i need to see that again (pt. 1)
saturday, 30 april 2005...
ithaca, ny...
cornell university...
noyes community center...
was the m-er f-ing place to be.
as i said i would, i made the trip to see The Russian Futurists, Junior Boys, and Caribou this past saturday, and trust me, it was so well worth it. driving there by myself got to be pretty lonely after about an hour into the trip, and the cloudy weather didn't exactly help diffuse that feeling. i had to take the i-90 for about 93 miles, and my right foot/leg was getting crazy tired, so i finally decided to try and figure out how to work my cruise control, which was thankfully pretty simple and definitely came in handy for the drive home. so anyway, here's how the situation played out. originally, either mike or emily were gonna come with me, and i was gonna drive there, see the show, and drive back that night, but it turned out that neither could make it, so it looked like i was gonna fly solo for both trips. i told my mom, and of course she wouldn't have it, so she talked to one of her best friends whose son, rich, i went to ctk with and who goes to cornell, and she pretty much asked if i could stay in his dorm overnight. it turned out that rich had an interview for a summer internship on the monday following the show and needed a ride back home to buffalo, so pretty much everything worked out great. and oh yeah, his dorm also happened to be right next to noyes community center, like right right next to it, so that was also perfect.
the bands themselves were magnificent. The Russian Futurists were very good, Junior Boys were excellent, and Caribou...well, let it suffice to say that words fail to adequately describe their performance and that i was pretty much blown away. i mean yeah, i may be biased, but their performance alone would've made the trip worth it (not to discredit TRF and JB, not in the least, but Caribou were just that good).
even though "The Russian Futurists is Matthew Adam Hart" (as it clearly indicates on their albums, the two most recent of which i bought at the show, but more on that later), there were four guys playing on stage, which definitely made their performance better than what probably would've otherwise been one guy, a laptop, maybe a synth or two, and a microphone. from right to left as i saw them on stage, the first guy played acoustic guitar, synth, percussion (tambourine, bells), and sang; the second guy, who i think might've been Matthew Adam Hart, had two synths and sang; the third guy sang lead and, i think, also used a laptop or something to play the beats; and the fourth guy had two synths and sang. the reason i wasn't sure which one Matthew Adam Hart was (it was clearly one of the two guys in the middle) is because, even though he looked like the guy in the picture on the band's website, the second guy on stage, who i initially thought was MAH, wasn't singing lead, which you'd figure the guy who pretty much is the band would do, but i'm pretty sure that the second guy was MAH because he was singing along to (away from his mic) most of the lead vocal parts, and for someone to be playing two different synth parts and sing lead vocals all at once would be understandably difficult. but anyway, the band's set was comprised mostly of music from Let's Get Ready to Crumble and the new album Our Thickness, and i think they played one song from their first album, the name of which escapes me.
(part 2 of this entry will be posted in the next day or so. i can't finish it now because it would take way too long and because i have to do homework. details on Junior Boys' and Caribou's sets, as well as the $79 worth of merchandise i purchased, including awesome t-shirts, tour-only cds, and albums that hadn't yet been released in america, will be included in part 2. i know you're all probably going to lose sleep over not immediately being able to read the conclusion of this entry, and for that i apologize, but allow me to remind you that you can take solace from this overwhelming anticipation in the old saying, "good things come to those who wait." ok i'm done for now.)
ithaca, ny...
cornell university...
noyes community center...
was the m-er f-ing place to be.
as i said i would, i made the trip to see The Russian Futurists, Junior Boys, and Caribou this past saturday, and trust me, it was so well worth it. driving there by myself got to be pretty lonely after about an hour into the trip, and the cloudy weather didn't exactly help diffuse that feeling. i had to take the i-90 for about 93 miles, and my right foot/leg was getting crazy tired, so i finally decided to try and figure out how to work my cruise control, which was thankfully pretty simple and definitely came in handy for the drive home. so anyway, here's how the situation played out. originally, either mike or emily were gonna come with me, and i was gonna drive there, see the show, and drive back that night, but it turned out that neither could make it, so it looked like i was gonna fly solo for both trips. i told my mom, and of course she wouldn't have it, so she talked to one of her best friends whose son, rich, i went to ctk with and who goes to cornell, and she pretty much asked if i could stay in his dorm overnight. it turned out that rich had an interview for a summer internship on the monday following the show and needed a ride back home to buffalo, so pretty much everything worked out great. and oh yeah, his dorm also happened to be right next to noyes community center, like right right next to it, so that was also perfect.
the bands themselves were magnificent. The Russian Futurists were very good, Junior Boys were excellent, and Caribou...well, let it suffice to say that words fail to adequately describe their performance and that i was pretty much blown away. i mean yeah, i may be biased, but their performance alone would've made the trip worth it (not to discredit TRF and JB, not in the least, but Caribou were just that good).
even though "The Russian Futurists is Matthew Adam Hart" (as it clearly indicates on their albums, the two most recent of which i bought at the show, but more on that later), there were four guys playing on stage, which definitely made their performance better than what probably would've otherwise been one guy, a laptop, maybe a synth or two, and a microphone. from right to left as i saw them on stage, the first guy played acoustic guitar, synth, percussion (tambourine, bells), and sang; the second guy, who i think might've been Matthew Adam Hart, had two synths and sang; the third guy sang lead and, i think, also used a laptop or something to play the beats; and the fourth guy had two synths and sang. the reason i wasn't sure which one Matthew Adam Hart was (it was clearly one of the two guys in the middle) is because, even though he looked like the guy in the picture on the band's website, the second guy on stage, who i initially thought was MAH, wasn't singing lead, which you'd figure the guy who pretty much is the band would do, but i'm pretty sure that the second guy was MAH because he was singing along to (away from his mic) most of the lead vocal parts, and for someone to be playing two different synth parts and sing lead vocals all at once would be understandably difficult. but anyway, the band's set was comprised mostly of music from Let's Get Ready to Crumble and the new album Our Thickness, and i think they played one song from their first album, the name of which escapes me.
(part 2 of this entry will be posted in the next day or so. i can't finish it now because it would take way too long and because i have to do homework. details on Junior Boys' and Caribou's sets, as well as the $79 worth of merchandise i purchased, including awesome t-shirts, tour-only cds, and albums that hadn't yet been released in america, will be included in part 2. i know you're all probably going to lose sleep over not immediately being able to read the conclusion of this entry, and for that i apologize, but allow me to remind you that you can take solace from this overwhelming anticipation in the old saying, "good things come to those who wait." ok i'm done for now.)