, walks through the crowd and to the bar to get another drink, only to return backstage, the real party is taking place. This is not a great night for our would-be heroes from PVD.



The band soldiers on, playing a mix of poppy three-minute songs from its latest, Arms Down, with poppy three-minute songs from past albums. "Mumble Mumble", from Geography Clones, makes an appearance. So does the band's "second newest song," which sounds a great deal like its other songs. There are moments of rockstar-ness -- LeMay's constipated Mick Jagger legs rule the night -- but still, something is missing. The diminutive Joe Posner, who I hoped would be the star, based on his pre-show jumping jacks routine and remarkable resemblance to Jason Schwartzman's character in Hotel Chevalier, isn't. No one is. Except Mahjongg. At least I think they are. Their party is hidden behind a curtain.




[Photos by Bryan Bruchman]