Behind the Music
It was fun discussing the indie scene with Magic and Chris Prickett on the way there. If memory serves, both had attended the Austin Film Festival / Austin City Limits and made their own films. Pretty cool.
This was my first show at a small venue. I was immediately a fan of the new vibe. You could see the stage, you could hear the opening band, and you were automatically surrounded by diehards. No teenybopper drags their parents to the Norva.
Wide Awake
When the first song, “Sleeping Lessons,” started, I didn’t recognize it. Listening back to it on mp3 now, it still isn’t memorable. It glides along, unassumingly, and fades into the next track.
Live, though, it was a revelation. The band started in the dark. As a few bloops and bleeps came out of their instruments, neon lights started to appear. Little by little, more and more light and sound was revealed. By the time they got to the bridge (2:44), the crowd had been whipped up into an indie frenzy. It was certainly more subdued than the thrill you’d get with arena rock, but it felt more satisfying. They’d earned the fist pump.
Waning the Night Away
The rest of the concert, sadly, didn’t measure up. If your music is loud and hook-driven, you can mail it in to extent because the crowd will carry you along. If your music is quiet and quirky, though, you really need to sell each note, or the audience’s attention will start to drift – as it did for me. I actually checked my watch a few times.
Especially disappointing was “New Slang.” On the CD, it has an awesome head-cold aura. It’s fogy and hazy and makes you want to slip on Natalie Portman’s giant headphones and listen again. Live, it came off as a chore – a popular song that the lead singer performed as quickly as possible, without instruments, so he could move on to another song.
Saving Grace
One exception to the post-“Sleeping” doldrums: “A Comet Appears.” I loved this chilly ballad when I heard it on the album, on the show Chuck, and after a pivotal episode of Friday Night Lights, so I was bound to be disappointed by it during the concert. Yet I wasn’t. It was poignant as ever.
Grade: B-
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