March 25, 2006
View Comments | Post CommentAnimal Collective, Ted Leo, shows, music
Shows seen this week: 2
Fake encores seen this week: 2
Hipster mullets seen this week: 2
Coincidences? Nope. Quite the contrary; I've been to two concerts at the Black Cat! Animal Collective on Tuesday and Ted Leo on Friday night. Both were shows I'd been looking forward to for a long time.
Animal Collective is an amazing, experimental band that made #2 on my Top Albums of 2005 list. I was curious what the hell they'd do live. I was looking for more weirdness and experimentation, and they delivered on both fronts. A band called Storsveit Nix Noltes opened, and they were delightful--kind of like an Icelandic polka version of Esquivel. I can't wait to hear more from them. Animal Collective's highlight was "We Tigers" from their second-to-last album, in which the band laid down their instruments, picked up their mics, and engaged in an exuberant, converging acappella evocation of the jungle. I know that sounds like a pretty ridiculous description. And yeah, they were ridiculous. And awesome. Definitely obtain their albums Feels and Sung Tongs, if you have the means.
I've been listening to Ted Leo for a couple years, and his music is so much fun. Since my first listen, I've taken it as a given that he'd be awesome live. That kind of energetic music is always great to see. Reminds me of my days going to some ska show every week or two at The State Theatre in St. Pete, and every single show being amazing because of the energy and pure fun of the music and the bands. Anyway, Ted Leo ended up being a big disappointment; he lost his voice somewhere during the third song. Like the trooper he is (the guy has to be over 40 now) he trudged on through a short set while sounding pretty bad. He has such a good voice, and you could tell he was really bummed out, so that took a lot of the energy out of the show. But we did get to do some good dancing and singing along, so on the whole, it wasn't too bad.
No band has yet stood up to the challenge that I posed: Whatever band declines to do a fake encore will instantly become my favorite band ever.
Besides a guy who was six-foot-six with a giant afro who decided to stand in the front row, another guy looking as redneck as anyone I've ever seen, a bartender apparently trying to use the old hanky code to let us know he likes to be fisted, and the guy who sat at the bar, facing away from the stage for the entire show without looking back toward the band, who nevertheless knew the words to every song (why attend a sold out Ted Leo if you have no interest in seeing him play?), the crowd was as expected. And then there was the couple to the right.
This couple totally caught me off guard. I was fresh off of having read this Pitchfork review of Ted Leo's latest album, that asked, "Can you feel yourself getting old?" So when I saw this couple, I was thinking, "Damn, is some of the music I've listened to for a while getting that stale?" Indeed, there was a huge surplus of older people at the Ted Leo show. For that matter, at twenty-three, even I have looked older than most of the crowd for about five years now at shows. And just last week, I was called out on wearing a corduroy blazer that I thought was still pretty hip--I was informed that, in fact, it was not. Damn. Aging. I took solace in the fact that I was able to identify so many of the undesirable characteristics of the aging concert-goer, as noted below. With such skills remaining, perhaps I can stave off the reaper of relevance for a few years more. Click the picture to the right to see the full-size version. Any other critiques I've missed?
In related news, after one listen all the way through, I'm pretty sure The Flaming Lips new album At War With The Mystics is my biggest musical disappointment of the decade. Built To Spill's new album You In Reverse, however, is still great after three or four listens, "Mike Joooooooones" and all.
Posted at March 25, 2006 3:00 AM | Comments (19)
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Regarding your challenge. . I know I've seen it, but of course, I can't remember who. Maybe Cowboy Mouth or The Burden Brothers? Oh, or it might have been Franz Ferdinand at ACL 2005 - I seem to remember an accent :P. The end of their set was filled with comments such as, "This is our last song before the fake ending," or, "Okay, time for the fake ending. Got to pee, you know."
Posted by: Karen at March 25, 2006 9:18 AM
What does FUPA stand for, "Fucked-Up-Pussy-Area"? Also,is that Eric in the background of that picture of the old folks?!? (On the left!) Finally....you sure do get a kick out of judging people. Im not saying its a bad thing. It will make you that much better of a judge in the future. I think your decisions will look something like this....
BARZELAY SWINGS COURT IN 5-4 DECISION:
"Not only am I of the opinion that Mr. Johnson has no constitutional right to display his sign in public, I am also of the opinion that he has no consititutional right to wear those tapered pants with those cheap, dirty wal-mart dress shoes. Please, Mr. Johnson, have some respect for the court."
Posted by: Chris Santoro at March 25, 2006 1:27 PM
Like Karen, I too have seen a few bands forgo the fake encore and I too can't remember which bands it was.
I'm eagerly anticipating the Built to Spill album, glad to hear that it's good with the whole Mike Jones thing. I imagine it will be much better without it.
That's unfortunate about the Flaming Lips album. Haven't picked it up yet, but I was hearing mostly good things. Oh well, I'll still fetch it at some point.
Posted by: Mike at March 25, 2006 1:39 PM
And it's not the fact that they're from Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart actually sells some pretty decent shoes. I love the velcro sneakers, for instance. It's the fact that they're the all black, shiny sneakers like the ones McDonald's employees wear because they know the shoes are gonna get all greasy anyway.
Posted by: David Barzelay at March 25, 2006 1:44 PM
And I've seen plenty of bands forgo the fake encore, just none in the last year or two. The fake encore phenomenon has really become pervasive. It's an epidemic sweeping the music scene.
Posted by: David Barzelay at March 25, 2006 1:46 PM
For all concerned, there is a Mike Jones-less release of You In Reverse that leaked not long ago....
