The Kansas City-based three piece came to The Cactus ClubSaturday night to play, as summarized in those liner notes, “songs about thesun and love and death” from that minimalist masterpiece, Tragic Boogie.
Before The Life and Times took the stage, sleepcomesdown setthe show in motion with a solid set rich in multi-tasking instrumentation, amyriad of loops and, at one point, an electric drill. Chicago rockers SweetCobra got the now-respectable-sized crowd moving with an energetic set in oneof the band's first performances since guitarist Matthew Arluck died of cancer.
The headliner wasted little time in strapping thesurprisingly sparse collection of onlookers in for a spacey set, opening with“Catching Crumbs,” one of Boogie's doomedcosmonaut-themed tracks. They chased it with “Let It Eat” and “Que Sera Sera,”two of the album's more upbeat hymns. Most of the band's set came from theirlatest album.
Throughout the show, frontman Allen Epley (of Shiner fame)belted out shut-eyed melodies and subsidiary guitar licks, all of which fellbeneath the steel blanket of tremendous bass and drum work. During “Fall of theAngry Clowns”the band's best semblance of a singledrummer Chris Metcalfstruggled to keep his glasses on between crushing tom thuds.
When not employing their brand of understated space rock,which is seemingly better fit for crowded concert halls than half-full barrooms, The Life and Times was gracious, if anything. Beyond the occasional“thank you,” or request that people buy the openers' merchandise instead oftheirs, the band kept quiet. Endearingly so, the bandin the same way it cansend listeners deep into space with only a collection of self-recorded basementsongsseemed to play a polite possum, letting their music to do the struttingfor them.
Photo by Kevin Kosterman
