The New Pornographers & Okkervil River at 9:30 4/14

Being a huge fan of the New Pornographers, and it having been almost six months since I last saw them, I figured it was about time for them to come through. Luckily, they agreed, decided to have Okkervil River open for them, and bring Neko along (but not Dan, who's touring with Destroyer). Unfortunately for me, and those of us who bought the tickets early, before there was a Tuesday show, Neko got sick and missed Monday night's set. But it was only a slight difficulty, as Kathryn Calder (still hot, and apparently some gay guy agrees with me? and he also does an interview with Carl that touches on some interesting questions) was more than capable of not making me miss Neko. I was disappointed, since I'm seeing Destroyer next week, I didn't need to see Dan again, but Neko missing one night, and it happened to be this one, was the suck.

This is going to continue to be sort of all over the place. I left my phone in the car with my coat (the coat was on purpose, the phone not), so you miss out on my attempt to do a setlist. Basically, the doors were at 7, and there was no small opener (which is amazing, because Okkervil River is not an opener, although I've had that issue before (plus gratuitous slap at Hillary Clinton!)), which meant that Okkervil River was on at 8. I also had the exact same issue as at that show, as my shoes were ridiculously uncomfortable for standing up for three hours. And yet, I never learn, and wore the same uncomfortable shoes as over two years ago (admittedly, they're the same brand and model, but not the exact same shoes), but again, it didn't matter.

I didn't know that Okkervil River was also missing some people, although I did catch that it was Charles from the Wrens on guitar. I have heard all their albums, and I certainly loved their last two, but I can't say I was a fan who would be able to do a setlist. So, sorry, but they did play A Stone, Black, Our Life Is Not a Movie but Maybe, Unless It's Kicks, and No Key No Plan. All of which rocked to the appropriate level. And the drummer was sort like Animal, in that he drummed well but waved his hair around like crazy and seemed to be enjoying himself immensely. When the band seems to be enjoying themselves, it helps a lot.

The New Pornos came out, and rocked a lot. The audience didn't entirely agree, but screw them. The setlist wasn't all that different from last time, and I will never be happier about alcoholism than when I'm singing along to The Slow Descent into it. But basically a not very surprising setlist, even if they did pull out Jessica Numbers during the second encore, and introduced it as their most prog song ever. Although they opened their first encore with ELO's Don't Bring Me Down, proving, once and for all, that I know all the words to songs I didn't think I'd heard in years, before they started to play it. Good for me? but I definitely saw that video at some point so... I guess I listened to it in the last month? I certainly have an immense amount of useless information up in my brain. There were a couple of Dan songs, sung by Carl and Kurt, who were able to approximate Dan, but they were slightly off. Maybe not drunk enough?

During a quiet part, and I think because Neko wasn't there, someone in the crowd screamed out, "I love you Synthesizer Girl!" (Whoops, thanks, V.) Which led to Carl going off on a riff about how Blaine was Synthesizer Boy, and that they all had grappling hooks and thus were all superheroes. It was one of the few bits of banter I remembered, but he did discuss Neko not being there, and it being his birthday (which, according to Wiki, made it his 40th birthday). This lead to a predictable terrible version of Happy Birthday (is there a song out there designed to be sung more often that is as terrible as Happy Birthday? I don't think so), which Carl referred to as being a round. He wasn't too far off.

In a random bit of trivia, according to Wiki, Todd Fancey, goofy dancer and all, portrayed the voice of Hunter in Dinner Party, the most awkward (and therefore awesome) episode of The Office ever.

Apparently the douchebag of the show (not that I actually saw her) was Angela Valdez of the City Paper. Yes, she of the front page Late Night Shots article that ruined any feeling of schadenfreude over them ever for me. And I'm not the only one. Seriously, the WCP is worthless in general, but Valdez in particular. As stated earlier, Okkervil River, Will Sheff's emover aside, was awesome, and their last two albums basically put any reservations I had about the band aside. And there is no way that someone actually enjoying the set and saying "Fuck Yeah" or singing along can possibly be worse than the "I'm too cool for people who are enjoying the concert" air that she clearly had. In all my years of concert going experience, I have actively heckled one band, the openers for Yo La Tengo (I'm pretty sure it was the 9/18/00 show at the Cradle, if someone wants to confirm that I hated those openers rather than some other band). Then I realized that the lead singer's girlfriend was standing in front of me, and I realized it was a total dick move, and I haven't heckled since, no matter how much I might think they suck. Like the Walkmen last week, I didn't enjoy them, but I showed my displeasure by snarky comments, barely heard by the people I was standing next to and not screaming or clapping. But I wouldn't actively leave due to the band sucking, unless I had actually gone to see Superchunk opening for the Get-Up Kids, and then I probably would have sat through that as well. Leaving due to being exhausted after a long day of work is different. But I still want to apologize to John Vanderslice and The Clientele, two bands I like, for being tired. Plus, I sort of was at Vanderslice to see Portastatic, rather than him.