Smiley with a Knife: October 2009

Tomorrow, we'll be opening for Maserati at Maison Musique on Frenchman Street. BLACKbELT will be opening the show, and we'll be sandwiched comfortably in the middle.

Before I get into the gravity or sentimentality of what this opportunity means to us, let me brief those of you who are unfamiliar with Maserati:

Maserati is currently on Temporary Residence, the record label that nurtured Explosions in the Sky into the unstoppable icons of post rock that they have become. While Explosions in the Sky is familiar to and loved by the general public for creating spiritually epic sound scapes that possess the beauty of slow-moving twenty-ton icebergs, Maserati conquers that skill and dismisses it as quickly as their namesake Italian sports car can flee a Mafioso crime scene. While they look the same on the surface to a casual observer, Maserati is, quintessentially, Explosions' evil twin - behaving with a fiery temper and a rowdy spirit that rarely emerges from their distinguished brethren.

Maserati operates with the precision of a highly trained stunt car driver, as their name appropriately suggests. With their faces lit a cool blue from the light piercing through Jerry Fuchs's acrylic 70's era drum set, this band has a knack for placing its listeners in the drivers' seat of their fantasy car - that blue glow transformed from the most humble of stage lighting to the dim radiance of an odometer reading 150mph. With each delay-drenched guitar line, muscular bass riff, and fist-pounding drum beat zipping by, listeners can hear the helpless drone of police sirens trailing behind them. Their songs echo the emotions of fast-paced victory as they weave from lane to lane, shifting in calculated movements that push that song-car to the edges of what physics will allow. With every dripping ounce of pun and double entendre unashamedly intended, Maserati's sound can hardly be described more accurately than as "driving music."

Below is a video of a live performance of their song "Inventions."

We cannot stress how important this show is to us as a group since it is coming along at such an exciting time for us in our development as a band. This past September marked the second year since the rebirth of Smiley with a Knife as an instrumental indie rock group, and this October - heading into Halloween season - marks our second year of live performance together in this instrumental format.

It's amazing to see how far we've come together in just two short years from our first show in the living room of a Halloween keg party to having opened for an impressive array of flagship bands in our niche with yet another such opportunity staring us down as we enter our third year together. We have a number of strong moves planned ahead of us as we roll through to the end 2009, including plans for recording, videos, touring, and of course more of the beloved 60 second adventures that you've so enthusiastically shared in.

Before we start our legwork for the rest of this fall season and lay the groundwork for our next year's work, though, come out to Maison Musique tomorrow night to help us celebrate two successful years as Smiley with a Knife and a victory for the instrumental and indie rock communities of New Orleans as a whole by welcoming Maserati with all your hearts, all your souls, and all your dancing bodies.