another concert post!
A couple weekends ago I went to a We Are Scientists show! It was AMAZING.
I was primed to like it. I started listening to WAS almost a decade ago - With Love and Squalor was one of the first CDs I ever bought. But I was sort of blown away by how much FUN the show was. Let me go chronologically:
The day of the show was warm, so I got to wear a skirt and my favorite concert boots (four inch platforms make it way easier to see, and gel insoles make them way comfortable). I met up with my friend in line, and we got in no trouble. Tickets were cheap, and the venue sold out about half-way through the line, but the venue also only fits 250, so it was just a nice cozy show instead of a crowded-can't-see-the-stage show. Keith Murray was manning the merch table before the show, so I got a signed copy of their new CD and babbled at him about how I bought their CD when I was 15. Seriously, that was great - I never want to stick around after a show to fight with a billion other people to buy things. More merch sales beforehand, please.
The opening band was ADORABLE. They're called PAWS, and you can check them out here. I honestly wasn't that into their music (it was mostly just loud), but they were so enthusiastic and giggly and ridiculous. The lead singer had an awful knit cap that he only had on because otherwise his hair tried to devour his face. The bass player was trying desperately to fuck his guitar. Huge pelvic thrusts and jumping up and down. The drummer was drinking his beer with a straw. It was beautiful. At some point they started shouting at all the people in the back who weren't dancing, going "We're not a piece of performance art! You have to dance!" and me and my friend were like "You are ABSolUTELY performance art, LOOK AT YOU."
Also, PAWS is Scottish and someone in the crowd shouted "Bagpipes!" at them. Most of the band didn't hear it, but the drummer did, so he just starts muttering in the back "Hamburgers. Gangster rap. Sweaters." And the rest of the band was like 'wtf?' and the drummer says "Well, I'm listing American things. If they're going to shout Scottish things, I'll say American things." So then all three of them started doing it.
It was a very long and rambly and beautiful opening act. The lead singer tried very hard to explain 'taps aff' to us, but then refused to take his shirt off. Alas.
There was a guy right in the front who was SO INTO IT, headbanging and dancing and screaming along. The lead singer was very endeared by it, and kept dedicating songs to him, and for the final song he actually jumped off the stage, head-banged along with this dude, and then took off his guitar and handed it to the guy. And then left.
The guy put the guitar back on stage. His grin was pretty much his entire face at that point.
Photo of PAWS! Really just the lead singer, the lighting for them was not conducive to photos.
We Are Scientists was GREAT on, like, six levels. They were funny (apparently they put a lot of stand-up into their concerts, which I didn't know). They played music from all of their albums, not just the new one. They sounded killer. Their drummer was the happiest fucking drummer in the world! At one point he played a windchime sound effect, and Murray was like 'don't let him start, it'll be six hours of electronic windchimes' and the crowd started chanting 'windCHIMES windCHIMES,' and the drummer looked like he was going to explode with glee.
Ahem.
In terms of me, the concert started out a little rough, because at this point I was right next to enthusiastic head-banging guy. He was bouncing up and down and screaming and being so excited, which was good but also I was getting a rash from his sleeve rubbing my arm as he bounced? This is the banality of concerts. But about a third of the way through the set, head-banging guy had to leave, and he looked around and was like 'who wants my spot? you! you should have my spot!' which is how I ended up about five feet away from Murray.
I used this wisely.
About halfway through, Murray and Cain were doing a bit about how Cain's favorite thing about the Cities is the skyway and the tunnels. Because you never have to go outside. They started going on about how if we colonize Mars, the Martian cities will look just like Minneapolis, blah blah blah, and I scream "It was colder than Mars here this winter!"
Which, is... sort of true. Basically, there was one day when the mars rover was getting warmer temperatures (in a crater at the equivalent latitude of Venezuela) that were higher than the lows in Minneapolis. But it was pretty widely reported as what I just said, so, you know, screw accuracy.
And Murray looks down and goes "What?"
"IT WAS COLDER THAN MARS THIS WINTER!"
Murray cracked up, and Cain was trying to do the rest of the bit, and Murray was like "Wait, listen, I've got a loCAL here in front who says it was COLDER than MARS here this winter!"
"One day!" I scream. "For one day!"
"Jesus Christ," goes Cain. "Seriously?"
And of course the crowd screams YES, and Murray is going "You just had the weather reporter come on, and she goes 'oh, hey, you know how it's been kind of cold this month? turns out it's colder than FucKING MARS!'" And we're like yeahhhh pretty much, dude.
So they played their next song, but in the intro to the one after that Murray goes "Guys, I just want you to know I'm still thinking about that Mars thing, and we are going to discuss this later. Colder than Mars!"
We did, too. He started freaking out about it again during the encore. It was awesome.
My friend had fun, I had a blast, and I can now definitely recommend seeing your favorite bands from when you were a teenager in a tiny venue and screaming half-truths about relative climates at them. It's a great thing to do.
Blurry pictures!
This entry was originally posted at http://neveralarch.dreamwidth.org/77957.html. Comment wherever you want.
