The Dandy Warhols
The Out Crowd
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
I went to a show last Friday at Le Spectrum. I was a little concerned that they wouldn't let me in because my ticket had ripped in half, but the security guy matched the numbers on the back and waved me through.
I thought I had shown up early, but this was obviously not the case. The front was full of people sitting with their backs to the stage. I asked one guy if the space next to him was free sort of stuttered that nobody was there. Then he didn't pay attention to me for the rest of the show, except to sneak surreptitious peeks at the photographs I was taking.
Actually, this was the first show that I saw with crazy posters on the door. "No professional cameras! No audio recording! No video recording!" It made me thankful that my tiny little camera that fits in my back pocket can take reasonably good looking photographs. I guess I'm not that envious of SLR owners after all.
The Out Crowd, a band from Portland, opened the show. I only remembered they were from that city because Avery is there now at a conference for Linux Desktop Architects. I was invited to this conference, but I think Avery does a better job at representing us at these particular events.
Jacqueline
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
Where was I? So this band got on stage and I could already tell that they're fun people. The bassist immediately started smoking (in the non-smoking venue) and their keyboardist was wearing a coonskin cap. They played a song and then motioned that they needed more sound on the monitors. Then they played another song and motioned for more monitors. And another, with more monitor-motioning, that basically blew into very loud feedback. They fought with the soundcrew for the rest of their (reasonably decent) set.
After the set, Matt the lead singer, tried to engage the crowd in a chant of "Fuck the house sound guy" but was cut off before he got very far. The girl running the sound board then chastised him for his inability to project into a microphone. Fireworks erupted on stage and people stormed off angrily.
So... we stood around waiting for things to calm down. Eventually, they did and people set up the stage for the next band. I looked around at the audience as I'm wont to do and noticed this girl with the best outfit ever! It looked like she stepped out of a Jane Austin novel. I asked her if I could take her photograph and she obliged; in return, I offered to e-mail her the photographs that I took.
The Dandy Warhols
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
Eventually, the lights dimmed and The Dandy Warhols showed up on stage to much cheering. I figured that this would be a long set, because they started playing at 21:00. They started off the first hour with some pretty mellow songs which were not particularly fun but weren't bad. As the show progressed, the stage lights got brighter and brighter, which made it much easier for me to take photographs. Unfortunately, the crowd got rowdier and rowdier, which made it much harder for me to hold the camera steady.
After the first hour, Courtney and Brent got too warm, so they started taking off their clothes. Cries of "get naked" and cheering from the girls did not actually encourage them to do so. This marked a transition to quicker songs, that involved more rocking, some trumpeting, and Zia bouncing up and down to the beat.
Sadly, I only got reasonable shots of Zia by means of the flash. But this was not particularly bad at this concert, because they were firing off the strobe lights constantly. I would have taken advantage of them if only the strobe light pointed at her didn't illuminate just her legs. The pictures I got were really weird, with this bodiless pair of legs dancing around.
The Dandy Warhols
Originally uploaded by sfllaw.
The last hour of the concert was quite exciting. More people had crowded up to the front, so I could no longer really move nor stretch. I was fairly sure that my back was shooting pain all over the place since I had to stand ram-rod straight. And the woman behind me kept hitting me with her purse. The band played some songs that the audience sang the choruses to, which was pretty fun.
Then they stood in the back for a five-minute smoke break; like the tough kids at the back of the classroom.
They came back and did a five-song encore, which people started moshing to. Do you know how difficult it is to take decent photographs when people keep on bouncing into your back? I think the woman in back kept on getting pushed repeatedly into me. After the show was over, the crowd quickly dispersed. I dug my jacket out of my bag and some people ran up to the stage looking for set lists and guitar picks. I didn't get one because they all looked really torn up.
There was a big lineup at the coat check, so I just let myself out the back door. I'm not really sure I should have but it was convenient.