mission freak!

I’ve been delinquent in my duties to report this dispatch from the trusty John C. Schlotfelt, dated March 4, 2021 and sent via telegram:

The Picador was shy a headliner on Tuesday night.  According to the buzz around the bar, Neptune, and its badasssss homemade guitars, was stranded with vehicular difficulties in Wisconsin.  But the show must go on, right?  I mean, everybody else, including the audience, was already there, so why spoil a perfectly good party because the guest of honor was MIA?

For those of you that pulled 180’s at the door, you missed what turned out to be a highly successful failure. The evening was highlighted by the abrasive antics of Weather is Happening and the inaugural set from Tanks side project, Foul Tip.

Taking a cue from My Bloody Valentine’s fuzzy, buzzy wall of guitars and injecting it – ala Roger Clemens (allegedly) – with a dose of steroids; Weather is Happening was, well, happening.  The chaps from Wichita, Kansas doused the convulsing crowd with sheets of distortion and spastic jabs from the spastic rhythm section; it was sort of like that movie The Mist, y’know, large, brooding, and amorphous with something lurking within, waiting to get you. 

Dudes are also toting around early copies of their upcoming release (produced by Iowa City’s own Luke Tweedy).  You can cop one if you say hey to ‘em on the road, otherwise it’s hitting shelves in April.

Tanks vocalist Kevin Koppes is getting some R and R, and in the interim bassist Adam Luksetich and drummer Ed Bornstein are keeping busy as Foul Tip.  On Tuesday night the duo celebrated their three-week anniversary with their first show.  The guys only had four songs, or if you ask them 3 ½, but Foul Tip was considerably more on point than its name implies.  While it’s impossible to avoid comparisons, for now, to their day jobs, Foul Tip took plenty of opportunities to stretch out a bit.  Luksetich and Bornstein partook in call-and-response choruses and embraced some of the poppier tendencies of the newest Tanks material while maintaining the sardonic bite of yore.

So, if you balked at the reduced cover charge ($4), never you worry, Foul Tip is gonna give it another go ‘round on Saturday night at the Hall Mall before hitting the road. You can also visit our neighbors at ISU on March 19^th when Weather is Happening swings through Ames.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to Neptune, their van, and their guitars.  Hopefully, after some repair work, a little cheese, sausage, and beer they can get back on their touring legs and blow some more minds.

Oh, and Foul Tip is doing another show in April for some Iowa City festival thing, maybe you’ve heard about that.