In the club

Timing worked out nicely for me to catch The New Pornographers and The Walkmen in Cincinnati tonight and then head west for Roger Ebert's Film Festival tomorrow. I really wanted to see this pairing of bands--they'll be in Champaign-Urbana when I'll be there for the festival--and this evening's concert meant not ditching any films and shaving an hour off Wednesday's drive. (Granted, I drove about two hours to get down here, but tomorrow's drive will be shorter.)

I really need to be finishing up some stuff and then getting some sleep, so I'll refrain from posting pictures from the show or writing about it. Perhaps I can get to that after the film festival and on a slow blogging day.

What I did want to touch upon briefly was visiting Bogart's, the club pictured above. As far as I can recall, the last time I was here was in late June/early July 1999 to see Beth Orton with Kelly Willis opening. I know I saw The Afghan Whigs in this club, but that was probably in 1996 or 1997. If I haven't seen any other shows here--and none come to mind--it feels like I did. (Guided by Voices, perhaps?)

The place feels so familiar. I had a pretty firm idea of what it and the area looked like. While I didn't look around much after arriving and departing--I lucked into a parking spot almost directly across from the front door--it all seemed like I remembered, more or less. The spacious room, which is a long rectangle with a parquet wood floor and wood paneled walls, feels homier and doesn't feel as cramped as a similar Columbus club. It's a simple, unpretentious space that is a great place to see a concert, at least if you're near the stage, as I was.

It was a bit unusual to be patted down and asked to empty my pockets before entering. I can't remember the last time I've experienced that before going to a concert. (It wasn't to catch recording devices, as they ignored the camera. That alone tells you how much the new ordinary is entrenched at concert venues.) While waiting for the opening band to take the stage, a security guard confronted two college-aged women who'd been handed bottled beers by a friend. They weren't of age, and he tossed them all, best as I can tell. Never seen that happen.

Both bands were terrific. I had a great spot about three people deep from the stage. All in all, it was a great way to kick off what has been an annual spring trip for me.

Testament to youth in verse

In spite of the disreputable name the band chose, The New Pornographers rank among my favorites. Their pop songs via indie rock give the experience of being pummeled by wave after wave of balsamic vinegar, to make a weird analogy. (What I'm getting at is there's acid cutting the sweetness and a sense of being battered by the muscular chords and strong rhythms.)

It's been two years since they were last in town, so I was excited to see them again in concert. As a bonus, they had an additional member tagging along who wasn't here in 2008. (This also meant nine members were on stage at one time, which appealed to my fascination with extremely large bands.) I looked forward to this show as a nice end to the day that officially finishes the academic year and a time to kick back and take a breath or two.

And how. Maybe it was being so close--and having some room due to snagging a rare chair at a table at the general admission club show--but I was completely absorbed in song after song of perfection or close to it. ("The Bleeding Heart Show", which closed the main set, is one of the greatest songs ever. Seriously.) Suffice it to say that this group hits all the right spots for me. For something that first appeared to be a side project, I'm kind of amazed that they've become pretty successful, at least on the level of indie bands.

Since I have the photos, here are the opening bands: The Dutchess and the Duke (above) and The Dodos (below).

Duh duh duh duh

The calendar may not say that it's summer, but as the school year comes to a close, it might as well be. Am I ever ready for it. One of the obstacles in my path are the three high school commencements that I have to work tomorrow. It's one of my least favorite days of the year, but getting through it is a sign that the summer (and hopefully a reduced pace) is almost here.

So, while I try to get myself in mental shape for tomorrow's endurance test, I present to you a single from a band whose sound practically denotes summer.



I've been listening to The New Pornographers' Together a lot of late, and it seems like the perfect album for cranking up in the car during the warmest months of the year. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Adventures in solitude

With a busy work week coming to its conclusion, I felt like staying home rather than heading out, but in what's turned out to be a year for good rock shows, tonight meant I was off to see The New Pornographers and Okkervil River.

The concert was at the Newport Music Hall, which accommodates four times the number of people where I've seen every other show this year. If it didn't sell out, it was going to come close to it, meaning that it was going to be a sticky night. I haven't been there for almost two years--last time: Beth Orton--but I've been there enough to know that this time of year with a big crowd guarantees it will be muggy inside.

So, the challenge when going alone is to figure out what to do while standing there waiting up to an hour for the concert to start and sweating. I've found that the combination of clearing one's mind, trying to make oneself invisible, and eavesdropping works about as well as anything. Usually the conversations one overhears are banal, but you just hope that they won't carry over when the music starts. (Unfortunately, this isn't always the case.)

Okkervil River opened with an hour-long set. I've heard of them but hadn't heard anything by them before tonight. I could tell that the six-piece band deserved their positive reputation and liked what I heard, but with no familiarity with these songs, their set obviously didn't mean as much to me. You might not think that having a relationship with music makes it "better", but my sense is that I would have been more impressed if I knew a note they played.

A half hour after Okkervil River's set wrapped, seven members of The New Pornographers took the stage, including Neko Case. She doesn't always tour with them. As a fan of her solo work, I was thrilled that she was making an unexpected appearance.

I've not been as crazy about the group's most recent album Challengers in comparison to their three others, but the live setting improved the songs from it. Perhaps having the slower tunes sprinkled among the up-tempo catalog songs made them stand out better. "Adventures in Solitude" and "Mutiny, I Promise You" ranked among the night's best along with old favorites "Mass Romantic" and "The Slow Descent Into Alcoholism". Their ELO cover was great fun, and a seemingly impromptu take on Trio's "Da Da Da", which most probably know from the Volkswagen commercial, was weirdly pleasant.

Concert venues seem to have abandoned all hope of putting the pinch on photography. Signs on the entrance said no cameras were allowed, but no one was giving the shakedown or stopping pictures from being snapped. Honestly, there's really not much they can do about it with the prevalence of cameras in cell phones, and plenty of digital cameras were held up throughout the show.

I grabbed a couple quick photos and left it at that. It was the rare moment when I didn't have someone blocking my view as the headliners played. Hey dude, it's great that you're having a good time, but your side to side head shaking and larger than anyone else's personal space means I can't see much of anything but the back of your cranium. Being six feet tall, my height usually doesn't present a problem, although I have an uncanny ability for going to concerts and eventually getting behind people taller than me. Moving wasn't an option as everyone was practically stacked shoulder to shoulder.

But why moan about this when I received a good night of live music? Well, because I want to...and I was getting angrier about it the longer it went on.

Anyway, I know it seems like I've been going to concerts almost every week, but I'm all out of tickets. I'm going to try to land one for Radiohead when they go on sale in the morning. Otherwise I now return to quieter nights.