CANDLEBOX Brings the RAIN

I'm kind of too BLAH today to write anything intelligent, which is a shame because I've been meaning to go on and on about the amazing CANDLEBOX show at Irving Plaza (Filmore East...whatever) last Friday. I joked with them that they brought the shitty Seattle rain with them because Thursday night I almost drowned trying to get to a private party they were playing. I decided just to go to their gig at Irving Plaza the next night.

New York magazine's listing said

Dec. 12: Reviled upon their début, in 1993, for being shamelessly corporate, Seattle’s Candlebox borrowed heavily from the style and aesthetic of genre forerunners like Soundgarden and Pearl Jam. Despite the antipathy, the band scored a couple of radio-friendly hits (notably “Far Behind”) and later signed to Madonna’s ill-fated label. The hits dried up in short order, and the band vanished for ten years, until a new album, “Into the Sun,” came out earlier this summer. Despite the passage of time, Candlebox’s sound is unchanged, like a flannel-clad mosquito preserved in amber.

They actually returned to the masses in 2006 when Rhino released THE BEST OF CANDLEBOX. Also, I wouldn't have described their hits as "dried up" since many of our major alt rock stations (whats left of them) and tons of satellite radio shows continue to keep "You" and "Far Behind" on constant rotation. To show off how terribly cool I am (or what a pathetic super fan I am), FYI the band named themselves after a line from the Midnight Oil song "Tin Legs and Tin Mines."

Very quickly - I love and always have enjoyed the whole band, especially Kevin Martin's voice and Peter Klett's lead guitar skills. But back to RAIN. Someone said to me a few years ago "if you're gonna do a blues song, do it dirty" while listening to this song. But I disagree. Without going into a whole wordy review, "Rain" was the finale song during the show and a big round of applause to Sean Hennesy (rhythm guitar) for the awesome solo for which he climbed on top of the speakers to play.

This video isn't from the Irving Plaza show, but I'll update with a quality live video of that display soon.