The night began rather poorly. First of all, I spent the better part of a half-hour on my cell-phone listening to Carl’s R-rated commentary on the poor design of Boston’s roadways and the less-than-impressive driving skills of Boston motorists. Telling him to take a deep-breath and count to 10 didn’t work. Sitting down for a beer and a burger after he finally made his way into Boston and parked in a fairly inexpensive lot near the theater seemed to help.

If you think that was the end of my troubles, it wasn’t. When I ordered the tickets back in February, they were meant to be shipped via snail-mail to my abode. A couple weeks later, I received an email stating that my ordered was changed to Will Call, and I was refunded the $3.50 that I was charged for shipping. Unfortunately, my name wasn’t on any Will Call list at the Roxy, and I was forced to buy two (more) tickets. Ugh. After an overpriced, plastic-cup-full of Sam Adams I felt a little better.

The first opening act was Trevor Dunn’s Trio Convulsant. I hadn’t heard their music prior to the show, but I knew of Trevor Dunn’s skills as a bassist from his work with Mr. Bungle, Fantômas, and John Zorn. The show was a great mix of traditional and experimental jazz. The musicianship was top-notch, although the sound at the Roxy left a little to be desired.

The second opening act was The Locust. Imagine, if you will, a fetish version of Blue Man Group and you might have an idea of what to expect visually. Sonically, I felt assaulted… battered even. I am a fan of many “noise” bands, but I felt this was too much noise and too little descernable music. I can appreciate their playing fringe music, although I just really didn’t feel the music spoke to me.

Finally, Fantômas was up. As usual, the performance was brilliant. Even though, in my opinion, the sound system at the Roxy leaves a little to be desired, the performace was stellar. It is hard to get over the fact that sharing the stage are drummer extraordinaire Dave Lombardo, brilliant guitarist and musician King Buzzo, masterful bassist and composer Trevor Dunn, and of course, the incomparable Mike Patton.

The set began with several songs (err. days) from the new album Suspended Animation. I wasn’t too familiar with the songs from the new album, as I just picked it up this past weekend and have only had the time to listen through it once. My first impressions were that this album was a return to the style exhibited on their first album. Short, often spastic compositions that are technically and rhythmically complex. The first album seems to have been based on a comic book, with each song representing a different page (with a certain number of frames to a page). This latest album is themed around April 2005. Each song represents a calendar day for the month (April 1, 2005 to April 30, 2005). Carrying on this theme is the CD packaging, which is actually a mini-calendar (coil-bound, and ready to hang in your cubicle).

The rest of the show was a good mix of songs from the 3 prior releases. I think the best reactions from the crowd came when they played songs from their Director’s Cut release, which contains their version of songs from movies and television. Unfortunately, we didn’t hear a rendition of The Godfather, which is one of my favorites (from the Director’s Cut album).

The crowd seemed to react well to the show. Unlike when I saw Fantômas open for Tool a couple years back. The crowd for that show was mostly teenagers who like their music easily digestable, and on heavy rotation on radion stations. As a whole, the show seemed more about the music than about “moshing” or about Mike trying to incite the crowd (although, he did make a remark about the Sox losing to Yankees).

Despite the evening starting off quite sour, it ended up being quite a sweet night. Tired and with my ears ringing a little, I collapsed in my bed when I got home with a smile on my face.

Some reviews I gathered:
Tiny Mix Tapes
Rolling Stone
Pop Matters