16June07 Bloc Party concert (aka Nat, don't read this)
I went to a Bloc Party concert tolast night, the last stop on their US tour. It was great. The tickets were general admission, and rather than fight for a decent space in the pit-type area (although I got there early enough), I found a perch on top of some mini-boulders that were part of the landscaping near the back. So, for this concert, I was perched on a rock in the desert. My vantage point sounds more dramatic than it really was.
The opening acts were The Maccabees and The Noisettes. The Maccabees played a pretty tight set, but not too unique. Their vocalist sounded a bit too much like a Robert Smith soundalike, which got even weirder when he started talking about how the sound seemed different today, possibly because there were mountains all around us. Maybe he was getting oxygen-deprived at a mere 2000 feet elevation. Who knows. The Noisettes were rather good, no idea why they seemed to be changing guitars after every song, but they sounded more interesting than the first opening act. Near the end of their set, the drummer and vocalist of Bloc Party were seen hovering in the wings, watching the opening act. Up to this point, the venue only looked like it was half-full.
And then Bloc Party came on. All of a sudden it seemed like the venue filled up. They started with Song For Clay (Disappear Here). I don't remember the entire setlist, so I wouldn't even try. However, based on past setlists in their recent tour, they're sticking to performing The Prayer and This Modern Love back-to-back.
I haven't been to a concert in an open-air venue in a while and I was getting some weird right-channel/left-channel gap, so I took out my earplugs about three songs into Bloc Party's set. Things kinda sound muffled right now, but it was worth it to take them out. Then again, maybe things sound muffled because I'm afraid to turn up my speakers too much at this hour.
In the subject of taking things off, a few songs into the set, the drummer took off his shirt. He was wearing a button-up long-sleeved shirt, and the venue was in mountains in the desert, but I guess this is some tradition of his? Who knows. The guy's already survived a collapsed lung and all. He also put on a trucker cap (gah) that someone had tossed onto the stage, even though the bassist and vocalist had proclaimed it to be "sweaty". It popped off his head several times during the set.
At some point, Kele, the vocalist proclaimed a song as being best performed in an open-air venue. The song turned out to be So Here We Are, and it did work rather well. At some point in the middle of the concert, Kele also declared that he "rocked so hard that he broke his guitar" (it was just the strap). I think this was either after Helicopter or Banquet. Either way, brilliant.
Their "last" song was Like Eating Glass. While some douchebags started leaving to avoid traffic, I took this as my opportunity to score a good spot in the pit area. The roadies started setting up the second drumkit, so I guessed the first song of the encore would be the double-drumkit version of Sunday (with the bassist, Gordon, also being on drums). I was right. Gordon went back to the bass after this song, with Kele declaring that since it's Saturday (he had to double-check), people wanted to rock out. The second encore song was She's Hearing Voices, during which Kele started climbing up the scaffolding of the stage. The encore turned out to be four songs total, which is a few more than I expected to be in the pit area, but was terrific, nonetheless.
So, the botom line is, yes, I had fun, and it was worth having to pay the stupid Ticketbastard charges just to make sure I got a ticket, since Viejas isn't exactly in the neighbourhood.
And now, for what I'm really good at writing about: Being catty while people-watching at concerts!
The people-watching MVP of tonight was the really skinny 14-year-old-looking kid (the concert was all-ages) wearing skinny jeans, very new-looking Chuck Taylors, and a grey wool vest over a white polo shirt. This was a boy, mind you. The kicker of the whole package was not his Ruehl-esque outfit, but the fact that he was "smoking". By "smoking," I mean he was holding a pack of Marlboro LIGHTS, and just holding one stick in his hand while chatting it up with his friends. It's good that he's not smoking, yes, but literally being a poser with a cigarette is just... ahahaha. Then again just by standing around at the concert I probably smoked about half a pack of normal "other" cigarettes, half a pack of Camels, a few sticks of clove cigarettes, and half a joint. Ahh, the drawbacks of being in an open-air venue.
A special mention would be the two drunk girls that my friend S and I nicknamed "Paris and Lindsay". They were wearing skirts. They were dancing around near the stage. They were very, very drunk. At one point, one of their friends tried to do a cartwheel even though she was wearing a sleeveless-but-muumuu-esque dress. Since she almost toppled over, one of the security people had to have a word with her, probably something about making sure to really mess up the cartwheel so that she can /end herself.
