After discovering crazy-awesome British indie pop band Los Campesinos! about three weeks ago, the Super Awesome Squad knew that if we didn't see their show at Great American, we'd regret it when they played a larger venue next tour. Apparently not many people shared our views: it was the smallest show we've ever been to at that venue. The balcony was closed, they put up tables on the edge of the dance floor, we got there half an hour after doors opened, and we were still in the front row. Zoe got really weirded out by the tables, which had never been on the floor in her presence before; Sophie had to reassure her. It was a bit traumatizing.
The opening bands were...amusing. Sugar and Gold had kind of frightening outfits but played very danceable funk music. The read-headed lead singer of The Most Serene Republic marched about in an odd fashion reminiscent of both the singer from Voxtrot and Ian Curtis. He also brandished his trombone with impressive command. They were OK but could have been much more impressive considering the array of instruments covered. All of their songs sounded pretty similar and were too loud to distinguish between all of the instruments. Unfortunately a drove of what Zoe described as "old people" (in reality people who were probably about 28) left immediately after MSR. Tragedy.
Los Campesinos! put on a really good show despite horribly unenthusiastic crowd. Their lead singer ("Tom Campesinos!", Wikipedia tells us) was practically-wait, no, just straight up was-the definition of twee. He was bashful and adorable, had a very high pitched, quiet speaking voice, and a haircut that covered half his face. Most of the band looked about our age. Due to their very limited material, they played every song off their EP and a bunch of new material, all of which was really good. We danced and screamed our heads off the whole time, and it was a ton of fun, but we didn't get an encore as apparently our feelings were only shared by a few people around us. Also, living note from the Squad: if a guy named Casey who goes to Berkeley is standing behind you at a show in the Bay Area, MOVE IMMEDIATELY. He is creepy.
And another living note: if the song is called "You! Me! Dancing!" .... fucking DANCE! Come on people. Hopefully by the next time the band tours, more people will have come to appreciate the awesomeness that is Los Campesinos!
Here's a video of a new "love ballad" they played ("Knee-Deep at the ATP"):
Showing posts with label shows. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shows. Show all posts
17.11.07
Of Montreal at GAMH (14.11.07)
Due to the insanity of life right now (moving + school + college applications), I hadn't been able to write about this show yet, but guess what? IT'S HAPPENING NOW, PEOPLE.
This was my second time seeing Of Montreal at Great American. The first thing I noticed, obviously, was the stage setup. There was a big platform that lighted up and smaller platforms which would flash different colors (check it out in the videos, below).
The crowd at the show was pretty interesting and different than the general hipster-y crowd that I expect to see at most shows I attend. There was a group of guys next to us who were all wearing dresses and Kevin Barnes-style makeup. There were some girls behind us with crazy neon colored wigs and weird dresses. Most people in the front few rows looked like they were dressed for a rave.
Before MGMT started, there was a weird comedian who came on for a few minutes. I don't really know if he's worth describing. MGMT were pretty ok, if not that interesting. They were a pretty typical opening band; too loud and vaguely good. However, they weren't good enough that I didn't get kind of tired of them after twenty minutes.
I struggle to find words to describe the strangeness that was Grand Buffet. Try to imagine a skinny red haired bearded guy in a Chinese style outfit and a kind of large guy with chains on his huge shorts, rapping, singing and dancing with great conviction about subjects such as finding a cat. It was WAY weirder than Alaska in Winter.
Of Montreal came on, and from the very first second of music the crowd turned into some kind of insane indie pop mosh pit/rave. Literally, I was not standing still for one second of the show, from their opening Prince covers to the last song of the encore. They played mostly Hissing Fauna material, but we did get some Sunlandic Twins and Satanic Panic stuff as well (sadly, I have STILL not seen My British Tour Diary live). Highlights included Grondalic Edit, the closing cover of Purple Rain (video below) and Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games as the first song of the encore (halfway through the song Kevin Barnes broke into "Let's go Outback tonight!"). This wasn't one of those shows that I wanted to go on forever, as I would have probably collapsed from exhaustion, but it was still a ton of fun.
