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Timber, Transmetropolitan, 3/14/06

by The Bridge
04/04/2006

The handy thing about reviewing a band at Transmetropolitan is that you - or, rather, I - can be a complete rock critic snob asshole. I can decide, not even midway through the set, that I am not overly enthralled, and I can retreat to the handy public use computer, located right here in the bar, to begin recording my impressions of a show that hasn't even finished. It's not as shady as it sounds. Timber are some loud puppy dogs, rest assured, and I am still, at this very moment, getting quite the earful.

Timber, a local five piece country rock outfit, fronted by the affable Dan Nolte, do not suck. Let me make that clear. They don't even kinda suck. In fact, I like them way better than, say, Hootie and the Blowfish. But, like ol' Hootie, they have all the symptoms of a band destined to play out the rest of their existence doing small-town barroom gigs (Hootie's brief escape of this fate is analogous to Dan Quayle's vice presidency or the fact that people still allow Madonna to act in movies: those quirks of the universe that God Himself would be hard pressed to explain).

First of all: dynamics, yo. Someone really needs to explain this term to Timber's drummer, who has a fine sense of rhythm but apparently believes that his kit is a viscious monster who must constantly be beaten into submission. Look: it's a small bar. Less is more.

Nolte's able on the guitar, and his singing is just fine, but he always sounds like someone else - he's got a Tom Petty attack for louder singing and a Jay Farrar croon for the softer moments, and no real sense of personal style. That's an easy trap to fall into for a young band, especially one steeped in Americana influences.

There is also the matter of the pedal steel, a usual favorite of mine. Timber features a pedal steel player, and I dunno. Maybe the overbearing rhythm section is drowning him out - he's mostly inaudible, and when he is, there's a choppiness to the instrument, a lack of lilt.

The alt-country genre is tough to tackle if you want to sound fresh, and Timber at the very least has enough drive (they play dates all the time) and ability to master their own sound with a bit more time and a lot more nerve. Maybe they need to get laid. Maybe they need to get in a bar fight. I just wanna hear them say something unfamiliar.