God Lives Underwater
Mercer Arena, Seattle - Sunday, September 6, 1998
Taking to the stage without a "Top Ten" hit to your name, and managing to captivate an audience that has all day passes to Seattle's Bumbershoot Arts Festival, capable of strolling out of the largest indoor arena on the grounds at any moment to watch some other band perform, is in my opinion an indicator that this band is doing something right.
Not only did several thousand people pack into the arena as soon as the previous band left the stage, but a steady stream of curious latecomers stayed for the duration. No doubt trying to figure out why they'd never heard of this band before now.
Recent emigrees to the Los Angeles county sprawl, from their native Pennsylvania (Perkiomenville), God Lives Under Water gave the festival audience something that everyone still has a soft spot for -- great songs.
But these songs are backed by the kind of sounds that, ironically, are pulling people back into music venues around the world, namely electronic music. And lots of it.
I must say I didn't know what to expect, having only ever heard their album Life In The So Called Space Age and never having seen the band perform on their previous trips to Seattle. Yet as soon as they took to the stage I new it would be good.
Three guitars (and not a bass in sight), drums (real), a Roland JP-8000 and a Nord Lead just about covers the instrumentation present on stage, with Jeff Turzo and David Reilly doing double duty on guitars and keyboards.
My personal favourites from their CD came across sounding just as good in their live state, namely Rearrange, Dress Rehearsal For Reproduction and my super duper favourite Can't Come Down (Just click on the name of their CD above to read a review about the music itself.)
Needless to say I hope I can catch them in some smaller venues before they get used to playing arenas all the time.
