[ATTENDED: November 26, 2016] Easy Action
I had never heard of Easy Action when I saw that they were opening for Dinosaur Jr. When I looked them up online I was taken to a Swedish glam metal band. I was fairly surprised.
Then somehow I figured out it wasn’t that Easy Action. Rather, this Easy Action is the creation of singer John Brannon. Brannon is apparently notorious (or at least well-known), although I had never heard of him. He was in the punk band Negative Approach who I had heard of but didn’t know (they only released an Ep and an album). And then later Laughing Hyenas who I also don’t know. He formed Easy Action in 2001 and they released a second album in 2005. And not much since then.
During the show, Brannon said it had been a couple of years since they’d played together and he thanked J. for getting them all back on stage.
About the only thing that Easy Action had in common with Dinosaur Jr. was that they were loud. I arrived a few minutes into their set and I could hear them outside the building. When I walked in the room, it was so loud that I had to stuff the earplugs in my ears as I ran to the bathroom.
When I got out to the floor, I was struck by Brannon’s on stage presence. He looked so pissed off. I’ve never seen a singer look so angry at the audience. He looked like he could easily have come out and punched someone. And when he sang it was growls and screams. I had to take a video of this guy as he was so peculiar–like Danzig but even angrier. Imagine my surprise when, after one of the songs, he glowered at us as it was over and then said “thanks, man.”
His bass player had long white hair like J Mascis, but also a really long beard. It seemed totally inappropriate for the music. The guitarist was turned away from us for most of the show. And then there was the drummer, too.
And boy they were loud. I had in earplugs, so I fear a lot of nuance (if there was any) was lost on me. In fact there was only one song where I would have even guessed at the words (“Worse for You”).
I felt like I’ve often had pretty good luck with opening acts that I was unfamiliar with. However, there have been a few in recent months that were more of an endurance than a pleasure. And this was one of them. It was loud and punishing and I was happy when he said it was their last song coming up.
Strangely enough, when Dinosaur Jr. was over, Brannon was hanging around by the merch table talking animatedly with a bunch of fans. Go figure.
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