As one last note, something must be said about Kevin's costume change midway through the show.... he started out wearing a almost normal blue jumpsuit type thing, but when he came back from the costume change he was wearing the tiniest and tightest denim one piece EVER, along with blue fishnets, boots, and innumerable sequins. I don't think I ever needed to see that much of Kevin Barnes thighs. But it was pretty amusing.
The second half of this video really displays the overall mood of the show.
Purple Rain!
This was my second time seeing Of Montreal at Great American. The first thing I noticed, obviously, was the stage setup. There was a big platform that lighted up and smaller platforms which would flash different colors (check it out in the videos, below).
The crowd at the show was pretty interesting and different than the general hipster-y crowd that I expect to see at most shows I attend. There was a group of guys next to us who were all wearing dresses and Kevin Barnes-style makeup. There were some girls behind us with crazy neon colored wigs and weird dresses. Most people in the front few rows looked like they were dressed for a rave.
Before MGMT started, there was a weird comedian who came on for a few minutes. I don't really know if he's worth describing. MGMT were pretty ok, if not that interesting. They were a pretty typical opening band; too loud and vaguely good. However, they weren't good enough that I didn't get kind of tired of them after twenty minutes.
I struggle to find words to describe the strangeness that was Grand Buffet. Try to imagine a skinny red haired bearded guy in a Chinese style outfit and a kind of large guy with chains on his huge shorts, rapping, singing and dancing with great conviction about subjects such as finding a cat. It was WAY weirder than Alaska in Winter.
Of Montreal came on, and from the very first second of music the crowd turned into some kind of insane indie pop mosh pit/rave. Literally, I was not standing still for one second of the show, from their opening Prince covers to the last song of the encore. They played mostly Hissing Fauna material, but we did get some Sunlandic Twins and Satanic Panic stuff as well (sadly, I have STILL not seen My British Tour Diary live). Highlights included Grondalic Edit, the closing cover of Purple Rain (video below) and Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games as the first song of the encore (halfway through the song Kevin Barnes broke into "Let's go Outback tonight!"). This wasn't one of those shows that I wanted to go on forever, as I would have probably collapsed from exhaustion, but it was still a ton of fun.
As one last note, something must be said about Kevin's costume change midway through the show.... he started out wearing a almost normal blue jumpsuit type thing, but when he came back from the costume change he was wearing the tiniest and tightest denim one piece EVER, along with blue fishnets, boots, and innumerable sequins. I don't think I ever needed to see that much of Kevin Barnes thighs. But it was pretty amusing.
The second half of this video really displays the overall mood of the show.
Purple Rain!
11.11.07
Jens Lekman Interview (9.11.07) and Show Review
As promised, I have uploaded the interview with Jens here for your downloading pleasure.
The sound quality isn't the best, we were in a tiny backstage room that was quite echo-y. But it's still awesome! Listen to me as I nerdily mention Beirut for no reason!
Before I talk about the show, I want to say a little about what happened before it (which was a lot, I spent a total of 7 hours in Bimbo's on Friday). When I got to Bimbo's at 5 pm as instructed, there was no one there and it was locked. I called Jens tour manager and no one responded. I waited about a minute more outside (just slightly freaking out) before two vans pulled up. Jens was in the passenger seat of the second one.
I was quickly introduced to him by his tour manager and then this happened.
Jens: "Hi..... can you carry that guitar in for me?"
Me: "Okay, sure!"
My mind: "OMFG JENS LEKMAN JUST ASKED ME TO CARRY HIS GUITAR!!!!1!!11"
So that was pretty surreal to start out with. I passed the next two hours until the interview actually happened sitting around in the basically empty Bimbo's watching people setting up equipment and listening to them speak in Swedish. Sound check was pretty sweet as my mom and I were the only people in the room other than the sound guy.
So. The show. The opening band, Throw Me The Statue, were overall pretty good. The first few songs were a little too slow and made me kind of tired, but the middle few songs were pretty damn awesome. They reminded me of a strange mixture of Voxtrot and Grizzly Bear. But maybe I'm completely wrong, you can go listen to their music and decide for yourself! One thing that was pretty sweet was that they gave about 20 people in the audience little egg shaped shakers for one song (these came in useful later).
