The only end I foresee
I had to miss Los Campesinos! last fall instead of doing something preferable like seeing them at Music Hall of Williamsburg, seeing them at Bowery Ballroom, or seeing them at Music Hall of Williamsburg and Bowery Ballroom. Mixing it up, they came back to play Le Poisson Rouge and Brooklyn Bowl, which are pretty much the definition of "play near the Bowery or Music Hall, but not at them." I don't like either of these places as much as Music Hall or Bowery BUT Brooklyn Bowl is the rock music venue closest to my home unless you count Europa, which I think Marisa was correct to classify as a nightclub. So, obviously, we went: Los Campesinos! show number six! (For me. Seven for Marisa. Three for Briana? I guess I don't have to be Counting Secretary of Shows. We all like Los Campesinos! Agreed.)
It's interesting trying to figure out the dynamics of a venue in terms of the crowd it attracts or how it seems to subconsciously encourage the crowd to behave. Most of the rowdiest crowds that I've still had a good time in (that is: not Sleigh Bells at Terminal 5) have been at Music Hall of Williamsburg, to the point where I saw the Hold Steady multiple times in a similar week, or even once on the same night, going between Bowery and Music Hall shows, and even though I'm sure at least a third of the crowd was probably overlapped, the Bowery shows were really subdued and Music Hall shows were really wild. Similarly, even though you have to assume Brooklyn Bowl's location about six blocks away from Music Hall would attract pretty much the same LC! fans who'd go to Music Hall, this crowd, as Marisa pointed out, more singers/fist-pumpers than dancers, whereas MHOW gets dancier and jumpier. LC! fans are generally on the tolerable-or-better scale, I find, but I'd rather more dancing than screaming along (but by all means: WE KID OURSELVES THERE'S FUTURE IN THE FUCKING, BUT THERE IS NO FUCKING FUTURE deserves some screaming). Is it just the way people feel at home or something at MHOW? Do certain people just go to MHOW shows and/or Bowery shows and avoid other places? Do I over-estimate the number of people who will go see a band multiple times over the course of a few years? Has anyone else noticed crowds that seem more dependent on venue than band?
Also, it's weird seeing a show where people are bowling. Just throwing that out there.
But it's still pretty cool, being a nice new venue and an eight-minute walk from our door.
Also, Los Campesinos! have reached that tipping point I hope for in any band that I go see any time they play nearby, where they have enough good-or-better albums where they can easily compose a full all-killer no-filler setlist. I would love if they played for longer, maybe added a song or two to the encore instead of just doing "Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks" and out, but I mean, come on, look at this:
By Your Hand
Romance is Boring
Death to Los Campesinos!
Hello Sadness
A Heat Rash in the Shape of the Show Me State; or, Letters from Me to Charlotte
Miserabilia
Life is a Long Time
We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed
Songs about Your Girlfriend
These Are Listed Buildings
Documented Minor Emotional Breakdown #1
Straight in at 101
You! Me! Dancing!
The Sea is a Good Place to Think of the Future
Baby, I Got the Death Rattle
---
Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks
(Courtesy Marisa, obviously.)
Yeah, a little "Broken Heartbeats Sound Like Breakbeats" or "We Are Accelerated Readers" would've been nice (theory we worked up on the way home: current girl-backup singer can't really sing those old songs as well, so the girl-centric old songs get jettisoned), but that's pretty much an evenhanded Los Campesinos! Greatest Fucking Hits! right there. (Do they have proper hits? Are their songs hits in England?)
In the mix, I finally got to hear some Hello Sadness songs live. In preparing to do so, I listened to that album in full for the first time in awhile and realized that I like pretty much every song on it; it's just not as much immediate fun as the other records. That said, they pretty much selected the most fun songs to play from it, and "Baby I Got the Death Rattle" is definitely going to get a boost in ipod shuffle-plays now. Also, the anticipated-by-me dance party at the climax of "Hello Sadness" did not exactly materialize. But I got by on my own.
So yep, good show, good times, glad the heat has broken a little because this would've been a lot rougher at 97 degrees.
It's interesting trying to figure out the dynamics of a venue in terms of the crowd it attracts or how it seems to subconsciously encourage the crowd to behave. Most of the rowdiest crowds that I've still had a good time in (that is: not Sleigh Bells at Terminal 5) have been at Music Hall of Williamsburg, to the point where I saw the Hold Steady multiple times in a similar week, or even once on the same night, going between Bowery and Music Hall shows, and even though I'm sure at least a third of the crowd was probably overlapped, the Bowery shows were really subdued and Music Hall shows were really wild. Similarly, even though you have to assume Brooklyn Bowl's location about six blocks away from Music Hall would attract pretty much the same LC! fans who'd go to Music Hall, this crowd, as Marisa pointed out, more singers/fist-pumpers than dancers, whereas MHOW gets dancier and jumpier. LC! fans are generally on the tolerable-or-better scale, I find, but I'd rather more dancing than screaming along (but by all means: WE KID OURSELVES THERE'S FUTURE IN THE FUCKING, BUT THERE IS NO FUCKING FUTURE deserves some screaming). Is it just the way people feel at home or something at MHOW? Do certain people just go to MHOW shows and/or Bowery shows and avoid other places? Do I over-estimate the number of people who will go see a band multiple times over the course of a few years? Has anyone else noticed crowds that seem more dependent on venue than band?
Also, it's weird seeing a show where people are bowling. Just throwing that out there.
But it's still pretty cool, being a nice new venue and an eight-minute walk from our door.
Also, Los Campesinos! have reached that tipping point I hope for in any band that I go see any time they play nearby, where they have enough good-or-better albums where they can easily compose a full all-killer no-filler setlist. I would love if they played for longer, maybe added a song or two to the encore instead of just doing "Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks" and out, but I mean, come on, look at this:
By Your Hand
Romance is Boring
Death to Los Campesinos!
Hello Sadness
A Heat Rash in the Shape of the Show Me State; or, Letters from Me to Charlotte
Miserabilia
Life is a Long Time
We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed
Songs about Your Girlfriend
These Are Listed Buildings
Documented Minor Emotional Breakdown #1
Straight in at 101
You! Me! Dancing!
The Sea is a Good Place to Think of the Future
Baby, I Got the Death Rattle
---
Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks
(Courtesy Marisa, obviously.)
Yeah, a little "Broken Heartbeats Sound Like Breakbeats" or "We Are Accelerated Readers" would've been nice (theory we worked up on the way home: current girl-backup singer can't really sing those old songs as well, so the girl-centric old songs get jettisoned), but that's pretty much an evenhanded Los Campesinos! Greatest Fucking Hits! right there. (Do they have proper hits? Are their songs hits in England?)
In the mix, I finally got to hear some Hello Sadness songs live. In preparing to do so, I listened to that album in full for the first time in awhile and realized that I like pretty much every song on it; it's just not as much immediate fun as the other records. That said, they pretty much selected the most fun songs to play from it, and "Baby I Got the Death Rattle" is definitely going to get a boost in ipod shuffle-plays now. Also, the anticipated-by-me dance party at the climax of "Hello Sadness" did not exactly materialize. But I got by on my own.
So yep, good show, good times, glad the heat has broken a little because this would've been a lot rougher at 97 degrees.