As my joyride month of free music closes, I find myself rudely thrust back into the civilian life of having to pay full price for concerts again. Pfft. (Though I’m trying to keep the train going by applying to win Caribou tickets. Brief summaries of the concerts I won:
Tegan and Sara: So I’d heard their names before, but until the day before the show, I couldn’t tell you if I’d heard their songs or not. (Turns out I had, without recognizing that it was T&S). I think some people get the impression that I know a lot about music, particularly indie rock and whatnot, but my knowledge is actually pretty patchwork, and this happened to be one of my blind spots. I can’t say I dug what little I heard during my pre-show research, but the show was pretty entertaining. Mostly I was amused by the aggressively dancing girl who danced her bony hipster ass in a circle around us, and who severely annoyed the diehard T&S at the show with me – “ugh. She’s not even a real fan.” Apparently little miss Tiny Dancer kept texting when she wasn’t jabbing us with her hips, and made the criminal noob mistake of cheering for their popular radio hits as opposed to their older songs. Anyhow, T&S put on a good show, and regaled the audience with lots of little quirky Canadienne anecdotes between songs.
I didn’t so much care for their opening act, Steel Train, comprised of a bunch of hipster gay boys playing 80′s prog-rock sendups. Just wasn’t my thing, really – and it didn’t help that they broke out into this barbershop quartet routine for one of their songs! They did have cool T-shirts, though.
Beach House: The only one of the four concerts that I would have actually purchased tickets for if I hadn’t won them, owing to the $14 price tag. I didn’t know much about them beforehand, either; I’d just listened to the live stream of their latest album “Teen Dream” off NPR. The album was amazing, of course, and they didn’t really deviate the way they played their songs, which usually bugs me. In this case it didn’t matter; hearing Victoria LeGrand’s ethereal, spookily androgynous voice fill physical space was positively enchanting. Eli mentioned that he had a much greater appreciation seeing the guitarist, Alex Scally, live – it’s tough to pull off dreamy, gauzy guitar plucking, and he does it well.
Their opening act was Bachelorette, a nice seeming girl from New Zealand. She played a short set owing to voice difficulties, though her singing sounded all right. I’m not the biggest fan of laptop-oriented music, though, and wished there was a little more to it besides that.
Jonsi: PHENOMENAL. I can’t stress this enough – if you have the opportunity, go see either him or his band of fellow Icelandic witchgoblins, Sigur Ros, live in concert. Even if you’re not particularly a big fan of the music as heard in mortal album form, just go. Something about the alchemy of a live concert experience transforms this music into a transcendental experience.
Didn’t catch the opener for Jonsi, a band with the highly misleading name of “Death Vessel” – a soft-voiced guy plucking an acoustic guitar.
The Flaming Lips: also a great band to see live, even if you’re not particularly into their music. It’s tough to top a performance that involves the band members emerging from a giant pulsating neon vagina, Wayne Coyne in his patented hamsterball roaming over the audience, a giant catfish attempting to clap with his little stubby fishy fins, and loads and loads of giant balloons and confetti jets.
Jack White’s newest band, The Dead Weather, opened for the Flaming Lips. That particular concert in Kansas City marked the only point on the bands’ respective tours where they would join forces; I guess the Flaming Lips have a long and happy history with Jack White dating back to the time they feuded with Beck while on tour. Jack White apparently cheered up the Lips by bestowing upon them a fiberoptic plastic Jesus, which inspired them to write a thank you song. Inexplicably, the Lips chose not to play this song at the concert? Maybe it was too expected.
Anyhow, the Dead Weather. They also put on a good show, though it was a straight up rock concert featuring straight up classic rock and roll. Krissy said she thought the lead singer, Alison Mosshart, looked completely strung out on heroin. I thought this was probably not the case, as she was bouncing and dancing around all over the stage…as to what she and the rest of the band would do recreationally after the show, of course, I couldn’t comment. Anyhow they looked like typical rock stars, dressed in black and too cool for school. Ho hum. Meanwhile I’m sitting in the audience, knitting. (That’s right bitches. I live life on the EDGE….of a needle.)
We also caught opening bands White Rabbits – who had an impressive percussion section – and Minus the Bear – who Krissy didn’t care for, but E and I enjoyed, though I wonder what they would sound like with the Bear (HA! I slay myself. I really should).
In summation, it was a great month for music in the world of karenology! The fact that so many great bands came (and continue to come) to this area reminds me how lucky we are in Lawrence, and how lucky I am to have been able to see all these shows. It’ll be tough to go back to gazing wistfully at shaky Youtube videos of live recordings. But it was great while it lasted!
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