Arrived late for California provocateur Pink. He has a checkered past as an outsider musician with right wing views that led him to participate in J6. Pink on vocals and keys, guitar, bass and drums. There were some synths in the mix, but I couldn’t see from my back of the room vantage point. The music was a whiplash of styles soul, pop, artpop, even death metal. The setlist centered on Pink’s recent release With You Every Night. Life Before Today, Pocket Full of Promises, Credit, Dedicated to Bobby Jameson, Four Shadows, Time To Meet Your God, Sit n’ Spin, House of the Haunted Hebrews, Everyone’s Wrong, Dreaming, Fright Night, Lipstick, Mommy Made Dinner, Anosognosia, Entertainment, Round and Round, encored with White Freckles and Are You Gonna Look After My Boys? The crowd was a heady mix of bros and freaks with some super fans up front that knew all the lyrics. The song structure was complex, a friend likened it to a mashup of The Flaming Lips with The Beach Boys. Perusing the lengthy back catalog, one comes to the conclusion that Ariel Pink’s body of work is uneven. Flashes of brilliance are countered by straight up dogs. The delightful Round and Round sounded like a Cure b-side, while Mommy Made Dinner could have been plagiarized from a third grader’s final essay. The band and the crowd gave off an Island of Misfit Toys vibe, which might just be the point. The tune Everyone’s Wrong had clubby flourishes with the refrain Everyone’s Fucking Wrong, which we could all get behind. Plenty of outsider artists have been reviewed in this blog. Usually, the outsidedness is in service to an unwavering artistic vision. In Pink’s case, he is on the outside because Everyone’s Fucking Wrong. A tough lane to occupy.
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