Posted by: Adam Rugg at March 25, 2006 2:19 PM
Not sure what you mean by "fake encore" - do people do encores or not? Cause a couple weeks ago I saw Ben Lee, and he said, "I'm going to turn around for a second, and you guys can scream, and then I'll play another two songs - I just really don't feel like actually leaving the stage for this...." Is that a fake encore or a no-encore? I'm confused.
Posted by: Cara at March 25, 2006 2:20 PM
He was making fun of the fake encores. But he still did it, he just did it consciously.
Posted by: Barzelay at March 25, 2006 5:16 PM
So a fake encore is......an encore?
As for the old people at concerts...I was just at an Eisley concert. I was definitely one of the oldest people at the concert. (Not THE oldest....but everybody around me was younger.)
You know what? I don't care. I've never been "hip." Why start now? I'll be jumping up and down and playing air guitar at concerts when I'm 60.
Posted by: Ben Stark at March 26, 2006 12:56 AM
No. An encore is when a band plays the entire set they've planned, finishes up, says bye to the audience, and leaves the stage, not expecting to play any more that night. But the crowd is so pumped by the show and so pleased with the performance that no one leaves. And they just keep cheering. And the venue guy finally runs back to the band's room and says, "No one's leaving! You've got to do something!" And so the band comes back on, surprised and proud that they've put on such a good show, and plays a couple more songs to finally sate the ravenous crowd.
A fake encore is when the band leaves, expecting to come back on.
Posted by: David Barzelay at March 26, 2006 2:19 AM
Thank you Barzelay, for answering Ben before I got a chance to.
As I'm reflecting on it, I'm not sure I've ever actually seen a real encore. Which is a real shame. I'd love to see one at some point. Even the times I've stayed after the fake encore hoping to hear more, they bring up the house lights and kick everyone out.
Have you ever seen an honest-to-god real encore?
Posted by: Mike at March 26, 2006 11:25 AM
yea i'm a little confused about the fake encore bit. how would you even know if it's a real one or not unless you're backstage when the venue guy says that they just have to play again. i dont believe that ever happens. people always expect that encore. every show i've ever been to there has been an insane stomping of feet, clapping etc when the band is 'done'. i always assumed it was just the etiquette of concerts. belle & sebastian had 2 encores. i've seen tori amos concerts where she did 3. i find it a little annoying but it's just how it goes.
and seriously, why diss on the older folks. that couple is probably like 30 or 35. i very well expect to be going to shows way into my 50s. and i'm sure you will too.
Posted by: Ula at March 26, 2006 4:06 PM
you're a loser to put all that work into making fun of people's appearances.. of people you do not even know.
Posted by: Mike at March 26, 2006 9:07 PM
pardon me, you're also insecure to make fun of these people. Grow up.
Posted by: Mike at March 26, 2006 9:09 PM
Previous comment edited. Hate all you want, but this is my blog.
Posted by: David Barzelay at March 26, 2006 9:16 PM
Waaaaaaaaaah. People cryin' on your blog, Barzelay? How silly.
Posted by: Amanda at March 26, 2006 9:32 PM
i just love this guy. first, apparently it makes someone a loser to humorously comment on the appearance of people he sees in public...but especially because he doesn't know them. so that makes it better to spend our time chastising our friends? i personally think there's nothing wrong with either, as long as its done in good humor. but i find it hard to believe that "mike" has never walked by someone and thought to himself, or expressed to a friend, "what is so-and-so wearing?" or "what's up with his hair?" or whatever. it's a natural human reaction. and it's funny. so deal.
second, it seems that calling someone an insecure loser and telling him to grow up is the paradigm of maturity. who knew?
Posted by: jeanette at March 27, 2006 10:51 AM
Hey there,
scanning the web for a few pics of us and came across your blog. Not that I feel particularly inclined to become your favorite band for any reason other than that you enjoy hearing what we do.... I feel pretty confidcent in saying that we have never done a fake encore in our entire lives. I know exactly what you are talking about. In fact for a long time we would just flat out refuse to do encores. We didn't really care so much how pumped people were after, we felt that we had played what we came to play and that was that. But we started to feel that in some ways we were disappoining people that were genuinely there to have a good time WITH US. So we began to try it out. and again, it was never planned. it is never planned. The tour we just came off of (europe for two weeks) there were a handful where we still didn't do an encore even when people were going nuts. We just felt we had done what we came to do and we were glad people were psyched. When we do do encores it is becuase we feel good and people are going crazy and we swetily and breathlesslessly stnad off stage and say "should we? what do you want to do? ok. what should we play? can we do that? ok." and then do it. I don't recall if we did an encore that night at the black cat. i am guessing that we did. i wonder how one could ever do an encore when you are the headlining band and not have it seem fake or disingenous. Especially considering how standard the whole encore procedure has become. ANyway... for what it is worth. Ours are never fake.
all the best,
josh (aka Deakin of Animal Collective)
Posted by: josh at July 18, 2006 2:20 PM
About your challenge, the band Morphine announced that they were going to let the audience in on a little secret and show us what actually goes on during the fake endings. They would cut the lights and stand around on stage wiping themselves off and drinking water until we cheered loud enough. They did that two or three times, then finished the show and left.
Yeah, you hit a nerve by slicing and dicing the pic of the un-hip couple. "Black shoes at a Ted Leo show? WELL, I NEVER!" I mean, I'll give you that wearing earplugs to a Ted Leo show is like wearing rubber gloves to wash your hands. Lame anti-folk can only be so loud.
You know, retarded people are really easy to make fun of, try them next.
Posted by: Tapered Leg Denim from Wal-mart at July 28, 2006 12:46 PM
