Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks at the Glass House

Stephen Malkmus left the crowd wanting more after his perfomance at the El Rey theatre. Luckily I was in Pomona the next night to see Helmet, so I stopped by the Glass House record store and picked up a ticket for the Stephen Malkmus show at the Glass House. After an hour and a half of traffic, I arrived in Pomona at around 7:15. The doors had not opened yet so I took shelter from the cold at the record store. Some film students were interviewing concert attendees for their school project asking about how the music makes them "feel" and what do the lyrics mean. With song titles like "Pencil Rot", "Jo-Jo's Jacket" and "1% of 1" one does not pontificate that much about lyrics. I just know the music rocks and that Stephen is extremely clever and crafty with his songs. Anyways, Entrance opened the show again and fared significantly better this time. Guy Blakeslee had 3 guitars this time and no technical difficulties with his guitar. Since his music is very groove oriented, the set was much better because the band really stepped it up. His rendition of "Grim Reaper Blues" was especially good. I also noticed he was using a metal thumb pick to get an extra metallic/chimey sound to his guitar style. Paz Lenchantin was holding down the bass duties very well as usual. Their set seemed to go by much quicker than the prior show. Stephen sauntered on stage and proceeded to open with "Baby C'mon". He played a bunch of new songs with "Dragonfly Pie" standing out as well as "Pennywhistle Thunder". I was much closer to the stage and was able to see Stephen switch between his fingers and his pick with great ease. Stephen was more animated on stage as well, jumping around and going to the keyboards at the end of the set. He was also rocking a Z.Vex Fuzz Factory and a sweet Z.Vex Seek wah which is too radical to explain. Go to Z.Vex effects website and check out the video they have on it. I was glad to have made it to the show but I don't think it was sold out like the El Rey was. I was approached by at least 5 people at the El Rey show for my ticket. I was sad they didn't play 2 new songs that I had heard at the El Rey but the rendition of "It Kills" was extremely literal. I can not wait till this new album drops.