loPEZ Dispenser

So I finally was able to see my current favorite band in concert. I know Steve already did a review of their show a while back. He mentioned that the vocals seemed a little weak at times. Well, I must say that their time off from touring has done them some good! Their performance was spot on. Every note, every riff, and every word sung were right were they were supposed to be.

There was only one disappointing aspect of their performance. Their set was way too short. Unfortunately the were not the headliners of the night and their set was limited to about 35 minutes. I believe they played seven songs in all. We did get a sneak peak of one new song that will be one their new album. The song was called Waiting and the album, due to release this summer, will be called Singularity.

On Kiddie Bands

I have a better understanding of what Steve meant when he discussed “kiddie bands”. There we were, five twentysomething grown men, standing in line surrounded buy immature teens and youth pastors. After watching them a few minutes we really decided that it made us feel like old men.

I thought back to when I was in High School. For events such as this I would dye or paint my hair strange colors, hook up my longest and shiniest wallet chain, and wear the band shirt of my current favorite (unless it was the band playing…thats a no no). I would be down in the front right in the middle of the pit bumping and shoving all the others like me.

For this show we all retreated to the balcony. It was there we were joined by other likeminded “old” people who share our respect for the bands, reluctant fathers who would do anything to be somewhere else, and those youth group kids who were not allowed on the main floor for safety reasons. For this show I wore my special hifi earplugs to protect my hearing. There was no jumping and not even any sweating (but we did do some headbanging and air guitar…you can’t really help that). I was quite comfortable. I never thought one of my most enjoyable concerts would be described as comfortable.

I guess its because I don’t go to shows anymore to be rowdy. I go to hear the music of bands that I have come to love and respect. I’d rather watch the musicians create their art then be trapped in the middle of a crowd drenched in sweat and emitting adolescent hormones.

On Theatrics

Three bands played at the show Saturday. Mae, as described above, was awesome. Relient K, the headliners of the evening, were also excellent and entertaining. This brings me to the third band: Sherwood. They were the openers of the evening. Their music isn’t bad (although their sound was terrible at the show) so I thought they might perform a nice show. It didn’t take long to find out that they were one of those “weird” bands. This was particularly evident in their piano/keys player. He decided that it would be fun to dance while he played. Normally that wouldn’t bother me much but this guy looked like Andy Dick wearing 80’s rockers clothes (a la tight jeans) and his dancing was a cross between a ballerina and the Elaine dance from Seinfeld. Actually, I wouldn’t even call it a dance. It was more of a prance. Towards the end be blindly threw a tamborine over his head across stage and I watched as it headed directly for a piano belonging to one of the other bands. To close the show out he took a handful of sunflowers resting on his rig and started beating the keyboard with them only to again blindly throw them across the stage. Whats the point?

These theatrics seem to be popular right now. Maybe they always have been. Groups like the boy bands and solo acts like Baldy Britney and Beyonce rely on theatrics to keep the crowd entertained. Groups like Mae and Relient K rely on their talent as musicians to keep the crowd entertained. Thats what I am looking for.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 12th, 2007 at 2:49 pm and is filed under Music Reviews, Weird. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.