Friday, September 30, 2005

Best Hanging-in-There for a Concert Results

I realize that I've completely neglected last weekend and my hangings-out with brother-in-law Cory, and I'm going to continue to neglect last weekend and my hangings-out with brother-in-law Cory because I've got photos from Wednesday night I want to share.

Anyway, Wednesday night I passed on a perfectly decent dinner invite to check out the Spin 20th Anniversary Party at Webster Hall. The main draw for me to the show was that Lady Sovereign, a British grime star I've enjoyed for the past bunch of months who is rumored to be set to sign with Def Jam for her US debut, would be making an appearance. She was to be the first act, so I got to Webster Hall right around 8 (at that time the place was nearly vacant) and waited. And waited, while the DJ (listed on the program as "The Rub" but The Rub is a club night in Brooklyn that features many DJs, so who knows who the DJ really was) played several Lady Sovereign songs. At exactly 8:40 the night's "second" band, Drive By Truckers, took the stage. I was substantially upset to have dropped a decent amount of money for my ticket to this show and to have my personal main attraction turn out to be no show.

I didn't really know what to do, I was feeling strongly compelled to just leave Webster Hall at that point. I wandered around the club, reading the free copies of Spin that were lying around, hung out for a little bit on the club's floor where Sarah Lewitinn was dj'ing, considered hanging tight until LCD Soundsystem were going to come on, but finally grew frustrated enough that I decided to leave.

Well, just as I was about to leave I ran into Kane, a co-worker of Mike Lemmon's that I had met on several occasions, and we got to talking and I met a bunch of other Blue Sky folk and I went from being mad at a club all by myself to hanging out with plenty of good people, so I felt no reason to split.

And so, hanging out with plenty of good people lead to my seeing many good bands. Somehow I wound up right in the front for everything.

LCD Soundsystem came on after the Drive By Truckers. It was my third time seeing the band, I like them more and more each time I see them.

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They started off their relatively short set with "Losing My Edge," a departure from their typical sets.

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I think if I were a rock star I would want to be James Murphy. He really seems to be on top of things.

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As usual, the band ended their set with "Yeah," here's James going to town on the drums . . .

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And here's a video of his hectic drum-action.

Upon finishing "Yeah", the band found themselves with enough time to play one more song, so they officially closed the evening with "Movement," which I was glad to get to hear. When James Murphy announced they'd be playing the song he said to the crowd "I'm calling an audible, do you know what that means, "calling an audible"?"

During LCD's set I discovered I was standing right by Lane, Olivia, and, crap, Lane and Olivia's roommate . . . Kate? Or something like that? Sorry, I totally forgot your name. So, anyway, suddenly it was like I was surrounded by people I knew.

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The "party" was "hosted" by "actress/rockstar" Juliette Lewis. She was sufficiently, uhm, wasted?

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Also, the creepy guy from Last Night's Party was there.

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After LCD Soundsystem the night's first "surprise guest" made his appearance . . . it was J. Mascis from Dinosaur Jr. He wailed and rocked . . .

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And we took irreverent photographs, disgracing the honor of a 90's Alt-Rock Legend.

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There were lots of celebrities at the show. I saw Kirsten Dunst (but I didn't get to tell her that we had the same birthday), Leelee Sobieski (did I spell her name wrong? Of course I did), at one point I looked to my right and realized that the member of Run DMC who isn't Run and who isn't dead was standing right by me, and then there was this lady, who I spent the night thinking might have been Gwen Stefani without any eye makeup and without nice clothes and, also, she never blinked . . . because I think she was very, very high.

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And guess who came on next? Lady Sovereign, of all people.

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What they say about her is all true: she is short, she is young, she wears her house keys around her neck, and she's got this tough punk kid stage presence going on.

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She was good, but I can't say that her rhyming cooked that night.

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She mugged well on stage, but didn't really bring a lot of fire.

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Then a band called Death Cab for Cutie played. I had certainly heard of the band, but never heard them . . . their music made me think of the OC, a TV show I've only watched twice (the second time because I wanted to catch the Star Wars trailer back in March).

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"My mind is kinda flowin / like an oil projector"

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And then Juliette Lewis was on stage again. Wasted.

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The night's second surprise guest turned out to be DMC, the member of Run DMC that had been on the floor by me.

