Saturday marked my third trek back to DeKalb with the sole purpose of seeing the awesome power of rock duo Local H do what they do best. To my delight, both openers, Geronimo and Kinch, put on a very good show themselves.

The first thing worth noting is that Otto’s in DeKalb is damn loud. Even with my hi-fi Eytmotic Research ear plugs, my ears were ringing hours later as I tried to fall asleep.

The deal Local H had going is that one person would randomly draw a Local H album from a hat and that’s the album that was getting played. Why musicians think this is a great trend, I’ll never know. I totally miss the randomness of an unexpected setlist. Even when I saw the Pixies play Doolittle straight through, as much as I love that album, it takes some fun out of the experience. I’d make an exception for Dark Side of the Moon. Anyway, I crossed my fingers for the fan in front to draw my favorite Local H album, Pack Up The Cats. It’s such a favorite of mine that I’ve taken to ending letters with the salutation: “Cha!” said the kitty…

So I was disappointed to say the least when the selected album turned out to be their latest release, 2008′s 12 Angry Months. The more I thought about it, the more appropriate it seemed. To my knowledge, it’s the only concept album that Local H has put out. Each of the twelve tracks corresponds with a month of the year, chronicling the ups and downs of relationships. And after all, this tour is in support of their first live DVD, 68 Angry Minutes, which largely features the songs from 12 Angry Months performed live. Furthermore, it’s not a bad album. It’s just not the material I remember from my youth. I can still remember waiting for Q101 to play “Bound For The Floor” back in high school.

That’s when I realized how much I’m still living in the past, at least where Local H is concerned. They’ve grown and I have not. Their career spans six albums over 15 years and I was standing there waiting to hear a few singles that I liked back in high school. I’ve become that guy I always hated. Homer Simpson screaming at Randy Bachman, No new crap! Play “Taking Care Of Business!” After all, that favorite Local H album of mine, Pack Up The Cats, isn’t exactly chockablock with greatest hits and singles. I enjoy just about every song on that album as much (and some more) than the only single, “All The Kids Are Right.” So really, maybe it’s my fault that I haven’t made more of an effort to be a better fan.

And of course, after they played 12 Angry Months, they played crowd favorites like “Hands On The Bible”, “California Songs”, “High-Fivin’ MF”, and “Eddie Vedder”. Yet they still didn’t play a single song from Pack Up The Cats. Maybe that’s because they played that album from start to finish in Champaign the night before. Oh, well. Maybe now I have a good excuse to see them at the Metro at the end of May and maybe by then I’ll be more familiar with all of their material.

Filed under: Music, Reviews by John