Shellac
Emo’s, June 9
When punk rock destroys fashion and melodrama, only the roots show. Chicago’s post-rock trio Shellac stands as one of the most influential and sporadic bands of the Nineties, and for their Austin debut, engineering guru Steve Albini (right) was a lisp away from sci-fi dork, his aluminum Travis Bean guitar fastened around his waist like a weight belt. That hardly stemmed the jagged shards of angularity, Albini and bassist Bob Weston chugging through the new(ish) “Steady as She Goes,” the repetition of unreleased “The End of Radio” (with Albini’s continued refrain “Can you hear me now?”), and the jarring tantrum of “My Black Ass” from ’94’s At Action Park. “Squirrel Song,” off 2000’s 1000 Hurts, slipped through the first Q&A with drummer Todd Trainer’s drool. A rousing “Prayer to God” broke into a full-fledged noise/punk sing-along, Trainer’s sticks at 45 degrees, his overbite emphasizing the song’s frenetic exuberance. The rest was a sweaty, packed-house blur: Albini breaks a string; Weston announces a long-awaited 2006 album release; Trainer hits on chicks. This is what Shellac does. It’s not about voice or technique: Shellac is about now, whether morphing their bodies in the shape of a plane (“Wingwalker”) or saving a million souls (“Dog and Pony Show”). For those who waited a lifetime to see them, it was a Shellacing.
This article appears in June 16 • 2006.