Thursday, Apr. 16, 2009
The Drag at Droopy's
The Drag on stage at Droopy's. - Photo by Bobby Altman, for Weekly Surge.
If you are not familiar with members of The Drag, you probably are too young to know about them – or you are not from Myrtle Beach.
The Drag is one of the most important bands in Myrtle Beach history, being one of the only bands from the area to see some national success.
In 1996, The Drag signed to Island Records, after being together just a couple years. Island released the album “Satellites Beaming Back at You,” which was produced by Mitch Easter (who is most noted for his work with R.E.M.). The group also toured with bands such as The Ocean Blue, The Connells and even Pulp. After being dropped from Island, the guys managed to put out two more records, but eventually ended up parting ways sometime around the dawn of the new millennium.
The band members actually had a reunion show a few years ago. It was held at a big hall, the Sea Mist Resort banquet room. They also had one more last-minute reunion at Carlito’s Way (which is now Crazy J’s) just a couple years ago.
So The Drag decided for Easter weekend (April 11) to give a reunion show one more go, this time keeping it a little more intimate, by playing a 150-person capacity venue, Droopy’s. Not surprisingly, the show was sold out.
When I walked into Droopy’s, The Drag had just started its first song. There were no opening bands, since The Drag wanted to play a nice, long set and try to cover most of the group’s material, whereas the last reunion show only about eight songs were played.
The place was so crowded that there was no way to get anywhere near the band. Another thing about Droopy’s is that there is no stage, so that also made it harder to see the band. They did have the area that they were playing nicely decorated with lights, though.
The room was filled with people that used to go see The Drag back in the ‘90s, and was like a high school reunion of sorts. The band sounded amazing, playing a good amount of songs off of “Satellites Beaming Back At You” and “Starcraft,” but the real treat of the show was the rare songs played, such as “Six Cent Boy” and “Velveteen” off of a self-released 7-inch record, which are both very lush, slow, dark songs. They are tunes both more on the shoe-gazer side than the more Britpop sound the band explored later.
The Drag also played some songs that were unreleased, such as “Innerchange”, and “Ready Steady Woman.” While the band didn’t play anything from its latest CD, “The Drag is Dead,” the quintet did play “37th Avenue” and “Ch-Ch-Changing” from “The Classic Curve,” which was released shortly after the band was dropped from Island. The songs from that era are more of a ‘60s garage pop sound, which also worked well.
The Drag manages to go from poppy indie rock to thick textured atmospheric jams, and keep it entertaining and original.
Singer Chance Walls, wearing some sort of Magnum P.I-looking hat, and a full beard, was able to keep the crowd motivated. He stood on tables and had the audience singing with him. Everyone seemed to remember all the lyrics, and there didn’t seem to be one negative vibe in the room. It turned out that the unreleased and rare songs that were played that night were actually being released on a new CD available at the show. The new CD is called “collection v.1.” If you were not able to pick one up at the show (I couldn’t even get to the merch booth through all the people) contact the band via MySpace (www.MySpace.com/thedrag) for one.
The band took a short break and for its encore, started with the single from “Satellites,’’ “Our Race Cars,” which made the crowd very happy. The band ended the set with “Fountainbleau” which was another crowd favorite.
Overall, the show was simply great. The band sounded great, and it was more like a big party with old friends than a concert. You can’t beat that. The Drag has a sound that worked really when it was an active unit, and it still works today.
