TVOTR & A Bit of So On

Last Tuesday Amateis treated me to the TV On The Radio show at St. Andrew's. We arrived, as we usually do, more than two hours early to beat the line (the members of which have not caught on to our strategy yet). Of course the usual outdoor interactions with strangers ensued in the approximate order of: horny bum, crazy bum, Papa Smurf (vagrant, vigilante, and PhD), tiny-flag-selling bum, then finally Cameraman for The Official TVOTR Documentary. The downside was that we will probably be on the cutting room floor before the footage gets to the cutting room on account of how we were all, "UM YES WE THINK THEY ARE COOL [FIDGETING]." The upside was that the interviewer was extremely nice and not only didn't kick us in the shins, but let us skip up the stairs holding hands into St. Andrew's through a phalanx of unicorns on a rainbow of pure joy to watch the band do their sound check. (read: YAY!) After sound check we went back outside and Tunde said, "Hi," to us on his way to get some food or something. Friggen Awesome. It took right around forever for the doors to open officially, but that is what pretty much always happens with St. Andrew's shows.

Another twelve billion hours, a Heineken, and some cigarettes went by and the show was ready to start. Grizzly Bear was opening and they played what turned out to be a bunch of songs that were a lot more boring than what the TVOTR crowd was in the mood for. It wasn't that their songs were necessarily slow or uncomplicated or bad, they just weren't all that interesting. Everyone was ready for what their tickets said by the time GB gave up the stage.

Sticking with the plan, I always have way more to say about the lead-up to the performance than the actual performance itself. It can't really be helped unless I started being enough of a nerd to take notes and write down set lists at shows, which seems to me like it could kill the mood super quickly. If I'm at a show I'm giving my attention in its entirety to the performers and I like it that way.

The show was really fantastic. Aside from Kyp Malone rolling his eyes a lot and basically looking like he was playing the show for community service hours, everyone in the band was extremely energetic and rocked out at about the maximum level which human beings can. Tunde made the people in those "BAM, YOU GOT THE POWER!" sort of TV revival shows look like they were doing anything except shakin' around having a Holy Spirit induced seizure. Two songs into the set he was sweating his fucking brains out and never slowed down the action even once. It is such an amazing sight to see someone so into their lyrics and delivering them with enough force to prove it beyond any doubt. Most of the songs that were played came from Return To Cookie Mountain, but they also played a fair amount of the goodies from Desparate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes (aside from Ambulances, boo). Dave Sitek was also really fun to watch all janglin' his wind chimes off the end of his guitar and slappin' 'em all over the cymbals.

If you're thinking about going to a TVOTR show, I'd completely recommend doing it. They are one of the most engaging bands I've ever seen live and they played some pretty good rock-y versions of Staring At The Sun and Wolf Like Me that you just wouldn't get to hear otherwise. Assuming there are any more shows not being played anywhere super far away like the Moon, I'd love to go with a nice-sized group of people next time. Let me know if you get all interested or something.



There is only time for three other mini news tidbits:

1. Several weekends ago we spent multiple hours chasing a Brazilian around the streets of Dearborn for reasons which even now remain unknown to EVERYBODY.

2. This last Saturday we got to ball completely out of control in a huge Expedition limousine for Jen's birthday. Until like 3:00AM.

3. For some reason I am getting more freelance design and computer-building work in the past month than I have in probably the last two years, all while I'm making the most money I've ever made at one of the best full-time jobs I've ever had.