I understand the allure of the drunken rockstar, I really do. But the drunken rockstar is just a couple whiskey/sodas away from a drunken embarrassment, as Deer Tick lead singer John McCauley found out at the Rolling Stone showcase at Palm Door. "This song is called Baltimore Blues," he mumbled, before being corrected by guitarist Andrew Tibiassen. "What do you mean that's not next on the playlist?" McCauley slurred incredulously. "Who cares about the playlist? Fuck the playlist."
This was no screw-the-man "We'll do it live!" statement, though. It was one of many sloshed attempts to parlay inebriation into a good show - attempts that fell sadly short. The rest of the band resignedly followed McCauley's weaving lead through some of Deer Tick's songs, new and old, but McCauley was in even less of a state to lead a band than he was to read the setlist. What should have been a great end to the night was instead a bit of a mess. The band managed to recover to play a passable set, but when you feel like a set succeeds despite the lead singer's best attempts to derail it, passable is about the best you're gonna get.
