Bloc Party
The weather was kind of disgusting tonight, but I'll take spring disgusting over winter disgusting any day. Also, I almost got hit at an intersection by a car which had forgotten about the change of the light, but that's more or less reasonable when it's as wet and dark as it was.
Scout Niblett was passable and the Kills were, as Bloc Party noted, "the sexiest band in the world." I don't know, though, if I'd pay money to see the Kills again. I spent the time mostly thinking about how to design some sort of system for people at Carleton to figure who is going to what concert and how they are going to get there. I saw two separate groups of Carleton students there, but I had no idea any of them were going.
I think such a system would be either mainly a blog (or a bulletin board) type of thing. The blog would have each event listed as a post with the headlining band as the title. The body would include opening acts, the time, place, and date, as well as ticket price and availability. Each entry would be post-dated to the time of the concert, so everything would be in chronological order. The subject field could be used for genre. Anyone who was driving could leave a comment with how many available seats they had and what time they were leaving/returning. Anyone who needed a ride would solicit one from the listed drivers, or if there were none, leave a comment with how many people in their group needed a ride, and any other stipulations they had. Once someone picked up either riders or a ride, they would need to be able to delete their comment; or if someone partially filled up their vehicle, they would need to be able to change their number of available seats.
It would be great to use existing social software such as Upcoming.org or the Facebook, but neither of those appears to have quite the capabilities we would need. A blog would be closer, but would still lack comment editing, unless some service already handles that.
Bloc Party blew everybody away. I felt their pacing caused a lull during the second through fourth songs of the encore (they will probably improve in that department over time), from which I didn't think they'd recover, but they ended with a blazing jam that brought the house down. Guitarist Russell Lissack was wearing a Death from Above 1979 shirt, and I couldn't tell if that was his decision or whether it was a mandate from Vice Records, but their sounds aren't completely dissimilar, so it made sense.
They, or at least lead singer Kele Okereke, seem to know how good they are, which was kind of unsettling. Usually young bands overestimate themselves or don't have any stage presence, but Bloc Party knows exactly how good they are (which is pretty good) and seem to get genuinely excited at playing well for the crowd. At this point, they're a precociously talented band who haven't yet reached that awkward stage in their touring life where, two or three times a night, they have to introduce a song like, "Okay, this is a new one, so just bear with us." Everything they played before the "intermission", and the first song after it was terrific, with no dead time at all. "Banquet" was probably best, though the crowd and by extension the band might have just got more excited because that's the "big" single right now.
Also, I think they would be a really great band to introduce your kid brother to or your cousin or whoever you know is into kind of worthless pop-punk or hard rock, because they can play really fast and loud, but they're also broad and skilled enough to distinguish themselves from boring radio rock.
Pitchfork (and probably everybody else) compares them to Interpol, Franz Ferdinand, and the Futureheads, which are all exactly right. They've got downloads on their site. They're a good enough live band that the recordings don't quite capture their sound or energy, but it's probably still worth your while to check out the MP3s or the album.
Scout Niblett was passable and the Kills were, as Bloc Party noted, "the sexiest band in the world." I don't know, though, if I'd pay money to see the Kills again. I spent the time mostly thinking about how to design some sort of system for people at Carleton to figure who is going to what concert and how they are going to get there. I saw two separate groups of Carleton students there, but I had no idea any of them were going.
I think such a system would be either mainly a blog (or a bulletin board) type of thing. The blog would have each event listed as a post with the headlining band as the title. The body would include opening acts, the time, place, and date, as well as ticket price and availability. Each entry would be post-dated to the time of the concert, so everything would be in chronological order. The subject field could be used for genre. Anyone who was driving could leave a comment with how many available seats they had and what time they were leaving/returning. Anyone who needed a ride would solicit one from the listed drivers, or if there were none, leave a comment with how many people in their group needed a ride, and any other stipulations they had. Once someone picked up either riders or a ride, they would need to be able to delete their comment; or if someone partially filled up their vehicle, they would need to be able to change their number of available seats.
It would be great to use existing social software such as Upcoming.org or the Facebook, but neither of those appears to have quite the capabilities we would need. A blog would be closer, but would still lack comment editing, unless some service already handles that.
Bloc Party blew everybody away. I felt their pacing caused a lull during the second through fourth songs of the encore (they will probably improve in that department over time), from which I didn't think they'd recover, but they ended with a blazing jam that brought the house down. Guitarist Russell Lissack was wearing a Death from Above 1979 shirt, and I couldn't tell if that was his decision or whether it was a mandate from Vice Records, but their sounds aren't completely dissimilar, so it made sense.
They, or at least lead singer Kele Okereke, seem to know how good they are, which was kind of unsettling. Usually young bands overestimate themselves or don't have any stage presence, but Bloc Party knows exactly how good they are (which is pretty good) and seem to get genuinely excited at playing well for the crowd. At this point, they're a precociously talented band who haven't yet reached that awkward stage in their touring life where, two or three times a night, they have to introduce a song like, "Okay, this is a new one, so just bear with us." Everything they played before the "intermission", and the first song after it was terrific, with no dead time at all. "Banquet" was probably best, though the crowd and by extension the band might have just got more excited because that's the "big" single right now.
Also, I think they would be a really great band to introduce your kid brother to or your cousin or whoever you know is into kind of worthless pop-punk or hard rock, because they can play really fast and loud, but they're also broad and skilled enough to distinguish themselves from boring radio rock.
Pitchfork (and probably everybody else) compares them to Interpol, Franz Ferdinand, and the Futureheads, which are all exactly right. They've got downloads on their site. They're a good enough live band that the recordings don't quite capture their sound or energy, but it's probably still worth your while to check out the MP3s or the album.
Labels: Music
Posted on Thursday, March 31, 2005
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