draft:
Versus, +/-, and Jason Loewenstein at Great American Music Hall, April 20, 2003

Ever since Versus didn’t announce their break-up in 2001, the band has been sporadically re-grouping to play shows and to tour. This is despite front-man Richard Baluyut’s defection from New York City, home of Versus, to San Francisco to continue his prior side project, Whysall Lane, as a full band. This is also despite the immersion of bassist-vocalist Fontaine Toups into her own solo project, TFT (formerly The Fontaine Toups), and guitarist James Baluyut and drummer Patrick Ramos into their new band, +/- (plus minus), which has already released a self-titled, long-playing debut album, cryptically entitled Self-Titled Long-Playing Debut Album (Teen Beat).

For the past 10 years, Versus has released a handful of albums and EPs, crafting numerous powerful and memorable indie-pop gems in the process, but having never gained the crossover acclaim they probably deserve. Instead, Versus has maintained a hardcore devoted following, still willing to support them after almost three years without releasing an album, since 2000’s Hurrah (Merge Records). The devoted filled a little more than half of Great American Music Hall’s capacity.

It must be hard for opening act Jason Loewenstein to have been in the early-90s, lo-fi indie band, Sebadoh, who everyone has heard of, but very few really like, and then tour in support of a debut solo album when not many people, even Sebadoh fans, recognize your name. So it is no surprise, albeit an unfortunate one, that the crowd was sparse for Loewenstein’s opening set. The multi-talented Loewenstein put together a power trio to perform songs off At Sixes and Sevens (Subpop), recorded entirely by himself. They tore through their set in a energetic frenzy, and maybe because of the lack of bodies to absorb the sound, they were quite loud, which in turn contributed to the distance between performers and audience.

Not being a fan of Sebadoh, and not familiar with Loewenstein’s album, I can’t say I was impressed, but it was clear that Loewenstein had talent and experience, and having listened to At Sixes and Sevens since the show, I think I would have appreciated his performance more if I had been familiar with the material beforehand.

Next up was +/- in support of their new 5-song EP, Holding Patterns (Teen Beat). The love was there for +/-, the audience being comprised of Versus fans, as they made their way through a quirky, poppy, artsy set, with almost half the songs in odd time signatures, and James Baluyut occasionally strumming the strings of his guitar on the other side of his fretting hand. Interactive band support came in the form of the bass player dampening the drummer’s crash cymbals at the appropriate moments during one song.

Finally, Versus took the stage, delighting the crowd with the full six minutes plus version of “Crazy Maker (I’m Still in Love with Your Eyes)”, perhaps referencing last year’s NoisePop performance when they opened with a truncated, mellow version of the same song. The less-than-capacity crowd did their best to represent Richard Baluyut’s adopted city, but the energy between the band and the audience was hit-and-miss as the band dished out favorites such as “Raining”, “Jealous”, “Underground”, “Morning Glory”, and “Double Suicide (Mercy Killing)”, interspersed with more obscure gems as Fontaine Toups’ “Janet” and “Forest Fire”. In a poignant moment, Richard dedicated “Blade of Grass” to recently deceased friend and comrade, Steven Pak.

Versus sounded great in the Great American Music Hall, with Richard Baluyut’s power chords reverberating through the balcony-lined hall, and Patrick Ramos’s solid, driving drumming, and James Baluyut consistently putting the sweet icing on Richard’s cake. But the Great American Music Hall may have been too big a venue for Versus to connect with their audience. If they had the audience they deserve, it would have been just right.