Built To Spill
The Casbah has so much faith in Built to Spill’s Keep It Like a Secret 1999-2019 Tour that it booked the band for a rare three night stand, from November 12 through 14. All the promo blurbs refer to them as “indie,” ignoring the fact that two decades spent on a major label is no more roughing it than glampers ensconced in the VIP tent at Coachella (besides, isn’t indie really more of an adjective than a genre?). The record being celebrated on its 20th anniversary, Keep It Like a Secret, was somewhat groundbreaking in the way it made guitar jams a focal point of an album otherwise steeped hip-deep in almost bubblegum simple pop hooks, a trick not pulled off with much aplomb since the glory days of Pearl Jam and the Melvins. It’s perhaps one of the most ’90s albums of the ’90s.
Although Boise Idaho bandleader Doug Martsch had previously enjoyed (with Treepeople and Halo Benders) and has gone on to accrue a fair amount of success, never has his band sounded so perfectly distilled as on that 20 year-old release. A case could be made that Keep It Like a Secret has held up best of all Built to Spill’s eight albums and five EPs. For their first major road trip since releasing Untethered Moon in 2015, the band will head out in June and play a total of 83 shows, with the local dates among the last dozen of a long sojourn.