Allow me to rant for a bit about this trend lately that venues seem to be falling into: not abiding by the door times. It makes no sense to me that they would rather have people standing outside for an hour than buying overpriced drinks and merch. If a band is late or having technical problems, too bad. Keep the curtain closed and let us in. Tonight was an absolute clusterfuck the likes of which we have never seen. Doors at 7, show at 8, dinner res at 7:30. So why was there a non moving line all the way out to Harbor at 7:20? We didn't get in till almost 8. I understand that we are old and easily annoyed and not rock n roll in the least, but this just seems like an idiotic business practice. However, I did end up drinking two vodka cranberries rather than my usual iced tea before the main act even took the stage because I was stressed and annoyed, so good for them? (The stress came from forgetting my phone - who does that??)
On to the show. They must be finished with their remodel of balcony area because were were led up there by the same host who recognizes us every time. Honestly we couldn't notice much difference except maybe carpeting and new lighting. When we were finally seated (and told we would be sharing a table because they had a full house) some shlubby guy wandered onstage over to the little setup down left and started messing with his laptop, I guess mixing songs? Is this what qualifies as an opener these days? No offense to DJs, but I sincerely hoped not and thankfully a real band appeared right around the same time as our food.
This was Lovelife, who were so thrilled to be in California, all the way from the UK (a million miles, they said) but they pronounced the city name differently every time. Santa Rana, Santaria, Santera, Santer Ama - come on. You're not so cool that you cannot take two seconds to learn the name. It was fairly obvious why they would be selected as tour mates The Neighbourhood: group of cute young boys singing songs about heartbreak and regret. At least that is what I gathered from the bit I could understand - as B said, the lead singer sounded like he had a mouth full the whole time. That is a big difference between this band and the one we came to see. My favorite thing about The Neighbourhood is that the lead singer seriously spits fire. More on that later. The biggest problem was that we had to attempt to eat in the dark during this opener because of the late entrance. Really frustrating, and on top of that they seemed to have removed all traces of bacon from the menu, including B's favorite, the Nebula burger. Hopefully that is a temporary thing.
Right after they wrapped up, shlubby came back to his laptop and our host informed us they had some cancellations (aka people changed their minds about dinner after getting in at 8pm) so we wouldn't have to share the table. I did a quick facebook check and noticed The Observatory was giving away a pair of tix to the show, and said the headliners would be on at 9:45. Again wtf? Doors supposedly at 7 and the main act going on at almost 10? Why should we be sitting here for an hour between acts? Nonsense. At around 9:40 some guy came onstage with a hand held camera to get some crowd shots and all the kids got excited while I sat there wearing my best Grumpy Cat frown.
Finally the lovely boys of The Neighbourhood took the stage, and it was pandemonium. We have a bit of a soft spot for this band, because we happened to see them open for Paul Banks and then Metric a few days later. Immediately we proclaimed these kids had the perfect formula to hit it big - adorable, interesting, extremely talented, with catchy songs that are easy to at least hum along to. About a month later KROQ started playing them and soon they were popping up everywhere. So, it made us kind of proud to hear all these little girls chanting and freaking out at the mere sight of them. Some girls were even holding up signs! Signs!
They filmed a "video" for their big hit, Sweater Weather at the show
Brandon expressed a tiny bit of concern when we noticed lead singer Jesse Rutherford was wearing some kind of pleather skirt over his black, emo ensemble, but I assured him that this kid is pretty quirky so I don't think it's some kind of new-found fame-driven affectation. As previously mentioned, we were pretty blown away by these guys the first two times we saw them - most specifically the crisp, clear vocals and lightning fast lyrics. On that front, we were slightly disappointed in this show, but we decided that it was the fault of the sound mix and not the band itself who was definitely giving its all the whole time. The previous times were in the tiny Constellation Room and then the Fox Theater, so it's kind of pathetic that the heretofore awesome sounding Observatory seems to be going downhill. We had hoped the muddy mix we experienced during the Built to Spill was a fluke, but unfortunately it appears to be a trend. In spite of the fact that the vocals weren't as sharp as they had been during our previous experiences, however, we were not let down by the performance.
These boys are incredibly tight and well put together for being so young and relatively new. At times I just stared at the hysterical crowd, fist pumping, dancing, screaming the lyrics, and just basically losing their minds over this band. For me, that kind of fan reaction always bolsters my enjoyment, and this was no exception. I get a little overwhelmed every time I go to a show and think about the fact that all of these people (and in this case, many VERY young people) are choosing to be out among others and enjoying loud music rather than sitting in their rooms messing around on the Internet or playing video games. It lights up my heart that in the age of Bieber and Miley, there are still young people making great music and others appreciating it like this. Sure, it helps that these are cute young boys who could get away with singing shlocky pop. Thankfully, however, their music really is thoughtful, complex, and layered.
The band seems genuinely excited and humbled by their sudden success, even relating an anecdote about how after they played a few shows in The Constellation room, the owner suggested they play the big room. They balked, saying they didn't think that would work out, but were talked into doing it. The show sold out within a couple of hours. Very cool for them.
No comments:
Post a Comment