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I hate to say it, but one member of Run DMC does not a memorable performance make . . . good photos, yes, but he seemed very alone out there.

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He did "Walk This Way" all by himself. Sad.

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And then, finally, way too late at night, it was time for the night's headliners, Public Enemy. Coming to the show I was pretty sure I wasn't going to stick around for their set, but then I realized that I was in the very front of a crowded room and this was my opportunity to see the Rolling Stones of Hip Hop . . . so why not?

Anyway, prior to their set the band's menacing musicians took the stage . . .

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. . . and triggered what may have been a world record for "Most White People Making the Black Power Salute."

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And then Chuck D exploded onto the stage . . . and you may ask, "Brigham, why are you posting a picture of Chuck D's feet?" And I answer, "Because that is what you see when you're in the front of a Public Enemy concert." I had no idea that the band would be so energetic, everyone was running around the whole night . . .

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. . . or doing push-ups together . . .

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. . . or pulling karate moves on each other . . .

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. . . or getting all up in my grill.

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About three songs into the set "hype-man" Flava Flav appeared on stage.

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He mugged and posed and everything.

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I'm just glad he quit smoking crack.

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Hip-hop scholars would certainly give you an earful on the Chuck D/Flava Flav dynamic.

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More Public Enemy, what else should I say?

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About half-way into the set I realized how late it was and remembered that I went to school and felt I had seen enough, so I made my way away from the stage.

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On my way out I passed through the first floor lounge where Tommy Sunshine (who I hear is a big deal) DJ'd to absolutely no one.

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And that's what happened Wednesday night.

Best Excuse

I've got some mildly interesting photos to post from Wednesday night, but imageshack (where I host my photos) is down, or something? So . . . I wait to entertain you.

Thursday, September 29, 2005

Best Sign that I'm Adjusting My Priorities

Sorry I've been a little light on the posting lately. I've had other things to be taking care of . . . like being a law student.

But, for the time being, get a load of this . . .

Last night there was a Franz Ferdinand concert in Utah, right? At a radio performance before the show, Mitch gave the band a painting and a copy of the "Do You Want To" video that we all made at her birthday party (you know, the video that you can no longer download from Steady Mobbin'). The band dedicated the last song of the night to "the beautiful girls" who gave them the "Do You Want To Video" (I use quotation marks around "beautiful girls" because they were Alex's very words) and after the show they sent out their road manager to ask Mitch and her Mom (the other beautiful girl) to hang-out with the band. They (the band) told her that they had been watching the video over and over again and that it really cheered them up (I don't know why they needed cheering up.) Awesome for Mitch, right? But it turns out that I was a little involved in this awesomeness too. (Just a little) Here's what Mitch wrote me this morning:

last night when i magically was talking to alex & bob (i can't write that like it happens all the time. i recognize it was a very, very rare treat) the conversation went something like this:

alex: the fellow in the video-was he wearing a wig?
me: yeah, he was.
alex: oh! it took a while before i realized it wasn't bob.
me: yeah-me too! for a little while i thought bob had come to my birthday party!

(bob smiles.)


I hope this means the band wants to meet me when they come to New York in October.

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Best Quickly Written Report on an Old Reporter I Saw Last Week

Last Wednesday evening I went to Cooper Union to hear Tom Wolfe talk a bit. I had run into Mr. Wolfe on the street before, but this was a good opportunity for me to see if he had anything interesting to say.

He did, of course.

Mr. Wolfe began by reading from his latest book, "I am Charlotte Simmons." As he tried to set up the scene he'd be reading he gave us a little background on the characters that he'd be reading about couldn't keep himself from going off on tangents about the characters, the towns they were from, the jobs their fathers had, etc. I was struck by how "real" Mr. Wolfe's fictional characters were to him . . . it seems his stories take place in fully realized worlds, as far as he's concerned, and these are worlds that he knows forwards and backwards and he's only giving us a portion of everything that he knows about these people and places that he's invented.

During the reading Mr. Wolfe came across a particularly obscure word in the story (of course I didn't make a note of what the mysterious word was) and after reading the word he paused and said to us "That's one of five words I put in the book assuming that no one would know what they were . . . I put them here to compliment the reader."

