| The Evens – Shelter Two Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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I normally never do the 'posting thang,' but for my man Ian MacKaye, I gots to. So I live out in Los Angeles, which is rather frustrating when you love Fugazi and the Evens, for you miss those rare opportunities to see them play. However, a few years back when The Evens Self-Titled record came out, I had the great fortune of seeing them play at a tiny little youth center an hour north of LA in Ventura. Anyway, the best song played that evening was Shelter Two, and i'll definitely always remember Ian's segway into the song. For the need of rhetorical device, let me provide a dramatization of Ian's words on the song: 'This song's called Shelter Two, and it's got a chorus that goes 'it's all downhill from here, and that's normally a bad thing, but we, The Evens, think that if you can only go downhill, then you must be in a pretty high place, a pretty good place.' So my dear friends, Galongdafar and Terminal Saint, you guys have great opinions, but the Evens got the best of you this time around. The chorus is playing with colloquialisms, and turning around the meaning of 'it's all downhill from here,' into a positive thing. Shelter Two is about being a great position; about finding your wife and realizing that life can only get easier as you get older. What's funny is that in the world of mountaineering/backpacking, the term is generally a positive one too, and you'll hear many-a-hikers exclaim with jovial optimism that 'it's all downhill from here guys!' Maybe Amy and Ian do the hike thing as a couple? That'd be darling. Pretty mushy stuff for Ian, right? But then again, judging from the stuff Rites of Spring used to do, I always assumed that Guy brought forth a lot of the 'sadder' elements in Fugazi's lyrics. Regardless, a chromatic riff on a baritone guitar is supreme regardless of lyrical content, and easily qualifies Shelter Two as the best song on their first record. Had 'Get Evens' not come out, and had I not heard 'Cut From The Cloth' or 'No Money,' then it'd probably fall as the best Evens song to date in my book. |
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