Built to Spill | The Observatory in Santa Ana | 05.02.13

Another night at our friendly neighborhood venue, The Observatory. We have seen Built to Spill a couple of times , including an incredible show last year during which they played one of their albums in its entirety at the Troubadour, so we were happy to see them again, especially so close to home. Brandon has been a fan for many years, and one of their songs that he introduced to me, Car, is one of my all time favorite songs. So, of course we snapped up the tix when we saw that they would be so close to home.

The week leading up to the show I started checking out setlist.fm, which is my way when we are going to see a band with which I am not as familiar as Brandon is, just so I can know what to anticipate. Slowly I came to the sinking realization that they haven't played Car once all year. This sort of put a damper on my enthusiasm, but I buoyed myself with the memory that they always put on a great show, so even though I would probably be missing out on my fave song, it would still be an enjoyable evening.

They sat us downstairs at a booth again, which is so comfortable but doesn't make for the best views. We are hoping they come up with some sort of compromise, because it would seem like the people who come earliest and spend the most money should get some sort of better view than the people who wander in and stand in front of the booths. [This is also why the pics for this show suck so badly - we couldn't get a good view to save our lives.]

Opener Junior Rocket Scientist fell under the category of "passable but nothing special to us," which unfortunately has become the norm at the Observatory. With the one shining exception of The Neighbourhood, we haven't really been dazzled by any openers there. 

As expected, Built to Spill put on a great show. This is one of those bands that even without being familiar with their entire catalog, I can completely immerse myself and rock out with them. This is owing almost entirely to the workhorse-like nature of lead singer Doug Martsch. The guy is in his 40s and is starting to show a bit of wear and tear, but honestly I feel like it has just enriched his voice with an even more impressive depth. He throws his whole self - body and soul - into every single song. See how is face is blurred below? That's because he NEVER stopped moving long enough to get a clear shot.

I was riveted as usual, and by the time we got to the rollicking encore that included a faithful rendition of Don't Fear the Reaper (it could probably have used a bit more cowbell from the lead singer of Junior Rocket Scientist who joined them for the song, but I am not complaining) I am pretty sure everyone in the room was spent and satiated. This was especially true for one woman from the booth next to us who was basically putting on some sort of performance art with her "dancing" all over the place. She was flailing, whacking into people, and generally causing a bit of a scene, but thankfully wasn't all that disruptive. Everyone around her just kind of gave her some space and smiled at her, shaking their heads.

The only negative was that the once impressive sound quality of the venue was way below our now high expectations. Everything was a bit muddy and rough, which isn't what we have experienced with this band previously. It wasn't bad enough to ruin the evening or anything, but it was noticeable. Brandon did feel that the set list was a bit odd, with some of their more familiar songs skipped in favor of some obscure, esoteric ones. This is not necessarily a bad thing, just surprising to him.

Overall it was an extremely entertaining night. No Car, though. Dang.