Sunday, November 26, 2006

i love the troubadour

I am feeling a little bad right now, owing, I think, to the consumption of massive quantities of junk food and novel, disgusting beverages in which Shosh and I engaged on our way to the Margot & the Nuclear So and So's show tonight. And on the way from the show. Glaah. Remind me not to do that again, "road trip" or not.

Ginger and his girlfriend (who really should not be nomenclaturally contingent, but I can't think of a clever name for her and I don't like to use initials) met us there, having driven there directly from Las Vegas. Ginger's girlfriend gave me a matchbook from one of the brothels where they spent their Thanksgiving, and told me about her new contact there, who is "very intelligent, and very thorough," and whose name is Kristy Kreme. After the donuts.

The band was terrific — all three bands were quite enjoyable, actually. The first opening band, Grand Ole Party, was kind of ska-ish, featured a female lead singer/drummer wearing an awesome outfit, gave out free CDs, and didn't overstay their welcome. The second opening band, the one we were all there to see, had eight band members, including two drummers, a violinist, and a trumpeter, plus a female keyboardist who was wearing awesome boots (no keyboard dance that I noticed, though). The lead singer looked very, very different than I would have expected. I can show him to you, too, because their website, bizarrely and awesomely, includes a link to their Flickr page: here. It doesn't quite capture the overall slightly greasy effect; also, the skinny moustache was much more visible. Also, he spit a whole lot during the show. Very impressive range. Why am I still talking about the lead singer? I don't know. Here's another picture of 1/4 of the band. Tragically, they didn't do that on stage.

And here are the two best songs from their album, because I love them, and because they didn't play the first one, which is my favorite. Be sure to listen closely at the end, as long as you don't mind crying.

Jen Is Bringing the Drugs
Dress Me Like a Clown

Apparently the second percussionist was interestingly insane, although my view of him was blocked by, guess what, a tall guy. Ginger and his girlfriend witnessed him, at one point, lick the side of his forefinger from bottom to top and then point it at the lead singer with a flourish. Get ready, because I'm going to be doing this a lot from now on.

The headliner, The Elected, is, it turns out, fronted by one Blake Sennett. You might know him from such bands as Rilo Kiley. And oddly enough, The Elected pretty much sound like Rilo Kiley with a different singer. Their songs are wordy as hell, and weirdly opaque, and quite enjoyable in a poppy, mildly countryish sort of way. Yes, Jenny Lewis was there. She came out during the first song along with three other brunettes with the exact same haircut, all of them dressed like it was 1972 or something, and they all played tambourine. Then they all trooped back upstairs. Jenny was wearing the most awesome boots I've ever seen. Yes, even more awesome than the boots the Margot keyboardist was wearing. By orders of magnitude. Jenny! OMG! Where did you get your boots? Never mind, I'll ask you when I see you opening for Death Cab for Cutie in a week and a half. Everyone else will be shouting out things like "Rise Up With Fists!" and "Melt Your Heart!" and "Take off your shirt!" and "I love you Jenny!" but I'll be shouting, "Tell me where you got your boots!" And she'll totally tell me, because she probably gets tired of people shouting those other things and she'll want to reward me for being different. And then I'll buy ones just like them and life will be perfect.

Ahem. Where was I? Oh yes, I was about to talk about how engagingly creepy Mr. Blake Sennett's stage banter was. He sounded like a cross between Michael Jackson and Crispin Glover in that David Letterman video. He also had a stupid little moustache, a crazy vest, and a straw hat. During the encore, he told us how encores are weird, and they haven't been doing encores on this tour because they're weird, but that he was very grateful to us for asking them to come back out, because he had recently had a dream that he was at one of the shows on this tour, and Grand Ole Party played and they were great, and then Margot played and they were great, and then The Elected came out and there was no one left in the audience except for the members of Rilo Kiley, who were like, "See what happens?" Ginger and his girlfriend left a few songs into the set, so they're going to be hearing about that from me on Monday.

Also, a guy in an owl costume came out during the last song and got down like a fiend. If you can explain that one to me, I'll buy you a cookie.

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4 Comments:

At 12:27 PM PST, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Points, in order:

The Troubadour is my lover.

Steeling our stomachs, missy. And IDK what you're talking about; the beverages in question were awesome.

Let's be Aussie and refer to her as Sheila, mkay? I think she'd appreciate the irony. Or something. I like that I don't have to have a silly moniker other than the one that actually belongs to me by birth.

I would much rather crazy percussionist lick his finger than the inside of Richard's mouth. Ewww.

No, no -- Rilo Kiley was like "Oh! You're doing good!" /supportive clapping It was Blake himself who thought "See..."

The owl represents the shadow self, a secret life, which Blake himself is leading by being in two bands. Shit. IDK. A dream probably told him to do it. That's how RK got their name, you know. Blake literally dreamed it up. Gimme a cookie anyway.

 
At 2:41 PM PST, Blogger thedrymock said...

1. I had it first!

2. Bleech.

3. I'm not sure I get the Sheila irony? If she read my blog and volunteered her name like you, she wouldn't have to have a silly moniker either, but I believe in protecting the innocent.

4. Hush. Boys making out is hot. Especially when they're only doing it for the girls who are watching.

5. Yes, I know that, I was going for the effect. Just like he did. It was a good trick, and I stole it.

6. There's all kinds of owls all over Rilo Kiley's website. Along with raining heads. I'm guessing someone has an obsession with owls or something. Not everything has to be explained, I suppose. I will give you two cookies for making the attempt, though.

 
At 6:37 PM PST, Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's ironic in that "Sheila" = generic and slightly derogatory Aussie slang for "woman" and, uhm, Sheila studies feminist issues.

Two cookies! Wootnness!

 
At 1:10 AM PST, Blogger thedrymock said...

I see, I see, I see... good idea. I think I might like "Mary" better, though. Also nice and generic, plus it's got the whole virgin/whore thing going on too.

 

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