To be honest, a week ago I wasn’t even sure I wanted to go to this show. It was on a weeknight and I knew it was sold out, thus making sure it would be hot in the always stuffy church basement (even on a winter night) and tough to see the band from the back. I also had reservations about all the hype surrounding them as well. Regardless, I braved it because ever since I started listening to this album out of curiousity, I’ve played it at least once a day and it’s become totally addictive. After seeing them, I’m glad I went, though I can’t say there were too many surprises. After all, they only have one album, the excellent, self-titled release on XL that debuted at #18 on the U.S. charts. Not surprisingly, they played just about every single song from the album as well as one, yet untitled new one. Thus, their total set time, including the encore “Walcott”, was about forty-five minutes. Still, it’s better to leave fans wanting more than it is to bore them, even though one girl said something to the effect of “shortest concert ever” after we were leaving the show.
Nevertheless, all the hits were there, from the hilarious “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” to the bouncy, XTC-ish “A-Punk” (which they also performed on Letterman a few nights earlier) to the LIL’ JON referencing “Oxford Comma”. Live, the band sounded not that much different from how they sound on record, albeit with a bit more energy, of course. Furthermore, there was little interaction between the crowd and the band aside from singer EZRA KOENIG’s occasional and minimal comments between songs. The only exception is when drummer CHRIS TOMSON, who was raised as a Unitarian, recited a prayer before their encore.
Opener SAM ROSEN, who we only caught a few songs of, were pretty much by-the-numbers indie-rock. Honestly, it was one of those instances where everyone in the building was just waiting for them to get off stage to see the real stars of the show. This wasn’t their fault, of course, and I’m sure they’re happy to be playing in front of way more people than they probably would be otherwise, but it wasn’t the ideal situation for them, either.
The photo above is used with permission and was taken by BECCA ELIZABETH and can be seen here as well.
