Guster - "Two At a Time"
If you're a band playing a sold out concert at New York's Beacon Theater the night before the biggest spring rain storm in the city's history hits, how do you mark this once in a lifetime occasion? If you're a great little quartet called Guster, you pull out a an old hidden track about Noah's Ark. "Two at a Time" isn't listed on the CD of Keep It Together (it is listed on iTunes, as you can see clicking the link above), yet when I interviewed drummer Brian Rosenworcel four years ago I felt compelled to ask him about it, even if we would never use that part of the interview for work purposes. The song has a weird keyboard loop that gets it rolling and features a ton of elementary school children singing the chorus. It's just a strange and hypnotic yet very catchy song, one of the many on Keep It Together that turned me into a full-fledged fan. When I asked Brian why the song was tucked away as a hidden track he said (I'm paraphrasing here), "Hmm...a song about Noah's Ark from three Jews with a bunch of kids singing background vocals on it--you try to drop that into an album sequence." I had to admit, he had a point.
During last night's show the band was joined on a few songs by their friends violinist Tom and cellist Jody (I didn't catch their last names). The live strings sounded just about perfect on "Two at a Time." And as I stepped into the rain after a few hours of boozing it up, I couldn't help but have these lyrics in my head:
"I could see the rains a-comin'
To wash away the filth and vermin
Hand-in-hand, we'll watch them runnin"
Alas, the filth and vermin didn't include Mr. Big. I think I'll let someone else tell that story down the road.
SOTW Bonus: Here's the aforementioned strings making "Satellite" sound the best I've ever heard it:
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1 comment:
yay, guster! the bestest.
i WILL spill on the big thing, but 1) i'm waiting to see if brian does first and 2) i want the photo from allyson of the 3 of us before i do so.
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