Tulip Frenzy

Leica Monochrom, 75mm Summicron, ISO 5000

To say that Ty Segall was the person last night having the most fun at his show in D.C. in no way diminishes what a gas it was for the audience.  It’s just that the Cali tyro lives for this, was born to do this, to hit us over the head with his Riceroni mix of SF punk’n’psychedelica, to bounce around the stage with his fine four-piece band, banging out songs from each of his three great 2012 albums.  The Ty Segall Band only released one album last year, and we thought it was weaker than what he produced in tandem with White Fence, and with his amazing studio band (Ty, by himself), but last night they did him justice.

We hadn’t realized how much he physically resembles Kurt Cobain — but a centered, joyous Cobain, who is thrilled to play his music for you.  And while  Ty’s songs can, at times, combine the same ingredients as Nirvana — punk rock dynamics, metal chord progressions, and enough hooks to land all the fishies off the Pacific Coast –the comparison ends there.  Except in one regard: he’s the biggest talent to hit American music since Cobain, or maybe since Black Francis — two songwriters to whom he owes a debt, while we get the benefit of the credit they extended him.

The show began with “Thank God For Sinners” and “You’re The Doctor,” which open up Twins, one half of the two-album duo (including Ty and White Fence’s Hair) that tied for second place in the 2012 Tulip Frenzy Top 10 list ™. And then we heard our faves from Slaughterhouse, Goodbye Bread, Melted, even B-sides.  For a kid born in the waning days of the Reagan Administration, he’s produced an amazing body of work, which if his 2012 output is an indicator, is getting better and better.  There are lots of monuments in Washington.  Ty Segall’s on the right path to claim his own.