Archive for April 13th, 2008
YouTube – Super Pii Pii Brothers
Published April 13, 2008 cool stuff from the interweb Leave a CommentSo yeah, I went to the Okkervil River/New Pornographers show at the Carnegie Music Hall in Munhall/Homestead, Pennsylvania tonight. I’ve been looking forward to the show for weeks.
- Parkway East sucks. Loaded up my wife’s Saturn with Goomba Joe, his girlfriend and the two of us. Had dinner reservation for 5:15 p.m. at the Rock Bottom in Homestead with Sara, her husband and his friends John and Mike. Left Greentree at 4:30 and it took every bit of 50 minutes to get there. Would have been OK, except I forgot my lighter at the hotel. Yeah … sitting in traffic for most of an hour without nicotine blows monkey balls.
- Rock Bottom is good. Used to hit the RB in the Flats when I lived in Cleveland and the place in Homestead is better. For reals, made friends with one of the bartenders and pounded six or seven Irish Stouts before/during/after dinner. Had a nice barbecued salmon with potatoes and asparagus. Wife had a burger and fries. She wasn’t in the mood to share, but it looked good.
- Carnegie Music Hall is a nice, quiet venue. Not sure it’s the right place for a rock show. No beer, no smoking … not sure what kind of crowd they were expecting for the New Pornographers and Okkervil River, but it was a good mix of 20s, 30s and 40s. Seemed like a “date night” group overall. Not too many single women.
- Will Sheff and Charles Bissell are rock gods. Okkervil River played about an hour, and the set included nearly all my favorites. They opened with “The President’s Dead” and closed with “Westfall,” which has got to be one of the best songs in the universe. Other highlights were “Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe” and “For Real,” but there wasn’t a weak link in the show. Sheff seems to know what he does best and sticks to it for the live performances. Some OR songs are mind-blowingly awesome (all of the above, plus “Black,” “John Allyn Smith Sails,” “A Stone,” “The Latest Toughs,” “Unless It’s Kicks,” “A Girl in Port,” etc.), and some aren’t. They played the great ones and didn’t play the others. It was awesome.
- Two complaints. Set was missing “Red” and “Plus Ones,” which are two of my personal favorites. And would it kill Sheff to let Bissell play a Wrens tune or two? I could have used “She Sends Kisses” or “Ex-Girl Collection” … just sayin’.
- New Pornographers rocked. It was a really good show. Neko Case is still my favorite redhead that I’m not married to. She’s funny, smart, humble and has the voice of an angel. The rest of the band was also very good tonight. This is going to sound a little like blasphemy, but overall, I enjoyed the Okkervil River set a little better than the NP set. There were some great moments, like “Bleeding Heart Show,” “Stacked Crooked,” “Use It,” and “Mutiny, I Promise You,” but many of the songs blended together and sounded the same. Being a fan, I suspect that the absence of Dan Bejar for this tour contributed to that. Carl Newman’s a friggin’ genius and the set was fantastic, but in my opinion, it would have been a nice change of pace to have heard “Streets of Fire” or “Myriad Harbor” with his vocals.
- Special mention to Neko and Kathryn Calder for their awesome work on “Go Places” and “These Are the Fables.” Newman himself was amazing all night, but especially on “My Slow Decent into Alcoholism” and “The Jessica Numbers.” I think the whole band was at its best as a unit on “The Laws Have Changed” and “Sing Me Spanish Techno,” but that’s just my opinion.
- Other notes … no “Letter from an Occupant” was a little disappointing, but it’s hard to fault the band. They were great … hit the Hop House after the show for a few beers and a really good local blues band was there … no cover … hanging with Goomba Joe brought back some great memories … wife had a great time, too, despite being the designated driver (again) …
- That’s about it, I guess. My wife sat much closer to the stage than I did and said that Neko had some camel toe going … I suppose I’m sorry I missed that.
