Concert Review: School of Language

School of Language, with Riddle of Steel and OK Jones

Thursday, March 27

The Record Bar

Review by JASON HARPER

Photos by KEANON LIGGATT

Bird Illustration by JOHN JAMES AUDUBON

For the lead singer and guitarist in a challenging, sonically adventurous post-hardcore rock band, it must be more than deflating to be in the bathroom of a bar after playing a set and have a broseph in a crew cut tell you your band reminds him of Incubus. But for Riddle of Steel frontman Andrew Elstner, this is an opportunity to exhibit grace and class and extend welcome to a new (if not cultured) fan. “Oh, OK, yeah, thanks. I’ll take that, as long as you dig it,” Elstner said, simultaneously considering the source (i.e., fratboy) accepting his comment as a compliment, AND also making sure the guy wasn’t making fun of him. Turned out, the fratteur loved Incubus and meant the remark kindly.

(By the way, it must also really SUCK when you go to start a MySpace account using your band name only to find that some random person somewhere has already registered the name. Imagine Riddle of Steel’s chagrin when they attempted to reserve www.myspace.com/riddleofsteel only to find that “DMDemise” had already claimed it:

)

All beeswax aside, it was a boutique of chops last night at the Record Bar as Riddle of Chops played between OK Chops and School of Chops, the last of which I’d been excited about seeing since discovering Field (of Chops) Music over a year ago.

Fronted by David Brewis, who plays in Field Music with his brother Paul Brewis and keyboardist Andrew Moore, School is rounded out by two guys with huge reputations in Midwestern music circles: Doug McCombs of Tortoise on bass and drummer Ryan Rapsys of Euphone and Heroic Doses.