Travis Morrison's new band played its first show at the Talking Head on Saturday night, and I found myself really liking them. No guitars = nice! If you haven't heard, the new band is three keyboardists, a drummer, and a percussionist. It doesn't sound remotely punk, and that's good. It sounds old and creaky and resigned but still, you know, alive. This is also good. The instrumentation moved it in the twin directions of disco and singery/songwritery studio pop, and the piano sounded thick and full and almost (almost) funky. Travis introduced one of the songs as his "go-go song", and thank god he wasn't telling the truth. His Ludacris cover really is pretty bad, but I'm still a bit impressed that he knows all the words, even if he emphasizes the wrong ones. Travis sounded like he was having fun. I'm glad. The Dismemberment Plan was one of my favorite bands of all time ever, and this isn't that, but I like it. It's nice and warm and inviting. Supposedly the album will sound totally different, and I hope he records with this band. It suits him well.

The show was good, but it was nowhere near as fun as seeing a midnight showing of Spider-Man 2 at Bengie's Drive-In on the largest outdoor screen on the east coast Sunday. One quibble: Toby Maguire = wormy!