Born to lose
That was kind of a shitshow.
TRUE SHRED GUITAR
BORN TO LOSE
RIOT RHYTHM
A/B MACHINES
KIDS
END OF THE LINE
COMEBACK KID
TELL 'EM
LEADER OF THE PACK
STRAIGHT A'S
TREATS
INFINITY GUITARS
[TOTALLY MISSED THE ENCORE BREAK BUT]
RILL RILL
DEMONS
CROWN ON THE GROUND
Sleigh Bells themselves at Terminal 5 were in fine form. Strobes guitars loud Alexis charisma. Their sets are a little longer now that they have two records, but still concise, still a nonstop blast, musically. "Tell 'Em" could've been louder. "Rill Rill" was surprisingly gangster (for that sort of thing) (at least more gangster than Lana del Rey). New songs sounding good.
But, I can't believe I'm saying this, the crowd was just kind of too much. We stood eight or nine rows back for a couple of hours watching a 15-minute hardcore set (kind of awesome!) and a 30-minute Black Bananas set (kind of horrible! Why would you have a band basically doing the same thing as you but way way worse open for you?!), enduring people trying to squeeze their way to the front because can you imagine ANYTHING worse than being ten rows back when you could be ZERO rows back? These people can't [yet cannot also imagine anything more difficult than getting to the show early enough to hang out at front the whole thing]. Further to that, when the music started, it was just a frenzy of shoving. Not like, people dancing without regard for smacking into each other. That I kind of like. This was just straight up hundreds of people trying to shove their way to the front. It was probably the purest most aggressive mass shoving I've seen at a concert; it wasn't fun at all. So Marisa and I left and went off to the side (where there was still a little shoving, but not as much). Kind of a bummer to have a good spot for a couple of hours and then have to leave because people lost their shit, and not in a fun Hold Steady/Los Campesinos sort of way. Basically the crowd was the physical equivalent of a Brooklyn Vegan comment thread: everyone mutally deciding to act like the most asshole-ish versions of themselves because everyone else was.
Even when the shoving on the side calmed down, there was this muscled douche trying to create an arm perimeter around the girls he was hanging out with, because the last thing any girl at a Sleigh Bells show should EVER have to deal with is even brushing up against another person. This crowd was also, no joke, fifty percent girls at minimum, and the girls he was trying to surround were dancing and jumping plenty, so I'm not sure why this guy had to do curls for a couple of weeks to run interference for them. I mean, it was rough if you tried to push your way to the front with half the room, but these girls were in no danger from Marisa or me, but thanks anyway, some guy's arms, for being up against us constantly.
So yeah, Sleigh Bells is fucking awesome and sounded great but I had more fun last time when somehow people could control themselves even though it was in a smaller space. Maybe they have reached critical mass in terms of show size and fanbase, and it can't be fun any more? I guess I've heard of that happening, but I've never really experienced it that I can remember. How does it work? Do I have to start going to see them in other cities or something? As with Slow Club, I got this weird feeling like, wait, have any of you been to shows before? Do you get to behave at one, even a raucous one? Is this who likes this music?
TRUE SHRED GUITAR
BORN TO LOSE
RIOT RHYTHM
A/B MACHINES
KIDS
END OF THE LINE
COMEBACK KID
TELL 'EM
LEADER OF THE PACK
STRAIGHT A'S
TREATS
INFINITY GUITARS
[TOTALLY MISSED THE ENCORE BREAK BUT]
RILL RILL
DEMONS
CROWN ON THE GROUND
Sleigh Bells themselves at Terminal 5 were in fine form. Strobes guitars loud Alexis charisma. Their sets are a little longer now that they have two records, but still concise, still a nonstop blast, musically. "Tell 'Em" could've been louder. "Rill Rill" was surprisingly gangster (for that sort of thing) (at least more gangster than Lana del Rey). New songs sounding good.
But, I can't believe I'm saying this, the crowd was just kind of too much. We stood eight or nine rows back for a couple of hours watching a 15-minute hardcore set (kind of awesome!) and a 30-minute Black Bananas set (kind of horrible! Why would you have a band basically doing the same thing as you but way way worse open for you?!), enduring people trying to squeeze their way to the front because can you imagine ANYTHING worse than being ten rows back when you could be ZERO rows back? These people can't [yet cannot also imagine anything more difficult than getting to the show early enough to hang out at front the whole thing]. Further to that, when the music started, it was just a frenzy of shoving. Not like, people dancing without regard for smacking into each other. That I kind of like. This was just straight up hundreds of people trying to shove their way to the front. It was probably the purest most aggressive mass shoving I've seen at a concert; it wasn't fun at all. So Marisa and I left and went off to the side (where there was still a little shoving, but not as much). Kind of a bummer to have a good spot for a couple of hours and then have to leave because people lost their shit, and not in a fun Hold Steady/Los Campesinos sort of way. Basically the crowd was the physical equivalent of a Brooklyn Vegan comment thread: everyone mutally deciding to act like the most asshole-ish versions of themselves because everyone else was.
Even when the shoving on the side calmed down, there was this muscled douche trying to create an arm perimeter around the girls he was hanging out with, because the last thing any girl at a Sleigh Bells show should EVER have to deal with is even brushing up against another person. This crowd was also, no joke, fifty percent girls at minimum, and the girls he was trying to surround were dancing and jumping plenty, so I'm not sure why this guy had to do curls for a couple of weeks to run interference for them. I mean, it was rough if you tried to push your way to the front with half the room, but these girls were in no danger from Marisa or me, but thanks anyway, some guy's arms, for being up against us constantly.
So yeah, Sleigh Bells is fucking awesome and sounded great but I had more fun last time when somehow people could control themselves even though it was in a smaller space. Maybe they have reached critical mass in terms of show size and fanbase, and it can't be fun any more? I guess I've heard of that happening, but I've never really experienced it that I can remember. How does it work? Do I have to start going to see them in other cities or something? As with Slow Club, I got this weird feeling like, wait, have any of you been to shows before? Do you get to behave at one, even a raucous one? Is this who likes this music?