AMBULANCE LTD.

Last Wednesday I managed to catch Ambulance at Schuba's. I was caught a bit off guard because I had no idea that they were even on tour until a few hours before the show. And people say I'm a music blogger! For shame.

I had actually never been to Schuba's before, but it's a decent place to see a show. Not that expensive, pretty intimate, and the staff... well, I've encountered bigger a-holes. The sound was less than desirable, but when you're standing right in front of the band it's sort of hard to care.

Some local band (The City Will Save Us) opened, and they sucked. An iBook played all of their bass lines... WTF? Then there was a bigger local band, Sleeping At Last. I couldn't wait until they were done, so I could use the joke I had been saving the whole time... "Done at last!" Hahahaha, I am so clever, non?

Ambulance came on to cheers and played a really strong set. "Heavy Lifting" would be my favorite song, just like on the record, if it weren't for the boring second half totally off-setting the transcendant first half. Otherwise, similar to the first time I saw the band at TISWAS at Don Hill's last summer, the pounding ending of "Young Urban" was a definite high light. I was also surprised to see the band use a mic-ed acoustic guitar for some of the songs; interesting choice.

Ambulance is remarkable because they straddle this unbeleivably thin line between genres: summery pop with unbeatable hooks and harmonized vocals, the amp-blowing sound of shoegaze fans, put together with a pounding punk aesthetic. It's really quite a feat to reflect all of those influences and not sound terrible. The album is pretty great; I've had it in heavier rotation since the show.

Here are a few photos of them from last summer that I never posted.

You can download "Primitive (The Way I Treat You)" from Insound.