In-store: Weekend

Weekend

Sonic Boom Records. Friday, April 1, 2011.

San Francisco haze-rockers Weekend¹ were dropping into Sonic Boom's basement before they'd be heading across the street to open for postpunk O.G.'s Wire. I was glad to have a chance to see the band, who'd not made it to town yet for their own show, though I knew them from their Sports² album. It might be somewhat revealing to mention that that album came out on Slumberland, but it should be noted that Weekend hew far closer to the murky haze of, say, Crystal Stilts than the clean tweeness of Pains of Being Pure at Heart.

Or to put it another way, it was rather telling during the quick soundcheck when bassist/vocalist Shaun Durkan commented, "I don't need a ton of vocals." The extra-quick set-up came after some unspecified border delays, and although the band was a bit late rolling into the store, they were generous with their time once things got going.

The set lead off with "Untitled", the album's forceful closer. Like the album version, the song started with an instrumental overture, but once it got going, while the vox were indeed buried, they weren't swathed in layers of murk and reverb, giving the live sound a more direct feeling. The vocals got hazier after that — at first I thought Durkan had a pretty large effects rack for his bass, but it was actually for his microphone. But even with all that, the trio's sound was relatively cleaner in this setting.

There were some interesting effects of this de-hazing: "Veil" was especially cleaned up, rendering the plaintive lyric much more comprehensible and letting the words carry the song's sadness. "End Times", meanwhile, had a more overt new wave/new order kind of feel.

There were also a couple looks ahead to songs that would show up on the Red EP. In fact, at the start of "Hazel", Durkan mentioned that the band were playing this for the first time ever. "This might end in flames," he added, but it actually came off without undue problems, though it wasn't yet entirely honed to fine popsong it would become in its recorded incarnation. Closer "Coma Summer" — also with a catchy heart buried under many garbled layers — brought some more murky sonic complications along with guitarist Kevin Johnson's brisk strumming to cap things off.

The band played a seven-song set, going more more than thirty-five minutes — probably almost as much as they'd be allotted later on in the night opening for Wire. After they finished, I spotted Josh McIntyre (from local rockers Little Girls) in conversation with the band. Which makes sense, as there's definitely some close points of comparison with his own music. Weekend haven't made it back yet for their own headlining show, but there would certainly be some like-minded locals for them to play with.

Listen to a track from this set here.

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¹ Not to be confused with Weekend, Alison Statton's post-Young Marble Giants project or Toronto's Drake-affiliated crypto-R&B group The Weeknd.

² Not to be confused with Sports, the 1983 chart-topper from Huey Lewis and The News. In case you're getting it mixed up with the album at hand, do note that the Weekend's most assuredly isn't the one where "the whole album has a clear, crisp sound, and a new sheen of consummate professionalism that really gives the songs a big boost."