The Ladybug Transistor & The Clientele at the Black Cat 5/8

A Tuesday night concert really had to have a band I wanted to see, and this one had two. I knew that The Clientele were not going to be the best live band ever, but I had just seen one of the best last week with Arcade Fire (there apparently is no article there). So a nice quiet evening of good music would be good.

It would have been too, had it not been for you meddling kids, you Positions. They were "horn-driven" indie rock. Aka, music that was trying really hard not to be crappy ska, but never did. And the doors opened at 8, so they didn't go on until 8:45ish, and then play for far too long. Then again, I think any amount of time they played would have been too long. Luckily, there was no one at the show, so I could sit down on the tables at the back. And bitch about how bad they were.

I actually wasn't nearly as familiar with The Ladybug Transistor as with the Essex Green, but I do have the Albermarle Sound, and I do like it a lot. Can't say I know any names of their songs except for Always on the Telephone and Here Comes the Rain from the new album. Well, I couldn't put the name of the song together with the music. But anyway, I enjoyed the set, but it was a little less uptempo than I was expecting. I did get to see a couple of their more uptempo numbers when I saw The Essex Green in January. I liked the set, even if I was getting impatient for The Clientele.

When they did finally get on stage near 10:40, I was already getting sleepy. And they're not exactly the most uptempo band either. I did make it through almost an hour of music before I was just almost constantly yawning, so I had to bail before I heard my favorite song of theirs, (I Want You) More Than Ever, and they probably played it during the encore. I did get to hear Since K Got over Me, the highlight of Strange Geometry, their previous album. I enjoyed the time I got, but I wish they had been able to go on earlier, and that I hadn't been exhausted.

But the best thing about the show was that I got to pick up the new Ladybug Transistor album a full month before I would have preordered it from Merge and for a dollar cheaper too! Which makes me happy. And it means that my next obscenely large order from Merge gets to wait for a while. I got my hands on the new Clientele, which has a couple very nice tracks, but I prefer their earlier stuff a little more, Essex Green's The Long Goodbye, and Camera Obscura's Biggest Blue Hi-Fi and Underachievers Please Try Harder, all of which I had from an ex-girlfriend. But I didn't have legal copies until now! Just kidding, RIAA. You really suck.