Vapors of Morphine

Vapors of Morphine, which plays Atwood's in Cambridge every Saturday night, must take its core audience for granted. I say this because Sept 10's show was band-indulgent and meandering, with loads of arty feedback and messing around with pedals. In fact, when Dana Colley looked around and saw some new faces, he realized that he might be alienating them, and said so. I will say that the quality of the sound system was excellent, and these men can play the hell out of their instruments.
The "low guitar" player (Jeremy?) had six guitars on stage. My nephew said to me recently that bands of a certain era only played together so that individual members could show off. That's why, IMHO, a person brings six guitars. I prefer a band that plays together like they're one intricate mechanism, in service to the larger task of creating memorable music.
There were definitely moments when that kind of service took place onstage. Song #1 was rooted and irresistible, but it had to be isolated from the murk that surrounded it--the 1st interruption in the roiling sound was after about 4 songs. The wordless song #2 was interesting and very nearly lovely.
There were moments when VOM's performances jelled, and then long stretches when each player was just contributing. I found myself longing for a different iteration of Colley. We saw him a few years back reunited with Three Colors, and that was terrific. But I acknowledge here that my husband loves sonic noise and thought everything that we heard at Atwood's was great.
We didn't end up staying for more than maybe seven or eight songs. The humidity was too suffocating that night for us to hang out if there was no spark. I expect that if I'd gone to see this band in Texas or in Italy, the spark might have been there. But for the crowd of reliable regulars...
I know that it can't be easy for VOM to exist in the shadow of the late Mark Sandman, but using the name 'Morphine' in their moniker kind of forces a comparison. It has been more than two decades since I last saw Sandman on a stage. But last time I did, he didn't go in much for indulgence.