live show: Nerissa & Katryna Nields w/ Common Rotation
Went out tonight for an early show with a physicist, an engineer, and a computer science PhD. Geeks for friends: accept no substitutes.
The opening act: Common Rotation, probably familiar to BtVS fans as the band in which Adam Busch (Warren) sings. Not the best band I've ever seen live, but definitely one of the most charming. Geek-boy folk-pop! And with the dancing that's really just bouncing up and down! Tremendously endearing. And the music's good too; they opened with "Indie Rockin'," which got my attention right away, and "Sit Down" sent me wandering over to the merch table to pick up Big Fear, their latest CD - which also features a good cover of "Don't Let's Start," one of my favorite They Might Be Giants songs. Makes sense; the band's live show, at least, could be described as an odd but mostly successful amalgam of early Vertical Horizon and latter-day Nerf Herder, with splashes of TMBG and Uncle Tupelo.
Man, I'm missing my music icon right now.
Anyhow - Nerissa and Katryna Nields. I have to admit that I prefer and miss the full-band incarnation; their live show doesn't have the same over-the-top energy when it's just the two of them. But I still love them. (Plus, I could watch Katryna dance all night. ::fans self::) Tonight's show took a while to really click; they opened with "Best Black Dress," followed by a few more songs from older albums, and sounded fine but not inspiring. When they hit "Snowman," though, everything snapped into place, and the rest of the show was first-rate, particularly "Cowards" and "Mr. Right Now," the latter of which was prefaced by the following exchange :
Katryna: Do you all believe in True Love?
[lots of cheers and a few scattered "No way!"s from the audience]
Nerissa: Do you believe in soulmates?
[a mix of cheering and derisive hooting from the audience]
Nerissa: You don't think that there's such a thing as the One Special Person? Mr. Right, or Ms. Right?
[shouts of "No!" and more scornful noise from the audience]
Katryna: So you believe in True Love but not in soulmates. Innnnnnteresting.
Nerissa: The question is, would you change your answers if you weren't sitting next to your boyfriends and girlfriends.
[chuckles from the audience]
Nerissa: I used to say that I believed in True Love when I was single but not when I was dating, ha ha ha. But no, I do believe in soulmates. Not necessarily that there's just one, but still. Soulmates. Someone who really fits, you know? And you shouldn't settle for anything less than a soulmate! But I also believe that sometimes you need... pit stops on the road to your soulmate. And this song is about one of those people.
For an encore, they invited Common Rotation back onstage for a joint version of "Keys to the Kingdom," which I've always liked better live than on the CD, so I was hugely pleased. And the songs off the new CD, which I'd been holding off buying until I could get it at the show, sound really good. It helps, I think, that they were written with just the two of them in mind, rather than being stripped-down versions of songs that weren't really intended for two-voices-and-guitar.
Man, I have so not been getting to enough shows lately. I miss them (though admittedly I haven't missed coming home in the middle of the night with even my socks smelling of smoke). There's good stuff coming to town this spring, too. I'm gonna have to scrounge up some money from somewhere. Which is going to mean taking more freelance work. Which means more Solving Other People's Problems. ::sigh:: Yeah, I could have worse things to deal with - in fact, I do have worse things to deal with - but lo, I choose to whine about this one anyway. Heh.
The opening act: Common Rotation, probably familiar to BtVS fans as the band in which Adam Busch (Warren) sings. Not the best band I've ever seen live, but definitely one of the most charming. Geek-boy folk-pop! And with the dancing that's really just bouncing up and down! Tremendously endearing. And the music's good too; they opened with "Indie Rockin'," which got my attention right away, and "Sit Down" sent me wandering over to the merch table to pick up Big Fear, their latest CD - which also features a good cover of "Don't Let's Start," one of my favorite They Might Be Giants songs. Makes sense; the band's live show, at least, could be described as an odd but mostly successful amalgam of early Vertical Horizon and latter-day Nerf Herder, with splashes of TMBG and Uncle Tupelo.
Man, I'm missing my music icon right now.
Anyhow - Nerissa and Katryna Nields. I have to admit that I prefer and miss the full-band incarnation; their live show doesn't have the same over-the-top energy when it's just the two of them. But I still love them. (Plus, I could watch Katryna dance all night. ::fans self::) Tonight's show took a while to really click; they opened with "Best Black Dress," followed by a few more songs from older albums, and sounded fine but not inspiring. When they hit "Snowman," though, everything snapped into place, and the rest of the show was first-rate, particularly "Cowards" and "Mr. Right Now," the latter of which was prefaced by the following exchange :
Katryna: Do you all believe in True Love?
[lots of cheers and a few scattered "No way!"s from the audience]
Nerissa: Do you believe in soulmates?
[a mix of cheering and derisive hooting from the audience]
Nerissa: You don't think that there's such a thing as the One Special Person? Mr. Right, or Ms. Right?
[shouts of "No!" and more scornful noise from the audience]
Katryna: So you believe in True Love but not in soulmates. Innnnnnteresting.
Nerissa: The question is, would you change your answers if you weren't sitting next to your boyfriends and girlfriends.
[chuckles from the audience]
Nerissa: I used to say that I believed in True Love when I was single but not when I was dating, ha ha ha. But no, I do believe in soulmates. Not necessarily that there's just one, but still. Soulmates. Someone who really fits, you know? And you shouldn't settle for anything less than a soulmate! But I also believe that sometimes you need... pit stops on the road to your soulmate. And this song is about one of those people.
For an encore, they invited Common Rotation back onstage for a joint version of "Keys to the Kingdom," which I've always liked better live than on the CD, so I was hugely pleased. And the songs off the new CD, which I'd been holding off buying until I could get it at the show, sound really good. It helps, I think, that they were written with just the two of them in mind, rather than being stripped-down versions of songs that weren't really intended for two-voices-and-guitar.
Man, I have so not been getting to enough shows lately. I miss them (though admittedly I haven't missed coming home in the middle of the night with even my socks smelling of smoke). There's good stuff coming to town this spring, too. I'm gonna have to scrounge up some money from somewhere. Which is going to mean taking more freelance work. Which means more Solving Other People's Problems. ::sigh:: Yeah, I could have worse things to deal with - in fact, I do have worse things to deal with - but lo, I choose to whine about this one anyway. Heh.