FLIPPER at CBGB - FLIPPER IS THE ONLY THING WORTH LIVING FOR

SAVE CBGB Benefit Shows

FLIPPER

Live @ CBGB; August 26 & 28, 2005

Above: Scroll over Bruce Lose and prepare to fall off your chair, floored by my incredible web designing skills.

Like limbless amputee lovers trying to have sex while getting tossed around the deck of a sinking ship during a brutal seastorm, there was a lot about Flipper's two sets at CBGB that was awkward and sloppy but still, you had to be impressed by the spectacle of it. There were moments of brilliance to be found in the chaotic dischord and there was some truly powerful music. In a genre where speed and nihilistic posing often count for too much and can outweigh or eclipse the absence of other merits (like talent, original ideas or there even being the faintest trace of a point to anything many lesser bands have done), Flipper are a unique force. I'd never listened to them prior to seeing them these two nights at CBGBs, but I walked away with a respect and appreciation for this band. Some of the time they were onstage, they sucked. But when they were on, they were inspiring. There's a sincerity, simplicity and overpowering optimism to a lyric like "Life is the only thing worth living for" that you don't come across too often and, well, some days I just want to put my head in the oven but when I was listening to them sing it, I felt certain that they were onto something.