Music

A rainy night with Ty Segall

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Segall, singin’ in the rain.
Photo: Adam Shane

I’ve caught a bunch of Ty Segall shows over the years, and I’ve even seen him multiple times on the Beauty Bar’s outdoor stage. But this past weekend, I caught him in what I now believe to be the ideal Segall setting: with raindrops landing on our heads.

The drizzle—fortunately it only became more than that after the set had ended—began minutes before the headliner’s ludicrously-late-for-a-Sunday-night 12:23 a.m. start. As the venue’s soundman hurried to cover his gear with tarps and the audience fretted over a potential cancellation, Segall strode onstage and began raging in the rain.

Pulling 12 of the night’s 17 songs from August album Manipulator, the fuzzy-haired, fuzzy-guitar-toned Californian drove his three-piece backing band with an edgy energy returned by the near-capacity crowd. Even when the chaotic moshpit went from fun to foolish (see: the two heads I watched smash together during “Feel”), neither that distraction nor a middling sound mix could put a damper on a weird and wet night Downtown.

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