Also: I can't wait for the skinny jeans and/or huge flowy maternity-gown-look tops fads to go away. It hardly ever works for people.
And now I need sleep.
The opening acts were The Maccabees and The Noisettes. The Maccabees played a pretty tight set, but not too unique. Their vocalist sounded a bit too much like a Robert Smith soundalike, which got even weirder when he started talking about how the sound seemed different today, possibly because there were mountains all around us. Maybe he was getting oxygen-deprived at a mere 2000 feet elevation. Who knows. The Noisettes were rather good, no idea why they seemed to be changing guitars after every song, but they sounded more interesting than the first opening act. Near the end of their set, the drummer and vocalist of Bloc Party were seen hovering in the wings, watching the opening act. Up to this point, the venue only looked like it was half-full.
And then Bloc Party came on. All of a sudden it seemed like the venue filled up. They started with Song For Clay (Disappear Here). I don't remember the entire setlist, so I wouldn't even try. However, based on past setlists in their recent tour, they're sticking to performing The Prayer and This Modern Love back-to-back.
I haven't been to a concert in an open-air venue in a while and I was getting some weird right-channel/left-channel gap, so I took out my earplugs about three songs into Bloc Party's set. Things kinda sound muffled right now, but it was worth it to take them out. Then again, maybe things sound muffled because I'm afraid to turn up my speakers too much at this hour.
In the subject of taking things off, a few songs into the set, the drummer took off his shirt. He was wearing a button-up long-sleeved shirt, and the venue was in mountains in the desert, but I guess this is some tradition of his? Who knows. The guy's already survived a collapsed lung and all. He also put on a trucker cap (gah) that someone had tossed onto the stage, even though the bassist and vocalist had proclaimed it to be "sweaty". It popped off his head several times during the set.
At some point, Kele, the vocalist proclaimed a song as being best performed in an open-air venue. The song turned out to be So Here We Are, and it did work rather well. At some point in the middle of the concert, Kele also declared that he "rocked so hard that he broke his guitar" (it was just the strap). I think this was either after Helicopter or Banquet. Either way, brilliant.
Their "last" song was Like Eating Glass. While some douchebags started leaving to avoid traffic, I took this as my opportunity to score a good spot in the pit area. The roadies started setting up the second drumkit, so I guessed the first song of the encore would be the double-drumkit version of Sunday (with the bassist, Gordon, also being on drums). I was right. Gordon went back to the bass after this song, with Kele declaring that since it's Saturday (he had to double-check), people wanted to rock out. The second encore song was She's Hearing Voices, during which Kele started climbing up the scaffolding of the stage. The encore turned out to be four songs total, which is a few more than I expected to be in the pit area, but was terrific, nonetheless.
So, the botom line is, yes, I had fun, and it was worth having to pay the stupid Ticketbastard charges just to make sure I got a ticket, since Viejas isn't exactly in the neighbourhood.
And now, for what I'm really good at writing about: Being catty while people-watching at concerts!
The people-watching MVP of tonight was the really skinny 14-year-old-looking kid (the concert was all-ages) wearing skinny jeans, very new-looking Chuck Taylors, and a grey wool vest over a white polo shirt. This was a boy, mind you. The kicker of the whole package was not his Ruehl-esque outfit, but the fact that he was "smoking". By "smoking," I mean he was holding a pack of Marlboro LIGHTS, and just holding one stick in his hand while chatting it up with his friends. It's good that he's not smoking, yes, but literally being a poser with a cigarette is just... ahahaha. Then again just by standing around at the concert I probably smoked about half a pack of normal "other" cigarettes, half a pack of Camels, a few sticks of clove cigarettes, and half a joint. Ahh, the drawbacks of being in an open-air venue.
A special mention would be the two drunk girls that my friend S and I nicknamed "Paris and Lindsay". They were wearing skirts. They were dancing around near the stage. They were very, very drunk. At one point, one of their friends tried to do a cartwheel even though she was wearing a sleeveless-but-muumuu-esque dress. Since she almost toppled over, one of the security people had to have a word with her, probably something about making sure to really mess up the cartwheel so that she can /end herself.
Also: I can't wait for the skinny jeans and/or huge flowy maternity-gown-look tops fads to go away. It hardly ever works for people.
And now I need sleep.