School of Rockism

I made one of my rare ventures out to clubland last night to see
School Of Language at the Hemlock Tavern. 



School of Language is the current solo project of David Brewis of Field Music, who are currently "on hiatus". David recorded School of Language's debut album Sea From Shore by himself, but has a drummer and bass player with him to perform the songs live. I saw Field Music two years ago at the Bottom Of The Hill, before their album was released in the US and was instantly charmed by them. Their two discs are some of my favorite things of the past few years, so I had to go check David Brewis's current lineup.

School of Language is more experimental and less poppy than Field Music. Sea From Shore isn't as immediately accessible as Field Music or Tones Of Town, but it has most of the same songcraft so it's not just David's self-indulgent solo project. The set was kind of short, because there's only one School of Language album, and they didn't answer requests for Field Music songs.

Their one non-album song was a cover of Roxy Music's "If There Is Something" which was posted on Pitchfork a while ago. The one upside to a short set was that I had more than enough time to make the final BART train before midnight, even after engaging Mr. Brewis in a "you rock, dude!" fan to artist chat after their set. He's kind of a shy guy, and I'm not super talkative myself, so it wasn't a very long conversation.
Me: "Great set. You rock dude!" David: "Thanks very much."

The opening act the Evangelicals (a Flaming Lipsesque band from Oklahoma) brought a smoke machine for their set, which was kind of silly, because the performance space at the Hemlock is tiny and enclosed. This engulfed the entire place in smoke for the rest of the night. At least they didn't bring their Great White pyrotechnic show to the Hemlock.