On The Go

The Go
@ Pianos
New York, NY - June 30, 2007

This one was for pure curious nostalgia. Who were/are the guys that had Jack White toiling around with them back in the late 90's, who were profiled in an early roughly designed Detroit doc but who never again seemed to perform, tour, or cavort with the other Motor City bands on a regular basis? And how fitting it is that they arrive in New York smacked right in between the 2 Stripes shows?
Essentially a bar band, the guys in the Go have a penchant for 60's psychadelic folk-pop, but of course put through a little bit of the Detroit garage ringer. If they had toured more often a couple years ago, coming through in 2003-2005 when a ton of D-town bands were frequenting the Big Apple, they'd have stood out and offered an alternative approach to the majority of 3-chord peers. But now they just seem a little off. Some songs are quite good, others are meandering, others have the right set-up but break-up on follow through. Nevertheless, it was pleasant taking one last non-Dirtbombs, non-Blanche meta-trip to the Detroit garage (it would have been a longer trip if I had seen the Paybacks open for Joan Jett on Thursday), which was fine considering the word "pleasant" isn't a word really associated with that city's music anymore, in good ways and bad.