The Datsuns/The Sights
Berbati's Pan
Portland, OR
4/10/2003

Once again, I was suckered in by hype. This happens a lot. There are certain types of people, sadly such as myself that tend to buy whatever shows up on the cover of particular magazines, as well as the artists that grace the tops of the prestigious indie charts.

The Datsuns were one such band. They were fairly high profile over the last year, so I bought into it. To be honest, the album was good fun. It reminded me of these bands that I used to see on the cover of Circus Magazine in the late 70's or early 80's. It was a very novel idea and with all novelties, they have a limit. That limit was quickly reached at Berbati's on Thursday night. They came on looking and sounding right. There was a blast of guitar, and that RAWKnROLL howl and wail style of vocals, but sadly not much more. They went through their album, the highlights being Lady, and Harmonic Generator, but by the 5th song, I was looking at my watch and thinking about my drive back home. The novelty had worn off.

The Sights, on the other hand, were the more impressive band. They were a tight little power pop/guitar riff oriented band with their heart and soul completely tied to the 1960^Òs. Hell, I could have sworn I saw this band on the Monterey Pop video. The bottom line with the Sighs was, while they sounded like Iron Butterfly reincarnated, they did not bore me. The Datsuns did.

Overall, I would not say that it was a horrible gig, but rather a extraordinarily average one. It was a way to kill some time. I really need to stop getting sucked into the flavor of the week, hype bands.