After the break, Jens sample and computer handling guy (and the only male in his band) came on stage and started playing music. This was very confusing. He was playing songs by The Tough Alliance, all of which Jens uses samples from. We didn't really know whether the show was starting or not. Thankfully, after about ten minutes of this, Jens and his incredibly adorable all female band came on. They were all wearing matching white outfits, which all had different things embroidered on them (the bicycle was my favorite). I struggle to describe the awesomeness that ensued. The sample guy played the backing samples, but with the viola, violin, trumpet, sax, bass, drums and guitar on top of them, the songs sounded even more crazy and beautiful than on the album. His voice was much more impressive and perfect sounding. The songs that were preformed solo (such as "Shirin") were very gorgeous and completely different than the album versions. Overall it was an awesome brightly colored disco-ball-spotted Swedish dance party. I doubt I have ever laughed so much at a show. "A Postcard to Nina" was completely epic. He filled in the other parts of the story between verses.
"Then her father said to me 'Jens. I found you on the internet. You have a beautiful voice.' Then dinner got very awkward. It was like that scene from Buffalo 66. But in Germany. "
The crowd was really enthusiastic and thanks to that we got two encores of solo songs, including "Pocketful of Money". Someone started using their shaker from earlier. Jens said "Oh, someone has a shaker!" When 20 other people joined them, the expression on his face was pretty memorable.
The sound quality isn't the best, we were in a tiny backstage room that was quite echo-y. But it's still awesome! Listen to me as I nerdily mention Beirut for no reason!
Before I talk about the show, I want to say a little about what happened before it (which was a lot, I spent a total of 7 hours in Bimbo's on Friday). When I got to Bimbo's at 5 pm as instructed, there was no one there and it was locked. I called Jens tour manager and no one responded. I waited about a minute more outside (just slightly freaking out) before two vans pulled up. Jens was in the passenger seat of the second one.
I was quickly introduced to him by his tour manager and then this happened.
Jens: "Hi..... can you carry that guitar in for me?"
Me: "Okay, sure!"
My mind: "OMFG JENS LEKMAN JUST ASKED ME TO CARRY HIS GUITAR!!!!1!!11"
So that was pretty surreal to start out with. I passed the next two hours until the interview actually happened sitting around in the basically empty Bimbo's watching people setting up equipment and listening to them speak in Swedish. Sound check was pretty sweet as my mom and I were the only people in the room other than the sound guy.
So. The show. The opening band, Throw Me The Statue, were overall pretty good. The first few songs were a little too slow and made me kind of tired, but the middle few songs were pretty damn awesome. They reminded me of a strange mixture of Voxtrot and Grizzly Bear. But maybe I'm completely wrong, you can go listen to their music and decide for yourself! One thing that was pretty sweet was that they gave about 20 people in the audience little egg shaped shakers for one song (these came in useful later).
After the break, Jens sample and computer handling guy (and the only male in his band) came on stage and started playing music. This was very confusing. He was playing songs by The Tough Alliance, all of which Jens uses samples from. We didn't really know whether the show was starting or not. Thankfully, after about ten minutes of this, Jens and his incredibly adorable all female band came on. They were all wearing matching white outfits, which all had different things embroidered on them (the bicycle was my favorite). I struggle to describe the awesomeness that ensued. The sample guy played the backing samples, but with the viola, violin, trumpet, sax, bass, drums and guitar on top of them, the songs sounded even more crazy and beautiful than on the album. His voice was much more impressive and perfect sounding. The songs that were preformed solo (such as "Shirin") were very gorgeous and completely different than the album versions. Overall it was an awesome brightly colored disco-ball-spotted Swedish dance party. I doubt I have ever laughed so much at a show. "A Postcard to Nina" was completely epic. He filled in the other parts of the story between verses.
"Then her father said to me 'Jens. I found you on the internet. You have a beautiful voice.' Then dinner got very awkward. It was like that scene from Buffalo 66. But in Germany. "
The crowd was really enthusiastic and thanks to that we got two encores of solo songs, including "Pocketful of Money". Someone started using their shaker from earlier. Jens said "Oh, someone has a shaker!" When 20 other people joined them, the expression on his face was pretty memorable.
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