I was primed to like it. I started listening to WAS almost a decade ago - With Love and Squalor was one of the first CDs I ever bought. But I was sort of blown away by how much FUN the show was. Let me go chronologically:
The day of the show was warm, so I got to wear a skirt and my favorite concert boots (four inch platforms make it way easier to see, and gel insoles make them way comfortable). I met up with my friend in line, and we got in no trouble. Tickets were cheap, and the venue sold out about half-way through the line, but the venue also only fits 250, so it was just a nice cozy show instead of a crowded-can't-see-the-stage show. Keith Murray was manning the merch table before the show, so I got a signed copy of their new CD and babbled at him about how I bought their CD when I was 15. Seriously, that was great - I never want to stick around after a show to fight with a billion other people to buy things. More merch sales beforehand, please.
The opening band was ADORABLE. They're called PAWS, and you can check them out here. I honestly wasn't that into their music (it was mostly just loud), but they were so enthusiastic and giggly and ridiculous. The lead singer had an awful knit cap that he only had on because otherwise his hair tried to devour his face. The bass player was trying desperately to fuck his guitar. Huge pelvic thrusts and jumping up and down. The drummer was drinking his beer with a straw. It was beautiful. At some point they started shouting at all the people in the back who weren't dancing, going "We're not a piece of performance art! You have to dance!" and me and my friend were like "You are ABSolUTELY performance art, LOOK AT YOU."
Also, PAWS is Scottish and someone in the crowd shouted "Bagpipes!" at them. Most of the band didn't hear it, but the drummer did, so he just starts muttering in the back "Hamburgers. Gangster rap. Sweaters." And the rest of the band was like 'wtf?' and the drummer says "Well, I'm listing American things. If they're going to shout Scottish things, I'll say American things." So then all three of them started doing it.
It was a very long and rambly and beautiful opening act. The lead singer tried very hard to explain 'taps aff' to us, but then refused to take his shirt off. Alas.
There was a guy right in the front who was SO INTO IT, headbanging and dancing and screaming along. The lead singer was very endeared by it, and kept dedicating songs to him, and for the final song he actually jumped off the stage, head-banged along with this dude, and then took off his guitar and handed it to the guy. And then left.
The guy put the guitar back on stage. His grin was pretty much his entire face at that point.
Photo of PAWS! Really just the lead singer, the lighting for them was not conducive to photos.
We Are Scientists was GREAT on, like, six levels. They were funny (apparently they put a lot of stand-up into their concerts, which I didn't know). They played music from all of their albums, not just the new one. They sounded killer. Their drummer was the happiest fucking drummer in the world! At one point he played a windchime sound effect, and Murray was like 'don't let him start, it'll be six hours of electronic windchimes' and the crowd started chanting 'windCHIMES windCHIMES,' and the drummer looked like he was going to explode with glee.
Ahem.
In terms of me, the concert started out a little rough, because at this point I was right next to enthusiastic head-banging guy. He was bouncing up and down and screaming and being so excited, which was good but also I was getting a rash from his sleeve rubbing my arm as he bounced? This is the banality of concerts. But about a third of the way through the set, head-banging guy had to leave, and he looked around and was like 'who wants my spot? you! you should have my spot!' which is how I ended up about five feet away from Murray.
I used this wisely.
About halfway through, Murray and Cain were doing a bit about how Cain's favorite thing about the Cities is the skyway and the tunnels. Because you never have to go outside. They started going on about how if we colonize Mars, the Martian cities will look just like Minneapolis, blah blah blah, and I scream "It was colder than Mars here this winter!"
Which, is... sort of true. Basically, there was one day when the mars rover was getting warmer temperatures (in a crater at the equivalent latitude of Venezuela) that were higher than the lows in Minneapolis. But it was pretty widely reported as what I just said, so, you know, screw accuracy.
And Murray looks down and goes "What?"
"IT WAS COLDER THAN MARS THIS WINTER!"
Murray cracked up, and Cain was trying to do the rest of the bit, and Murray was like "Wait, listen, I've got a loCAL here in front who says it was COLDER than MARS here this winter!"
"One day!" I scream. "For one day!"
"Jesus Christ," goes Cain. "Seriously?"
And of course the crowd screams YES, and Murray is going "You just had the weather reporter come on, and she goes 'oh, hey, you know how it's been kind of cold this month? turns out it's colder than FucKING MARS!'" And we're like yeahhhh pretty much, dude.
So they played their next song, but in the intro to the one after that Murray goes "Guys, I just want you to know I'm still thinking about that Mars thing, and we are going to discuss this later. Colder than Mars!"
We did, too. He started freaking out about it again during the encore. It was awesome.
My friend had fun, I had a blast, and I can now definitely recommend seeing your favorite bands from when you were a teenager in a tiny venue and screaming half-truths about relative climates at them. It's a great thing to do.
Blurry pictures!
This entry was originally posted at http://neveralarch.dreamwidth.org/77957.html. Comment wherever you want.