so.there.we.were

So, maybe waiting four days to write a show review is not an auspicious start to revamping this blog and its accompanying commitment to more regular updates. But whatever…

This past Thursday, the Lady and I took a trip to Athens to catch one of our favorite current bands, The New Pornographers. The plan was to get out of work a little early and get up there and head to one of the organic/vegetarian/sustainable restaurants that now exist up there. Of course, work and traffic conspired to delay those plans a bit, but we managed to get up there in time to sneak in a meal at Farm 255 (disappointingly limited menu, fewer vegetables but a delicious selection of cheese).

Then it was into the Georgia Theater. Now, I haven’t been in there since there were seats, and that was after paying $5 to watch Georgia play Tennessee about a million years ago. Believe it or not, I’ve seen shows at 40 Watt, Caledonia Lounge and Tasty World but never there. I liked it. The floor is sloped to give everyone a pretty good view, the beer is cheap (a benefit of all of Athens actually) and the atmosphere was…enjoyable. We had expected to be absolutely out of place due to relative age, but were surprisingly not.

Anyway, we arrived and grabbed a couple of PBRs (hell, yeyah) and watched Okkervill River wrap up their set. I was entertained and wished I knew more about their body of work. I own several albums, but they get lost amidst the 12,000 other songs on shuffle during my work day. Some friends told us to yell something at one of the band members because they went to school with them but neither one of us could remember what it was. Good story.

The New Pornos came on stage and the first thing that I noticed was that Neko was on crutches, which I thought did not bode well, but I was incorrect. Her voice is sublime and she can sing sitting just as well as standing, but her lack of movement was a little sad. AC Newman led the onslaught with his energy and precision, and the set was brilliantly put together with the ups and downs coming at just the right moments. I tried looking up the set list using my superior Google skills, but it was no where to be found (do people not put up these things anymore? The guy in front of me was typing them out on his Treo…).

Dan Bejar was not on hand, but the lead singer from Okkervill did take his place for “Myriad Harbor.” I was impressed with his performance and his ability to fill on for the ever-eclectic and entertaining Mr. Bejar. However, it looks like Destroyer is coming to town in a couple of weeks, so I may head to that to get my fill of him.

The only decision I thought was odd was playing “Bleeding Heart Show” at the end of the regular set and “Slow Descent Into Alcoholism” as the grand finale of the encore. I would’ve like to have seen those switched, but “Bleeding Heart Show” is possibly the most perfectly-crafted piece of pop brilliance I have ever heard, so I’ll settle for hearing that anytime, even if it is in a commercial for the University of Phoenix.

After drowsing my way through the drive home (I was, unfortunately, in the driver’s seat and getting no help from the snoring wonder next to me), I crawled into bed at 1.30am, which is ridiculous for a school night. But I did feel like I was back in the good ol’ days of high school/college with two great shows in four days (Explosions in the Sky was on Sunday) and naught but ringing ears to show for it and ticket stubs to add to my collections.

Wow, this post got really long. So I’m just gonna end it right here. No songs played while I wrote this, but I did chuckle out loud at the show “How I met Your Mother” a couple of times.

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