REVIEW: Walt Mink, Goodnite (Deep Elm)
- Kerwin So
The venerable Walt Mink is gone. Through eight years of drummer mishaps, promising opening slots, and a string of management and label troubles too intricate to list here, the "New York by way of Minnesota" power trio have decided to call it quits. Musically, Walt Mink's sound was grounded in unique time signatures, nimble yet memorable guitar hooks, and singer John Kimbrough's sparkling, freshly-scrubbed tenor. As a final offering to its small but devoted fan base, Walt Mink (with the help of John Agnello and Kurt Wolf) has recorded and released the live album Goodnite, capturing the band’s last (and arguably best) moments on stage at New York's Mercury Lounge on November 1, 1997.
The recording starts off with the chugging beat of the new song "Fourth Wave" that Walt Mink wrote for just this occasion, and it's clear that this is the band's swan song from the lines, 'Open up your mind / to all the brand new sounds / Listen to the music from the sky / and say goodbye.' While this new tune never fully succeeds in getting off the ground, the Mink get right down to business by blasting next into "Stood Up." You're listening to this track and wondering how Yngwie Malmstein managed to survive the late 90s, and just when you think the pot's gonna boil over, Walt Mink's lightning-quick dexterity clamps the lid down again, never forgetting that 'arena rock', 'prog rock', and 'indie rock' in the end must still... rock.
Indeed, all throughout Goodnite, Walt Mink rocks you the way you want to be rocked: with crashing dynamics, blazing guitar heroics, and an odd meter twist here and there to keep you on your toes. The blistering version of "Frail" delivered here burns full throttle and convinces you that there is no tomorrow. Many other songs here rage with the same elegant ferocity, making you grind your teeth in delight and ask yourself how they could have kept their energy up through gigs like this. No doubt Walt Mink pummelled the crowd into submission on many nights like this, all the while making it look as effortless as slinging on a feather boa.
Goodnite is even arranged to feel like a real live rock concert, complete with snippets of between-song banter and hollerings from the crowd for encores, of which they receive several. "Subway" is a refreshing blast of hummable pop-rock after one of such breaks. The record closes with the acoustic favorite "Settled", during which the audience whistles along and Kimbrough laments, "Love was never here." On the heels of Walt Mink's demise, it doesn't take a genius to figure out what he's implying.
Although the live tunes on Goodnite do often blend into each other homogenously, Walt Mink has proven once and for all that it could rock the house till the walls came down. It's proof not soon to be forgotten, and Goodnite is a fitting tribute to a band who will be missed.
