Built To Spill at White Eagle Hall

May 13, 2022

Decisions, decisions.

Friday night was a toss-up. Every band on the planet is touring, it seems, so it’s just a matter of time before you hit some big conflicts.

On Friday, one of my heroes, Bob Mould, was playing a solo electric show at the Newton Theater. I’ve seen Bob Mould a few times since 2019, and he always puts on an awesome show, whether he’s backed by his band or plays solo. He always plays a mix of stuff from his days with Husker Du, Sugar, and his Bob Mould band. He’s kinda inspirational to me, too — even in his 60’s, he cranks it out loud and proud, and still has the energy of a teenager. BUT, Newton, New Jersey is about as far north as you can go before you hit Canada. It’s a hike. And unless you hire an Uber guy or carjack a UFO, you’re driving a couple hours each way.

And in this corner, Built To Spill was playing at the White Eagle Hall in Jersey City. About half the distance, AND if my daughter Nicole and her husband Alex are in town, I can snag a delightful pre-concert dinner with those two. Not easily done, since Alex and Nicole go to more weddings than Owen Wilson and ‘Vince Vaughn. But Friday, they were in Jersey City, so, so was I.

I like the White Eagle Hall venue a lot, not just because of its proximity to my occasional dinner mates, but also because it’s a great, small venue with a good sound stage, and because they get some really good bands. I’ve recently seen Nada Surf and Spoon there, and they’ve always got a few bands I’d love to see live.

Built To Spill is an interesting “group”. Formed in Boise, Idaho in the early 90’s, it’s really the pet project of lead guitarist and songwriter Doug Martsch. Martsch’s game plan was to swap out his band mates every album release, so he’s really the only thing permanent about the group. Seems a little “all about me” to me, but he/they have a really strong following, and they’ve been playing for about 30 years, so I guess his formula works for enough fans to make it worthwhile.

Lately, he’s teamed up with bassist Melanie Radford and drummer Teresa Esguerra, who support Marsch pretty well. They sounded great on Friday, playing about an hour and a half’s worth of Built To Spill notables like “Big Dipper” and “Carry the Zero”. They have a very steady, easy-to-listen but not overpowering folk/rock style that I enjoyed.

It was a long night for Melanie Redford, who also was front and center in the first of two warm-up acts. Her band, Blood Lemon Music, was pretty good, and offered up both original material and a terrific cover ofThe Breeders’ “Do You Love Me Now?”.

It was a long night for everybody at White Eagle Hall, since we all suffered through a really unnecessary 2nd opener, a keyboard/synthesizer soloist who didn’t do anything for us other than keep us in place for 45 minutes more than we needed to be.

Dinner was awesome, and Built To Spill was definitely worth a night out.