After his reading the floor was opened for questions, and it was a while before anyone stood to ask him anything. I think everyone sat there, like me, wondering "What would I ask Tom Wolfe if I could ask him anything?" Mr. Wolfe took most of the questions to be opportunities to tell stories, not that I'd blame him. For example, when asked how he went about collecting information for his fiction and getting started on a novel, he talked about setting out to write his first novel, "Bonfire of the Vanities." He said that at first he thought the topic for the book was clear enough in his head, and then proceeded to sit in a "catatonic state" in front of his typewriter for six months. He found he couldn't just draw on his memories, he had to go out and do some serious observing and handle his fiction like the "new journalism" he helped found. (He described new journalism as "a complicated form of writers block" and brought up [briefly] the film version of "Bonfire of the Vanities" stating "Don't ask me to evaluate that movie.") He said he did all this "reporting" for his novels because "Things have to be plausible, but this isn't a plausible era."

He then moved on to talk about writing "I am Charlotte Simmons," which (more or less) he decided to write because "there wasn't a single book on coed dorms . . . what a sensational subject, and not a single book!" When asked how his research on college campuses went, he said that "I went to a lot of fraternity parties, but I didn't fit in . . . and it wasn't just how I was dressed." When asked if being a celebrity on the college campuses impeded his research, Mr. Wolfe replied that he found that "the lack of recognition was breathtaking."

Mr. Wolfe also said that his next project (which he intends to be "little", but his wife would tell you otherwise) would be about contemporary social-structures in the United States (doesn't seem like such a departure from previous work to me). When asked about how he think New York has changed since the publication of "Bonfire" in 1987, he says that Queens is certainly different (it its ethnic make-up) these days and that Wall Street hasn't changed so much, except now it's all about hedge funds, or something like that.

By the end of the evening I decided that if I had a question for Mr. Wolfe, it would be "What do you think Sherman McCoy is doing right now?" But I'm no journalist, so I didn't find out.

Monday, September 26, 2005

Best These Are the People in My Neighborhood

It's been a while since I've reported on celebrity sightings, right? Here's an update, and this time I'm keeping it local, very, very local.

-John Cameron Mitchell (again) and I disembarked from the 1 train at the 14th Street stop and walked out the 12th street exit together.

-I ran into Steve Forbes walking east on 12th street as I left my apartment. He was drinking one of those cold-coffee drinks that comes in a clear cup and must have been headed to the Forbes headquarters on 5th Avenue and 12th.

-Down at the park on 11th Street right by the Magnolia Bakery I saw Peter Dinklage (again) and then, a little while later in the same park, Harry Connick, Jr.

-Heather Graham (Beth Baery) heading west down the middle of 12th street (that's dangerous) as I was leaving my apartment.

-My neighbor Elvis walking up 6th Avenue ahead of me. He was hunched over and talking into his cell phone like it was a walkie-talkie . . . but I have seen his cell phone, and I know that it is not a walkie-talkie.


"Real" content to return shortly . . . maybe.

Friday, September 23, 2005

Best Post . . . nEver?

Good thing you have to use a computer to visit this site, because that means you're probably sitting down. Otherwise I'd have to advise that you be sitting down before you continue reading any further.

First things first. Have you watched the new Franz Ferdinand video for "Do You Want To" yet? No? Check it out now. It's very important that you at least fast-forward through this video with the sound turned off if this post is going to mean anything to you.

Ahem. Moving along . . .

Mitch came out to New York last weekend to celebrate her birthday at a Transmission Party-themed party at Amber's new apartment. Everyone was supposed to attend as either a character from the "Do You Want To" video or just some type of art-gallery going sort of person (perhaps I should clarify: the "Do You Want To" video takes place at a Transmission Party art gallery opening). I came dressed as Bob Hardy, the band's bassist, because he's Mitch's favorite. This is what I looked like:

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I know, crazy, right? I look just like him, huh?

Jenna went as a more-modest-than-usual Vanessa Beecroft girl.

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And lots of other people dressed up in lots of other ways, but I didn't take very many photos and the photos I took wound up very, very blurry.

But trust me, where we're going, we don't need photos.

As the party went on, things got a little out of hand, and this happened. (Seriously, click on that link . . . but first, I really, really hope you watched the Franz video first.)(Oh, wait, sorry. I took the link down.)

I don't know, I think it's pretty cool.

Also, this would be my second day straight of Franz-related content that was provided by someone else. In this case, the iMovie wizard and birthday girl known as Mitch.

