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Simply put, if you’re thinking of catching part of this tour, the Vacation are the band to see. Nightmare of You and Living Things are unnecessary and almost completely upstaged by the opening band from St. Louis. The Vacation are a trio that makes simple, basic rock and roll without any need for complicated genre classifications. The driving guitar and hard vocals are reminiscent of the Stooges and the Dead Boys, but on record their music also has a rhythmic, stop-and-go indie rock feeling that sets them apart from most '70s-revival bands.

Live, however, vocalist Ben Tegel is like Iggy Pop on even more acid. What the band is actually playing takes a backdrop to the tiny (5'4") singer’s writhing, stripping, flailing and self-mutilation. Their live show is made up of bleeding chest wounds, rolling around on the floor, jeans that show off pubic hair, incoherent Southern-accented mumblings, spitting, microphones stuffed down pants, and other acts that lead this reviewer to believe Mr. Tegel has a brilliant career ahead of him in the fetish-porn industry. If going to a show means you want to be both amazed and disgusted, you’ve found your band

Moving on...

Let’s be honest with ourselves, OK? Nightmare of You really, truly want to be the living embodiment of everything Morrissey ever sang about. They are an earnest, maudlin, and very shiny band, with an impressively large fan base for such a new group. (Side note: Half the audience left after their set.) I asked a girl standing next to me who she was there to see, and she replied, “Nightmare of You...I think they’re magical.” I don’t know if I would go that far. From a technical standpoint, they’re a good band who play their instruments well – particularly their bass player. Their breakthrough single, “I Want to be Buried In Your Backyard,” is genuinely good, with a pretty chorus that provides a neat contrast to the morbid lyrics. Following a very dynamic band like the Vacation, however, made Nightmare seem very, very boring and a bit cliched. Songs titles like, “Dear Scene, I Wish I Were Deaf”? Let’s leave the pseudo-cleverness to Fall Out Boy, guys. Really, they did try–flashing multicolored lights, amusing jokes at the President’s expense–but the feeling just wasn’t catching on. Even their rabid fan-girls who sang along to every word seemed a bit depressed instead of inspired. I do hope that girl still thinks they’re as magical now; there’s nothing worse then musical disappointment.

The headliner, Living Things, is a band made for very small venues. In a small venue lead singer Lilian Berlin (male) strips off his circus ring leader costume, comes down from the stage and dances with the fans and basically becomes a resurrected Marc Bolan. At a venue like the Paradise, however, the whole band becomes very stiff, and that interaction with the crowd that made them stand out disappears. Even they, the headlining band, couldn’t compete with the Vacation. It’s too bad really, because a reputation as a good live band could boost their status from mediocre to OK. But they missed the boat this time, and had to resign to handing Rocking Band of the Night status to the Vacation.

By Christine

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