i just got home after Okkervil River, and man, what a fucking show. i actually half want to go to a bad show so as I have somethign more unpredictable to say, but I'm on a real streak. They played everything you'd want them to play and with such ferocity and energy. You know you're watching a good show when they seem to be having as good a time as you. What can I say, it was sheer craftsmanship.
After I was having a few beers in a bar and the band wandered in, so I went and spoke to Will Sheff, came across as a really nice, humble man. We shook hands and i left him to the rather lovely looking lady who'd taken an interest in him.
My girlfreind took over 300 photo's so I might post a few of them in the next couple of days. Tommorow I'm seeing Broken Social Scene so I'll report back after that.
I saw them a couple of years back, and they were absolutely spectacular - I went to the show not having heard them on record, yet every song was immense and had a way of pulling you in straight away - Will Sheff kind of sings like a sober Tim Kasher...also, met them then and they were among some of the nicest, most sound people ever, and gave me a copy of Black Sheep Boy - I'm gutted that I missed them on their more recent outings, though
Other good gigs recently (ish):
Furthest Drive Home/Tellison/The Maple State - Erring to the generic side of emo-ness, but still a sign that the genre hasn't wiped itself out entirely, all of the bands had enough oomph to sound awesome on stage. The audience credited their efforts by standing rigid and staring the ENTIRE TIME. I think I was one of about two people attempting to move.
Tonight Is Goodbye - kind of disappointing - Largely because all-ages gigs are either: full of people desperate to see the bands, who are young enough not to have cultivated the kind of polite disdain for the musicians on stage and dance like their lives depend on it (the good kind),
or the kind of all-ages gig where you walk into a room full of 15 year old scenesters-in-training who turn and stare because a) you're a foot taller than them and b) you're not kitted out in the kind of clothes they sell in the catalogues that come with Kerrang! magazine. It would have been ok if the band were special enough to detract from it, but, they weren't.
The Good Life - I've never seen Tim Kasher so pissed on a stage. Or on an amp. Or skating round the venue on said amp. Still pretty immense.
And, I'm missing
MGMT tomorrow because it's sold out and my blagging skills have deserted me, missed
I Was A Cub Scout last week because I was putting on a club night (which the drummer later came to - woop!), missed
Grammatics because they cancelled...
BUT - seeing
This City/Data:Select:Party next week and
The Ghost Frequency the week after.