i know you can stay a girl by holding a boy's hand
This is not to say that any of the members of Camera Obscura are particularly old, but having never bothered to look at any press photos, I expected them to be younger. Though not quite as strange as hearing Roger Daltrey bust out "I hope I die before I get old" when pushing well past 60, it's a touch disheartening to hear "what will I do? Must it always be you?" leap out of the mouth of someone who is pushing 40. It's just that those kinds of sentiments - that pepper themselves throughout the band's catalogue - are the type of thing I always envisioned having sorted out 10-15 years from now. It's sort of High Fidelity-esque, isn't it? Hopefully that didn't offend anyone.
The band were really tight, and the show was quite enjoyable. With few exceptions, there wasn't really anything particularly spectacular about the live performance vs. the album though. They play their songs very well, but they don't really do all that much else. It was great to see, but if you weren't already a fan of the band, I doubt it would've won you over. It was, however, spectacularly awesome when Tracyanne Campbell called out some asshole who was in the very front and spent an entire song talking with his buddy, and then had the audacity to yell for them to play "Books Written for Girls" ("well, if we play it you're just going to talk the whole way through... you just shoved those girls right out the way and talked the whole time..."). Can we get more of that from frontpeople please?
Shapes and Sizes opened the show. If you have been away from the internet for the last couple of weeks, you should know that they've been written up with much fanfare in most of the major publications/blogs. Honestly (and I'm sure this will just sound like backlash, but whatever), they were a bit boring. I still want to hear their latest, but that's still because of all the buzz. If I had just shown up and saw them last night without any prior knowledge, I probably wouldn't have cared if I ever heard their record or not. Anybody out there given it a spin? Is the recorded material going to blow me away?
Here is some stuff to keep in mind if you're heading out to Sam Roberts/BSS tonight (or are contemplating). Evan Cranley is in town, so he should be bass slinging and trumpet playing, and that man can play bass. K-Os is in town (he's even spinning the after party), which means that they could play "Windsurfing Nation" tonight, and that would be awesome.
now playing: the Verve - Space and Time
5 Comments:
Hi Quinn,
A few points if I may:
From the fingers on one who's got 40 just a couple of years off in his sights, I would suggest that one shouldn't expect to have it all sorted out by the time you reach two score. No matter what one sorts, there'll be more mess spilling in. Hope that doesn't sound too paternalistic...
Indeed, Traceyanne calling the loudmouth on his behaviour was wonderful. Equally wonderful was the encore when she said that she'd been a bitch and wouldn't be able to sleep that night unless they played "Girls," provided loudmouth kept quiet. That was class.
Shapes & Sizes? I personally was underwhelmed. They weren't helped by the poor sound mixing, but I found the frenetic "chuck-it-in-the-pot-and-see-how-it-tastes" approach by and large didn't work for me. Some individual moments I found impressive, but not many. I will, however, maintain an open mind...
FiL
I discovered this morning that I already had Shapes and Sizes' album downloaded off bittorrent, but hadn't listened to it yet. This happens to me a lot.
I'm glad I didn't know they were opening and listen to the album beforehand, because I think I would've been disappointed. The album's not bad, certainly more polished, and the odd track is even maybe "good" from a generous viewpoint. I thought they had potential last night, but were pretty rough and underwhelming.
I think I saw you there, Quinn. I saw a guy who I thought was my ex-boyfriend, but who wasn't, and I was told by a friend that maybe it was you instead. Eerie.
By 
, at
3:48 p.m.
I quite like Shapes And Sizes. maybe thats the home-town thing going on, but I really really liked the disc.
By 
Peter, at
10:21 p.m.
the shapes and sizes album is decent... nothing mind-blowing, but certain much better than their performance last night -- which was pretty lousy, i'd have to say
By Hanson, at
12:34 a.m.
oh, and as a front person (right up to the stage as usual), i can say this: those two obnoxious asses pushed their way up to the front at the very end, one of them dragging this unwilling accomplice girl with them.... they were talking during a rather quiet song -- and right at the very front... there was also this other guy who i believe was with the two girls that were standing right in the centre, and he also started talking during (another) quiet song... i think one of the girls glared at him, so he shut up... but yeah, if you're at the front, not 4 feet away from the person on stage singing a quiet song, have the decency to shut the hell up.
By Hanson, at
12:40 a.m.
