The Dead Part of You

So last night was the big ALTERNATIVE ROCK [TM] show down at the Orpheum Theater - MIRACLE ON TREMONT STREET it was called, brought to you by the good folks at WFNX.

Can I back this up a bit? About two months ago Cold War Kids announced a headlining show at The Roxy, both Rob and I were pretty excited about it. Tickets never went on sale, and the gig wound up being lumped into this ALTERNATIVE RADIO event. I didn't really want to go, but we got tickets anyway, figuring how painful could it be.

We got there in time for Mute Math, who apparently have some kind of crossover hit - and by crossover I mean from ALTERNATIVE ROCK RADIO to like contemporary Christian. And to be truthful, their first three songs sucked. I mean sucked real hard. But you know - the last two songs they did were damn good, actually. Real noisy, post-rock...MUTE MATH! YOU HAVE RECEIVED A "C" GRADE FOR YOUR PERFORMANCE!!!

Against Me! played next, and it was the most generic punk rock you ever heard. Actually, I've heard better in pretty much any bar basement on a Friday night. However to keep myself entertained, I thought about how it would be so much better if they played naked. And had butt sex on stage with each other instead of playing music at all.

I'd totally tap it.
When Cold War Kids started up, out of nowhere these two really skanky girls appeared right in front of us and started dancing and hitting on everyone around them. These were some real "girls with low self esteem". And you know? Cold War Kids really isn't the soundtrack for that kind of behavior. Cold War Kids is actually much sleazier - and they totally brought it last night. The whole blue eyed white boy soul? Worked it fierce. The two new songs were great, almost spaghetti-westernish. Once the distracting skanks moved on, the show was great. Thirty five minutes was not nearly enough.

Spoon? Meh. I was SO tired and SO hungry and SO cranky by then [it was 9:45 and I hadn't eaten since lunch] I just wanted to leave. Rob convinced me to check out a few songs, and after 4 or so we just left. The songs were good, but Spoon had zero stage presence. If I was into their records, I'm sure I would have thought it was a great show, but not knowing any of the songs, seeing them live wasn't the best introduction. Will I check out a Spoon record though? THE ANSWER IS YES, IF IT IS REALLY CHEAP USED OR SOMEONE JUST GIVES IT TO ME!!

So the point of the story is I really wish Cold War Kids had just kept their headlining date instead of getting thrown into this corporate radio mash of mostly crap. Also, I need to remember to eat dinner - it might make me feel better about these things.