The world's last unpleasant experience will be a precisely dateable event
I am giving myself exactly 6 minutes to write this, in the hopes that I will sleep before work tomorrow.
Somehow, I got to Lincoln Hall too early tonight. Doors were at 7, the show was mean to start at 8... and I aimed to be there around 7:45. Despite working until 6, goofing around at the spice store and aquarium store, and downing an entire Chipotle burrito, I still got to the venue around 7:20. And I was the only non-employee there. Okay, there were a couple of people at the bar (literally. Two). But I had no reason to be at the bar, so I found a secluded corner in the main hall and texted look_alive incessantly to keep myself from looking and feeling like a huge nerd.
I eventually moved into the balcony upstairs because I didn't want to be the only person on the dance floor. The first opener (Cains and Abels) actually played to an almost-empty house, save for the 10 or 15 of us that were up in the balcony area. The crowd filled in as they played, though, and the crowd was... nice, actually. There wasn't much heckling (the band did most of that themselves) and for such a small crowd, they got quite respectable amounts of applause (they were also not bad, though not at all in the same vein as the main act. They were kind of like a cross between Band of Horses and Akron/Family.)
The second opener was Extreme Animals and this is where "I had no idea what to expect from this show" comes into play, because... yeah. I mean, the opening song, which they announced as a Miley Cyrus cover, was kind of like a longform, more tuneful youtube poop, complete with glitchy video accompaniment. It was, on the whole, both confusing and rather amazing. Before the set was over, some random guy in the crowd invited himself on stage to tell all of us that if we did not love Extreme Animals right then and there, we simply did not know what love was. Then they played a song that borrowed music from the Harry Potter movies and sound from the Christine O'Donnell witchcraft accusation congressional race thing (which is "Am I Evil?" if you go to their site and feel like watching it). And mostly I sat there going "You know, I hope creative destruction and (mis)appropriation of other people's intellectual property isn't the thing people in the future look back on and go 'Man, we just don't get to have fun like they used to in the aughts'." coughSOPAcough
And then there was YACHT! Which, I mean... like I said, I didn't really know what to expect, because they're a kind of electro-poppy-dance band with a pseudo-cultish motif. But you know what? They were adorable and unassuming and really into performing for us (so it only took me the span of one song to decide to leave the balcony and go mingle with everyone on the floor, since there was no room to dance/social pressure against dancing upstairs). And visually intriguing (especially their non-main guitarist/keyboardist, who looked like Buddy Holly but was a girl, and sang like a girl. For the record, this is awesome.) And the A/V element of the show (though distracting at times, and a little like a sleek powerpoint at others) was an interesting addition. Plus they had everyone dancing, which is a huge plus for me because I'm used to shows where everyone folds their arms and maybe nods if they're really into it. And then the show ended with an after-curfew stripped-down, we've-never-rehearsed-this-and-don't-really-know-how-to-play-it version of Shangri-La in response to a good half of the audience shouting for it after they left the stage. And it, just... everyone in the band was sharing embarrassed, grinning looks and there were awkward timing miscues while the entire crowd (or at least me, and the part of it around me) shouted the lyrics and tried to keep time. It was just one of those lovely "everyone is into this! This is awesome!" moments. Plus it's always heartening to see a band willing to put themselves out there just to entertain the audience, regardless of whether they're completely prepared. So, yay, YACHT! They're not quite as sharp as they are on their albums in person, but they're still a lot of fun to watch and dance to, so they'll make it onto my list of shows to attend again (even if I may have joined a temporary cult in doing so).
Somehow, I got to Lincoln Hall too early tonight. Doors were at 7, the show was mean to start at 8... and I aimed to be there around 7:45. Despite working until 6, goofing around at the spice store and aquarium store, and downing an entire Chipotle burrito, I still got to the venue around 7:20. And I was the only non-employee there. Okay, there were a couple of people at the bar (literally. Two). But I had no reason to be at the bar, so I found a secluded corner in the main hall and texted look_alive incessantly to keep myself from looking and feeling like a huge nerd.
I eventually moved into the balcony upstairs because I didn't want to be the only person on the dance floor. The first opener (Cains and Abels) actually played to an almost-empty house, save for the 10 or 15 of us that were up in the balcony area. The crowd filled in as they played, though, and the crowd was... nice, actually. There wasn't much heckling (the band did most of that themselves) and for such a small crowd, they got quite respectable amounts of applause (they were also not bad, though not at all in the same vein as the main act. They were kind of like a cross between Band of Horses and Akron/Family.)
The second opener was Extreme Animals and this is where "I had no idea what to expect from this show" comes into play, because... yeah. I mean, the opening song, which they announced as a Miley Cyrus cover, was kind of like a longform, more tuneful youtube poop, complete with glitchy video accompaniment. It was, on the whole, both confusing and rather amazing. Before the set was over, some random guy in the crowd invited himself on stage to tell all of us that if we did not love Extreme Animals right then and there, we simply did not know what love was. Then they played a song that borrowed music from the Harry Potter movies and sound from the Christine O'Donnell witchcraft accusation congressional race thing (which is "Am I Evil?" if you go to their site and feel like watching it). And mostly I sat there going "You know, I hope creative destruction and (mis)appropriation of other people's intellectual property isn't the thing people in the future look back on and go 'Man, we just don't get to have fun like they used to in the aughts'." coughSOPAcough
And then there was YACHT! Which, I mean... like I said, I didn't really know what to expect, because they're a kind of electro-poppy-dance band with a pseudo-cultish motif. But you know what? They were adorable and unassuming and really into performing for us (so it only took me the span of one song to decide to leave the balcony and go mingle with everyone on the floor, since there was no room to dance/social pressure against dancing upstairs). And visually intriguing (especially their non-main guitarist/keyboardist, who looked like Buddy Holly but was a girl, and sang like a girl. For the record, this is awesome.) And the A/V element of the show (though distracting at times, and a little like a sleek powerpoint at others) was an interesting addition. Plus they had everyone dancing, which is a huge plus for me because I'm used to shows where everyone folds their arms and maybe nods if they're really into it. And then the show ended with an after-curfew stripped-down, we've-never-rehearsed-this-and-don't-really-know-how-to-play-it version of Shangri-La in response to a good half of the audience shouting for it after they left the stage. And it, just... everyone in the band was sharing embarrassed, grinning looks and there were awkward timing miscues while the entire crowd (or at least me, and the part of it around me) shouted the lyrics and tried to keep time. It was just one of those lovely "everyone is into this! This is awesome!" moments. Plus it's always heartening to see a band willing to put themselves out there just to entertain the audience, regardless of whether they're completely prepared. So, yay, YACHT! They're not quite as sharp as they are on their albums in person, but they're still a lot of fun to watch and dance to, so they'll make it onto my list of shows to attend again (even if I may have joined a temporary cult in doing so).