Fed By Ravens, Avondale, Reflector, Grovel
Grovel's last show
Gee Coffee
August 14, 1999

Review by Joe Fortunato of Avondale

anyone in attendance at Gee Coffee on august 14, 1999, will fully confess that the night belonged to grovel. long known for their unconventional blend of indie with rock, crunchy with soft, and a penchant for over-the-top onstage energy, this night sadly marked the end of a semi-secret phenomenon. i've been friends with grovel for a couple of years, and i've seen them play more times than i can remember.

the night started out with a strong set by minnesota natives, Fed By Ravens. dressed in all black (floods, no less) with white belts, they rocked hard to an interesting mixture of hard rock, hardcore and true to form indie crunch. screaming their way through what felt like a very short set, FBR pounded their instruments like jackhammers and played up the band image du jour with added zest.

next up was Avondale, and although our set was subpar, we had fun and made a lot of racket.

Reflector quietly set up their gear, and proceeded to tear up the silence. the crowd moved forward to receive them, and sensitive vocals shone above the atypically melodic indie pulse. jake cardwell, known by some as "the loudest drummer in the world", carried his band through dynamic passages typically reserved for bands seasoned by years of playing together. the days of recent touring were showing in the strength and tightness of the three as they pummeled through their set. a highlight for me was the song "blue skies" off of their latest 7". do yourself a favour and pick it up.

Everyone grew quiet as the lights went down on grovel, ready to begin their last show together as a unit. words cannot describe the common feelings that most of us had that night, that something we've come to think of as an institution would be gone after tonight. the first time i ever saw grovel was here at Gee, and it seemed almost like the same night somehow. the whole feeling of birth/death as a cycle was like a sickening deja-vu.

keanon was vigorously animated/agitated/irritated all throughout the set, at one point i thought he was going to burst into a million pieces. the sonic girth of the band has always been staggering to me. sure, three guitars can do that, but somehow there's enough going on in the music that it always seems like a few more. the emotions in brad's face were powerful enough to give some of us the chills as we watched. this intensity and emotion is rare in this local scene filled with sickening radio puke.

perhaps the thing that i'll miss most is grovel's loyalty to the things that built them. their drive to stay true to the feeling and grow in their own time and space. chaos is beauty, and grovel excels at controlled chaos, never performing the same show twice. never have i come away unsatisfied, and truly i am thankful to have been involved with them over these past couple of years and especially tonight.

grovel ended the set in true denconstructed fashion - brad laying down his guitar and walking off stage, brian getting up and walking off stage, mark shutting down his amp and leaving as john and keanon attacked their instruments like enemies, building walls of noise. keanon attacks his amp and knocks it to the ground, grinding his guitar into it in fits of rage, strings breaking.

in a moment of mock calm, keanon quietly stacked his guitar and effects on top of his amplifier and walked off stage and out of the end of his band.

farewell, grovel.

--Joe Fortunato