Update If you like the video you better bookmark it or something because I'm not going to keep the link active forever . . . I'll probably kill it Monday or Tuesday.

Update As you might have noticed, I've removed the link to the movie. Sorry. Some things are just meant to be nothing more than memories.

Thursday, September 22, 2005

Best Report From the Field

My brother Greg saw Franz Ferdinand Tuesday night in Chicago. This is the review that he sent me. I'm pretty proud of his work.

Words So Leisured
by Gregory Barnes

I went to see Franz Ferdinand on Tuesday at the Aragon Ballroom. It was my second official rock concert and a very good one. It was the first stop of their North American tour. I went with my friend Colin.

I was worried at first when we arrived at 6:20. The doors were not open yet and the line went around the corner into an alley. After ten minutes the line began to move and split up two, separating boys and girls. An older man behind us commented that it was like what the Nazi’s did at concentration camps to Jews. But this was a concentration camp of fun. We were able to get incredible spots, about 2 people from the stage.

The first band started exactly at 7. They were Cut Copy from Australia. They weren’t that good.

Then at 8:51 the second band came out. Pretty Girls Makes Graves. They were a unique band. I really liked the girl keyboardist. She also played a keyboard harmonica thing and an accordion. The music was fun but …the lead singer’s voice just didn’t work.

Finally at 8:03 Franz Ferdinand took the stage. The crowd went insane. They opened with “Jacqueline”. During the middle of song, when they begin signing during the rock part, a curtain behind them dropped, revealing a picture of all four members heads. It was sweet. Then they played a new song, “This Boy”. It is a good tune. After that they played “Tell Her Tonight” followed by another new song, but I have no idea what it was. Then they played one of my favorites, “Auf Achse”. Next they played “Take Me Out”. The crowd went crazy including me. The floor was shaky cause of all the jumping. I was so sweaty and tired by that time I thought I couldn’t go on dancing. But then they blasted “Do You Want To” and I was filled with energy.

Then they played another song I love, “The Dark Of The MatinĂ©e”. They played another great new song, “The Fallen” followed by “40’” and “Darts of Pleasure”.

They left stage then. But the crowd wanted more so they did a 3-song encore. They played “Michael”, “Evil And A Heathen” (new song) and “This Fffire”. It was a perfect encore.

It was an amazing concert. They sound just as good live as on a CD. I have heard only two other bands that sound as good live as on CD. They are Kaiser Chiefs and Ambulance Ltd. Franz didn’t do anything super crazy. Alexander jumped on top of the bass drum and played guitar. Paul threw sticks in the crowed at end. I almost caught one but when It fell on ground I decided I’d much rather walk out alive then be carried out dead with a stick. But that was as crazy as it got. The lighting job was also insane.

After the concert Colin and I found some friends from church. Also all the German exchange students from my high school were there so I talked to one while in line to get my shirt.


Pretty great reporting, right? Greg is a sophomore at Oak Park River Forest High School. That means he's 15.

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Best Rock 'n' Roll Ups and Downs

See, the nice thing about being in school as opposed to having a job is that you have a good bit more freedom when it comest to deciding how to spend your days . . . you sacrifice a few hours of study time during the day and just do it later that night, or whatever. Anyway, on Wednesday of last week I adjusted my schedule a bit so I could go to Sin-E in the middle of the afternoon for a CMJ show. What CMJ show? Oh, just the first ever appearance by the Rakes in the United States. The Rakes, they're one of these UK bands with all sorts of buzz going on around them and a rather good first album, so the opportunity was a bit too much to resist.

Before the Rakes I caught a bit of She Wants Revenge's set.

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I thought they were awfully good. Dance-goth, or something. Later, when I downloaded a few of their songs at home, they sounded a lot like Interpol--but live, not so much.

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And their lead singer certainly had his rockstar swagger down cold.

