Bug Club at Hi-Dive, April 1

Tuesday, April 1, Ruthie and I, and a couple of friends, drove to Denver to see The Bug Club at the Hi-Dive on South Broadway. The Bug Club have become one of my favorites over the past two years, since I first heard them on a WFMU show. I can't remember if it was Joe Belock's or Todd-o-Phonic Todd's. I was extremely excited to see them, and to see them with Ruthie. We're going to Denver to see music less frequently as we get older, so this was a special occasion. The Breeders at The Ogden in 2018 was our last show in Denver, if I recall correctly.

The Hi-Dive is a small club with a modest stage and no seating, only an open floor in front of the stage. I don't think there is any backstage, either. Bands enter and leave the stage using steps at the front of the stage. It's unabashedly no-frills and I liked it.

Ducks Limited were nominally the main act. I've listened to them a little and they're good, if not exactly my cup of tea. The opening act was Denver's own Mainland Break. Like Ducks Ltd., they play a jangly 80's pop, but also channel the Replacements on stage. I enjoyed their short set.

The effect of putting The Bug Club between these bands was a bit like giving the Minutemen a long set in the middle of an REM show in 1983. They tore through 20 songs in a little over an hour with humor and grace but otherwise no break. Every song from The Intricate Inner Workings of The System, minus Actual Pain and Cold Hard Love (which I love), a new single, and from earlier albums: Marriage, Cheap Linen, Short and Round, It's Art, and Little Coy Space Boy. There were songs I didn't recognize, including one with dueling spiels between Sam and Tilly, that especially reminded me of the Minutemen, what with their physically imposing and proficient producer Tom Rees driving the drumbeat, Sam's buzzed head, and it being D. Boon's birthday. Uncanny!

I'm looking forward to my next chance to see The Bug Club. They really did put on a satisfying show.