So last night was the big indie rock show over at the BU Agannis Arena. Interpol played with The Liars opening up. I think it was the most average show I've seen ever.
Rob and I got there just about on time and went through the airport security, where we saw a girl not be able to take her Mentos in. Going up the stairs I told Rob "I'm never coming here again - not even if Low play here" but he heard me say "Lohan", to which I realized I would totally go back there if Lindsay Lohan was playing anything.
The arena's basically a big hockey rink [I was counting seats and estimated something like a 6K capacity] - and when The Liars finally came on it was maybe 10% full. On most days, The Liars would have had me running from the arena screaming, but not last night! I was not expecting no-wave art noise as an opening act and it was A WONDERFUL SURPRISE!!! A++ to The Liars! Rob, and from what I could tell most of the arena, hated them. But then again, they all probably hate Confusion is Sex era Sonic Youth also.
SO, the big Interpol show. They came on later than I thought they would [9:20], to an arena that still seemed pretty empty. The seats had filled in, but since the floor was only 2/3 full of seats there were still huge aisles and awkward spaces.
At the time I enjoyed the show just fine. They played a good selection of songs well, with accompanying lights. Mostly the first two records, and the strongest material [Mammoth, No I In Threesome] from the new record. The crowd was polite and well behaved. I reflected on where I was in my life when TOTBL came out compared to when Antics came out compared to now. Even getting home wasn't a problem. But today? I have to admit that was the most average show I think I've ever seen. I may as well have just stayed home and listened to the records loud while flipping a light switch off and on.
It's kind of funny, how different the experience was at Lollapalooza - dancing in the rain in a ball field while they play instead of standing in a hockey rink makes all the difference. Also, they played the exact same set, and while it's a good set, I didn't need to see it twice in the space of a month. The order was slightly different and "C'mere" was added last night, but otherwise it was the same 16 songs.
Would I go see The Liars again? PROBABLY IF I WAS IN THE MOOD. And Interpol? I HAVE HAD MY FILL OF INTERPOL FOR THIS YEAR, THANK YOU AND GOOD NIGHT!
Also, you know what sucks? I used to post my show reviews to BostonNow and Last.fm, but keep getting shitty flame war comments from 17 year olds who don't get it, so I'm not doing that anymore. It makes me long for the day all that crap was well corralled by AOL. As much as we all chanted "AOL sucks", it really did keep a lot of idiots off the rest of the internet.
You know what I forgot about last night?
1 - Even though that Animal Collective album leaked onto the internet months ago, I still haven't heard anything from it yet, since I wanted to hear it properly in it's entirety, instead of piece by piece. If you make music good enough that people wait to give you money for it, you are doing OK in the music business.
2 - That scene in Airport where Charlton Heston is on the radio trying to explain to Karen Black how to make the plane "go left"? Yeah, that was TOTALLY the world's first help desk call.
Over the weekend I started some weird 70s disaster movie kick. Tonight I'm watching Airport 75, yesterday was Airport 77 - you know, where the plane went underwater in the Bermuda Triangle.
ANYWAY, last week Animal Collective was just awesome. I had high expectations, and they were exceeded. Is it ElectroniHippie? HippieTronica? Who can say. It pulsed and bounced and hurt my ears and I loved it. They were backlit by strobes and it killed my eyes and I loved it.
Ooh - the radio just went dead on Karen Black, and the plane is too low to get over the mountains.
The crowd was much younger than I expected, more hippies than I expected. I had played a few songs for Rob, and his fresh ears completely heard why the hippies would like it, and yeah, I guess it is music to trip out to. In a Butthole Surfers kind of way. Really, I can't recommend the live Animal Collective experience enough though, which is much more energetic, and slightly less noisy, and slightly more organized than their records. I'm tempted to road trip to another show, no, not really. But I do hope they come back on this tour.
Animal Collective's Strawberry Jam comes out tomorrow [along with The Go! Team's new record], and here's a secret - if you buy it at Newbury Comics and ask for a limited edition pint glass they will give it to you for free if they have them. But you have to ask, they won't just hand it over to you, as I learned with the Interpol pint glass.
