What about them? I'm all about them.
Did you do your best today?
Sleigh Bells. This is my most anticipated concert of 2010, only I didn't get around to going to it until now.
Venue: Webster Hall. It continues to be the worst, although nothing outstandingly bad happened this time. This is probably because we didn't have to check coats and we didn't buy drinks.
Seats/Position in Crowd/Up-In-Itness: We got there during CSS's set, so pretty late by show standards, and at first we were waylaid in the back and on the side. But there was a ton of CSS/Sleigh Bells turnover between sets, and, by the time Sleigh Bells started, we were medium-close to the front and smack in the middle. (In other words: Up In It.) Score!
OPQ (Old-Person Quotient): The worst. Sleigh Bells didn't come on until 10:45. There were two opening bands besides the co-headlining CSS. My next-day crankiness is exacerbated by the fact that I had to wake up early to take my car in this morning (which, in turn, exacerbated my crankiness even further by having busted brakes).
Opening Act: We purposely skipped the first two, and I don't even know who they were. (Sorry, guys.) We came in the middle of CSS, the Brazilian "New Rave" band. (Can I say that I'm a little disappointed that their name doesn't stand for "Cascading Style Sheets?") They seemed fun and they were by no means hard to listen to as an opening band. But I had just enough of them to realize that I don't want any more. I could see putting one song of theirs on a mix or throwing it on at a party to get people to dance. Though, I have to say, it was strange to see people actually dancing at a concert. I just don't usually go to hear that type of music.
Setlist: Jesse posted the setlist. But, obviously, it was everything from Treats plus "Holly." As Jesse said, "It's okay if you only have one album if every song is good."
High Point: Pretty much the entire Sleigh Bells set, which was awesome. Rob said seeing Sleigh Bells was the closest he'd gotten to being inside a music video, and I totally get that. Lasers! Flashing lights! Smoke machine! Loud music! A cool girl singing and dancing while a cool guy plays guitar! It was also the closest I think I'd ever get to being at a Gorillaz concert, because the aforementioned lights and smoke made it so that it looked like they were silhouettes (if we could see them at all through all the flashing). This is what it was like:
Shadow person: WHAT'S UP NEW YORK?
*blink* *blink* *blink* *blink* *blink* *blink*
(But, you know, in a good way.)
Low Point: Sleigh Bells played for a brisk 35 minutes. That was almost a dollar a minute.
Exuberance: The highest ever? The band was certainly into it, pretty much screaming hype in between every song. And the crowd so into it, and the bass in their songs is so pronounced, that the floor was moving in unison the whole time. It felt like being in a bounce house where someone is jumping perfectly opposite from you.
Please, please, Sleigh Bells, come out with an equally awesome second album so I can go see you again.
This was good, because-is it just me?-summer concerts are looking weak this year. We have tickets to Best Coast (chillwave!)/the Decemberists, but nothing else at Prospect Park really struck me. Williamsburg Waterfront only has a handful of dates announced, and I'm pretty sure I'll see the free TMBG there, but the shows there are always more than what I'd personally want to pay for them considering they replaced the formerly free pool parties (Death Cab for Cutie and Frightened Rabbit, yes, $47, no). Summerstage is baby boomery, as usual, and River to River doesn't have a good Fourth of July concert like it usually does. Siren was cancelled altogether. I guess last year was particularly strong for my favorite bands, but we're definitely in a lull now.