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Okay. Here's a story. When I was a freshman at BYU I read an article in the school newspaper about a local band called "Thee Martinis" and something about the article just got me, I knew I really, really had to check this band out and the article said they had another show coming so one night my roommate and I wandered over to Mama's Cafe and something just clicked in me and I thought: "This is what I LOVE." The place (a deli, actually) was full of kids that looked a lot cooler (and more interesting) than anyone else I had seen around Provo and there was just such a great energy and when Thee Martinis played it just blew me away, I'd still say that that little college three-piece garage band is one of my favorite bands ever. It was just such a great feeling. Anyway, Wednesday afternoon, at Sin-e, I just had that feeling of totally loving a scene and music so much again for the first time in 10 years. I just loved being at a club with maybe only 60 other people (I'm serious about that number) and getting to hear absolutely great bands and all the kids were cool and enjoying themselves . . . maybe slightly more glamorous and famous then the kids in Provo, but there was this magnificently intimate feel to the show and club. I Loved Rock N Roll that afternoon.

Steve Aoki (son of Rocky Aoki, the man behind Benihanas) introduced the Rakes, calling them his favorite new band, saying that "Their new album is great . . . I listen to it around the house, I listen to it in my car, I listen to it when I'm chewing gum . . . I listen to it all the time." (Geeze, he was talking like some of us didn't already have the record or something.) Anyway, he and the rest of the audience were totally excited to see the band . . .

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And the band certainly didn't disappoint. They were absolutely great and deserve all their buzz. And I got to see them first! Ha!

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One thing you'll immediately realize if you see the Rakes is that their lead singer has a certain stage presence . . . a certain crazy stage presence. Just look into his eyes in some of these pictures . . . you should be able to get an idea of what I'm talking about. Or maybe download this video. (The sound quality is awful, don't judge their music by it.)

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Mark the Cobrasnake was there, but he didn't make me famous again.

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I'm telling you, he was different.

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The other members of the band were a lot more chill.

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Out on the street Mark the Cobrasnake totally caught me taking his photo . . . but, hey, if he can photograph people all the time without asking, why not me him? Mostly I wanted to get a picture of the girl he was with because, in real life, she looked like she was 13.

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All right. So, later on in the week it's Saturday and I've now seen the great Rakes concert AND the spectacular Arcade Fire show and I've just got this hunger for more music inside of me so I adjust my schedule a bit and go catch another afternoon CMJ show. Another buzzed about UK band is playing a first ever (or almost first ever? I'm not sure) show at an East Village club so I head over, because I've had a good run.

Oddly enough, She Wants Revenge is playing when I get there.

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This time their goth-dance music just seemed really scummy to me and their singer struck me as way too into his rockstar persona.

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At the beginning of my junior year of high school I went to my first rock show, it was the Mighty Mighty Bosstones with Cyclone Temple and the New Bomb Turks. When I was there I was just overwhelmed by all the old crusty punks and early mid-90's hipsters (maybe they were called "alternative people" back then?) and I couldn't believe that so many people were making being all rock n roll such an important part of their lives and that they were probably going to shows all the time and I just wondered what they were going to do with their lives and how they could stand bands like Cyclone Temple and the New Bomb Turks who just seemed like the lousiest groups in the world. I nearly never wanted to see a rock show again, except the Bosstones were totally fun. Anyway, catching this show gave me that same sort of "Is this what you want to do with your life?" sort of feeling, and I thought the band was absolutely awful. Were it not for my Bosstone-like experience with the Rakes and Arcade Fire (or that the club's DJ played went from "Blue Monday" straight into "Two of Hearts" during his between bands set) I might be saying that I never want to see another concert again . . . and also, I've got White Stripes tickets for Saturday, so I won't say that sort of thing.

Oh, wait. I forgot to tell you who the band was. Uhm. Their name was "The Test-Icicles." Heading to the show, I didn't know if the band's name was stupid, or if it was a stab at cleverness. After seeing the band, I've decided that their name was definitely stupid because they were a stupid band.

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Unfortunately, stupid bands sometimes make for good photographs.

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They were just a bunch of little kids.

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And they played their backing tracks through an iPod, which was something I had never seen before.

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The kid in the white t-shirt and the kid in the black t-shirt took turns "singing" and doing tormented and/or troubled rocker poses.

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I think they were just trying to create a noisy trainwreck for us to enjoy, but it just didn't stick with me. I've certainly seen noisy trainwrecks that I've enjoyed (like the Liars), but these guys just didn't do it for me.

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And while they kept being fairly photogenic . . .

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. . . and dramatic . . .

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. . . and rockstarry . . .

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. . . and totally young . . .

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. . . I just wasn't feeling it and left after three or four songs. A decision I don't regret one bit.

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So there you have it: Sometimes a concert is the best thing there is, other times completely ungratifying.