Give Me Younger Us
vs.
It starts pretty rough,
And ends up even worse.
And what goes on in-between-
I try to keep it out of my thoughts.
--
When they love you, and they will,
Tell them all they'll love in my shadow.
And if they try to slow you down
Tell them all to go to hell.
Venue
LC!: Brooklyn Bowl. I rather like seeing shows there (apart from the convenience of the location). The place is so massive inside that I feel like I always have some elbow room. The bowling thing doesn't really freak me out. If anything, I'd be more bothered if I were bowling and everyone at the rock show could see how lousy my score was.
Japandroids: Music Hall of Williamsburg. It's still in my top two, but I don't know what it is about that place-the rowdiness factor there is upped by a significant margin.
Opening Act
LC!: Yellow Ostrich. NOT MY THING. I said at the time it sounded like Elf Power was listening to a little too much Third Eye Blind, but that makes it sound more interesting than it was. We definitely got off on the wrong foot with the first song, which was about opening your heart to the whales, or possibly having the whales open their hearts to you, and I was off the boat. Maybe if they didn't start with that, I would've been more open-minded about them, because I've heard that "Marathon Runner" song on the radio and it didn't strike me as particularly dopey.
Japandroids: Cadence Weapon, a Canadian rapper. (No Drake?) We didn't hear the whole set. I don't really feel qualified to have opinions on Canadian rap music, but it was fine for an opening act. "Loft Party" seems like a pretty good song, and we all got to scream "Party!" at the appropriate moments. I liked that part a lot.
OPQ (Old-Person Quotient)
LC!: Pretty good. We had to stand, but Brooklyn Bowl is probably the closest venue to me that I'd actually go to. (Sorry, Europa.) We got home super early.
Japandroids: Medium-to-low. The venue is close, but not as close as Brooklyn Bowl, and the show didn't get out too late, although it was later than Los Campesinos. But Japandroids is just not an old-person's game.
Seats/Position in Crowd/Up-In-Itness
LC!: We were pretty close, but not up front. The Brooklyn Bowl elbow room thing means that it's pretty easy to get up close even if you come late, but you don't always feel like you have to.
Japandroids: By the time Japandroids came on, we were about five people from the stage (which I'd say was the third row back, on account of the squishiness). Then things got pushy real quick and I scooted off to the side (but was still about two or three people from the front). Still, even though I couldn't hack it front-and-center, I very much enjoyed my section. It wasn't like Sleigh Bells where people were shoving in all directions at once with no respite even off to the side. I overheard a kid at the deli afterward say, "it was a push-pit, not a mosh pit." Also, being Near It But Not Up In It, it's really funny to see what songs make people jump into the pit. There was a big, burly dude who didn't move the entire time who just went nuts for "Wet Hair." It was awesome.
Setlist
LC!: Jesse posted the setlist, as per usual. The band is at the point where they can play a 16-song set and I can like every single song they played, and still not hear all of my favorites, especially from the first album.
Japandroids: Jesse posted this one, too, as is his wont. (Fourteen songs NO ENCORE.) They played every song I know really well, so I have no show regrets.
High Point
LC!: There was a really good stretch of songs in the beginning that went like this: "Death to Los Campesinos," "Hello Sadness," "Letters from Me to Charlotte" (or heat rash blah blah blah), "Miserabilia"-one amazing song from every album, all in a row! Also, when Gareth jumped into the crowd at the end, he was really close to us.
Japandroids: It really was like a younger version of a Hold Steady concert. So the high point for me was the same high point at Hold Steady shows-the pointing and the shouting back at the band. I thought it wouldn't get better than doing the Tom Pettyesque "Oh yeah! Oh right!" during "Evil's Sway," but the "AND THEY WILL!" part of "The House That Heaven Built" was actually the best.
Also, I liked when the Candianness popped out of them. (As you all know, I [maple leaf] Canada.) At one point one of them was telling a story about how their sound guy can open a bottle using almost any object, and he said, "If you hand him a beer? He can open it with anything." It was a real Canadian inflection. No aboots, though.
Low Point
LC!: I wish they wouldn't always end the show with "Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks." It's not my favorite from the album. Worse than that, it just takes the surprise out of how the show is going to end. (It also spoils the surprise of when the show is going to end.) I don't think they need to play it every time, but, if they wanted to, I think they should move it to being the set-closer and encore with something different.
Japandroids: I could do without people throwing beer. (Jesse, after emerging from the pit: "I think I lost my shower in there, but, on the bright side, I sweat off all the beer that was spilled on me!") Also, since it's just the two of them, the show comes to a dead stop between every song for re-tuning.
Exuberance
LC!: High exuberance from the band, but medium from the crowd. I enjoyed the crowd for the most part, since they were really into it without being really into pushing or shoving. But they were definitely singers over dancers, and I would've liked to see more dancing.
Japandroids: Maximum exuberance from both the band and crowd. Maybe a little too much. There was stage-diving. I think that automatically equals too much exuberance.
--
Also, next time you're at a show, here's a fun game to play while you're waiting for the set to start: Imagine sentences from an article/interview with deadmau5 (which, in my head, will always be "dead-mow-five") as if he were a real mouse that somehow learned rudimentary English and became an electronic music star. (This was obviously inspired by the Rolling Stone cover.) Examples:
*"I meet deadmau5 over breadcrumbs on the kitchen floor. 'Cheese?' he asks. "You bring cheese to floor?'"
*"His eyes fill with an increasing fear. 'NO TRAPS,' he squeaks. 'No traps. No cats.'"