Wednesday, October 11, 2006  

Built to Spill's Tasty Jam

Washington Post, Wednesday, October 11, 2006; Page C09

[DIRECTOR'S CUT]

Built to Spill singer-guitarist Doug Martsch makes no attempt to look like a rock star. He's bald on top of his head with a middle-management bowlcut falling over his ears. His scraggily beard makes him look like a mountain man, and his beer belly looks especially doughy under his too-tight T-shirts.

All of that mattered for naught on Monday when Martsch and Co. performed the first of two nights at 9:30 club. The five-piece band played 110 minutes for a loving crowd who could have cared less if Built to Spill's leader looks like he just fell off a tractor.

Martsch's unassuming nature carried over to his performance, which mostly featured him standing in place and shaking his right leg like a fleshy tambourine. His high, nasal, Neil Young-like voice cut through the three-guitar attack, and Built to Spill's Crazy Horse-like jams gave Martsch a chance to show off his solo skills. But songs like "Untrustable/Part 2 (About Someone Else)," where Martsch had to fetch a new guitar as the band vamped, dragged on too long, with the group going for noisy effects over improvisational inspiration. Martsch is a very good pop songwriter, however, with tunes like "The Plan" and "Carry the Zero" having great core melodies and riffs; overextending the songs would have weakened them.

But the longer numbers did give Martsch time to tinker with Built to Spill's DIY stage "design." A too-small screen was suspended high above the band, and Martsch would occasionally stop playing to operate a device that projected psychedelic drawings and YouTube-worthy videos of wacky felines frolicking. It felt like a low-budget, indie-rock version of Spinal Tap's miniature Stonehenge. --Christopher Porter

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