clap your hands say yowza
october 05, 2006 @
15:10
link
Let me start by saying that I enjoyed much of their album. I'll even go as far as to call a couple of the songs insanely good. Not all of them, of course, but some. But that's just me, your mileage may vary.
Now let me also say this. I've listened to the NPR broadcast of one of their shows from last spring and it didn't do much for me. The album is brash, but it also can be light and airy and melodic in places. The live broadcast didn't really convey that.
So it wasn't without a certain degree of trepidation that I drove downtown last night for their First Avenue appearance. Not just because I feared the show wouldn't be good, more because I was expending some serious personal capital to go see a late night concert with a 10 day old at home, so if it *was* bad I was going to be doubleplus pissed.
Nutshell review: Too loud to review, even in nutshell form. Maybe I'm too old - I was wearing jeans and a long sleeve softball t-shirt, so that case can be made - but several of the scenesters around me were also complaining. Earplugs were in for most of the show. Also, the mix was capital A awful. I don't know if it was the b-squad board op or if it was some random dude who was just there for his make-a-wish fantasy day, but it was brutal. Loud, muddy, gross. Both keyboards were more or less entirely lost in the mix. On the plus side we could hear the thrashing "lead" guitar and the drums just fine; on the minus side, thrashing lead guitar and drums don't really carry the melody. The setlist was also weak; a down tempo new song 4 songs in? Uhh.
There were some highlights - the crowd was clearly hungry for them - and I got my dance on for at least a handful of songs, but all in all I'd say it was a bit of a letdown. I still bought a poster, though, because that's just the type of guy I am.
And closed circuit to the water buffalo in the black headband who knocked me over 6 times on her way back and forth to the bar: methinks 5 vodka tonics should be enough for a 70 minute show.
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah [clapyourhandssayyeah]