The New Pornographers at 9:30 10/27

I have now crossed one of the things off my list of things to do: see the New Pornographers with Dan and Neko. I can die slightly less unfulfilled! Yay!

I had some Peruvian chicken for dinner before the show, and it was utterly delicious. Mmmm that white sauce. And then watched The Warriors again, which I hadn't seen in a few years or so, and it's just as utterly ridiculous as I remember, although I had forgotten that Lynn (The Chief!) Thigpen and Mercedes Ruehl were in it, not just Dexter's dad (James Remar).

We (my fairly normal concert going friends) made it in time to see Emma Pollock (lead singer from the Delgados, a band which I am unfamiliar with), who was good, but not enough for me to go try to listen to her (or the Delgados for that matter). Since we were standing so far down the left side of the balcony we could see the Pornos sitting around waiting, and Neko and John Collins enjoying Emma. And I also called the Kirsty MacColl track, "There's a Guy Works down the Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis" before they started to play it between sets. Sometimes I am awesome. And it's not just sometimes for Kirsty, who covered A New England. I also couldn't believe I couldn't remember that Let's Active played Every Word Means No, also played in between sets, and I'm thankful that I didn't know that Smashmouth covered it. Because that is a travesty. Eric Bachmann covering it is completely awesome.

The Pornos themselves started a little late after a bit of struggling with some technical difficulties by the adorable Kathryn Calder's keyboards. But they got it working, it went dark, the New Pornographer lite went on, and the opening of Classical Gas started to play. By the time the famous part started, the band was out (well, all the band I could see, as I didn't see Blaine until much later due to my location, and Dan only does his songs, the lazy drunk bastard (the completely awesome lazy drunk bastard though)), and ripped into their first song, All the Things That Go To Make Heaven & Earth. It was a little after 11. We got to the car after the show after 12:45. Yes, they played for a long time, and were never less than completely rocking. Unless it was intentional. As for the setlist, you can see, it covered most of Challengers except for my favorite track, Entering White Cecilia), and covered some of the better tracks from their previous three albums (except for Letter from an Occupant, which they have played at previous shows on the tour, just not this one, damnit).

Setlist: (from Katherine)
All the Things That Go To Make Heaven & Earth
Use It
Myriad Harbour
The Electric Version
All the Old Showstoppers
Jackie, Dressed in Cobras
Challengers
The Laws Have Changed
The Spirit of Giving
My Rights Versus Yours
Mass Romantic
Adventures in Solitude
Testament to Youth In Verse
Unguided
Twin Cinema
Go Places
Sing Me Spanish Techno
The Bleeding Heart Show
--------------------
The Bones of an Idol
[Attempt to play The New Face of Zero & One] (it was requested and Carl said it would be good if he could play it, but that they didn't know it anymore, but was able to get Kurt to play the Adam Ant opening beat and then they made it through maybe a minute without being particularly able to finish lines of the lyrics and it was just fun)
Jackie
From Blown Speakers
The Slow Descent into Alcoholism

I spent all the time singing along, but didn't lose my voice at all. Did I mention that I love smoke-free clubs? My feet did hurt like the dickens a few songs in, but I didn't stop bouncing.

At one point, Carl thanked the crowd for being the 9th member of the band, until it was pointed out that there were actually nine members of the band on stage, and then he said tenth, no, twelfth member. You're welcome Carl, Neko, Dan, Kurt, Kathryn, Todd, John, Blaine, and the other how ever many there were of you. And there was the mention of "bros" which will always make me think of idiots in college who will be saying Don't Taze Me, Bro far longer than it could be conceivably funny to someone who's lost his short term memory. But I will be BFF with Neko forever.

Also, there was a no pictures policy at the club, meaning BOOOO! to the 9:30. Or maybe just Neko based on the previous show. Maybe they just didn't want to show just how much alcohol was consumed during the show, which was a prodigious amount, especially Dan who was drinking backstage, onstage, and in between singing if he had a free hand. I can deal, though, because there are some pics from NPR and Katherine who again flouts the rules because she is far more awesome than me. Plus, she has a camera.

My every concert always has to have a douchebag douchebag of the concert: the guys behind us who not only said the score of the OSU-Penn State game which I was recording to watch later, but who also talked throughout the concert and then started to request Failsafe towards the end. I also like Failsafe, but do they actually think that it is possible for the band to play that live? Does it sound like anything else in their discography? Is tremolo really something they could do? Of course not. I mainly just am bitter about the talking during the concert (not just between songs, but during songs, louder than the quiet ones from Emma Pollock) and the ruining the football game for me. Of course OSU won, but I wanted to watch it without an idea of how it was going to turn out.