Wino Wednesday: Saint Vitus, “The Troll” Live in Portland, OR, 2010
I’m not gonna say I’m posting Saint Vitus‘ “The Troll” only because I feel like I haven’t left the house in two weeks, but I will allow that was the original impetus behind my selecting the song, which originally appeared on 1988’s Mournful Cries. The blinds pulled down, the window air conditioner blasting, my ass firmly planted on the couch for untold hours to come, I’m nothing if not consistent. Oh sure, I’ll emerge to take a bag of trash out, or to pour water from a pot when, say, the pipes under my kitchen sink start leaking water all over the floor this morning for no apparent reason, but having been unemployed for over three solid months and having been sans The Patient Mrs. for two weeks, I’ve more or less reverted to shut-in status. I try not to put the tv too loud so the neighbors won’t hear which baseball team I like. Their front door is about six inches from mine and people judge you for that shit.
So yeah, if the theme I want to work with is self-removal from human society, then “The Troll,” albeit exaggerated, fits that. As a complementary motivation for this clip in particular, which was filmed June 26, 2010, in Portland, Oregon, drummer Henry Vasquez absolutely kills it here. This was earlier into his tenure behind the kit for Vitus, and I remember seeing them in Brooklyn later in 2009 when he’d first joined and thinking he was playing some of the parts fast. He’s more settled in this video, but still has a killer swing in giving his ride cymbal a workout. There was no way he wasn’t going to come across loud, but of course Dave Chandler‘s guitar and Mark Adams‘ bass hold their own, and Wino gives an excellent retelling of the lyrics, to which, if I haven’t made it clear, I’m having an easy time relating these days.
Enjoy and have a great Wino Wednesday:
