Dan Boekner and Spencer Krug played a show on Thursday. I was there....wait....so were you. And the rest of your dorm? And your buddy's frat? And their girlfriends? Needless to say, Wolf Parade, lured an amazing turnout at Terminal 5 last week. The venue is definitely a mega venue, with a capacity in the several-thousand-range, spread out over three levels. (Note: the ration of bros & hos to regular people, was about on par with the number of iPhone cameras to regular cameras.) We were on the floor, towards the back, but the sightlines were decent, the stage must be at least 5 or six feet high. I mean, I'm a really bad judge of space, but from where we were standing about a street block away from the stage, I could more or less see. The space is also quite nice, clean, big bars plenty of space, excellent air conditioning. But. The sound quality. What happened there? It seems that Bowery Presents went to all the trouble of creating a beautiful space, but didn't feel the need to install some audio architecture. Perhaps fans of bands big enough to draw those kinds of crowds tend not to notice bad sound? I'm not clear on what the deal is, but lets leave it at that.
So of course I'm a weak kneed little girl at any event involving Spence, and having never seen Wolf Parade (gasp) I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I had an odd little group of people with me, ranging from preppy Wolf Parade old-timers to ultra hip Wolf Parade newcomers.
Highlights: Kissing the Beehive, which I don't love in recording was crazy tight. Also, I <3'd Language City. I remain an Apologies fan to the core, reveling during Dear Sons and of course, I believe. The overall show was surprising for two reasons. First, Dan and Spencer's sounds mesh really well live, you can get a little taste of each flavor, but they worked beautifully live together that night. Second, the over-polished sound of the second album mixes with the rough-stone sound of the first album, to create a much more unified sound. I personally love the youthful sloppiness of the first album, but I have heard from that WP doesn't like that sound. Instead they prefer the cleaner sound of Mt Zoomer. As it turns out, live, they are able to pull off just enough zestiness to not sound sound too perfect. I can't really dive into something that sounds like it was recorded until each note was perfectly heard. I can however, float in the half-way ground that they achieved live.
That said, maybe I should have gone again on Friday. If you get a chance to catch these guys, you won't regret it.
<3 The Elephant
ps...this is my 101st post. And my blog has been viewed more than 700 times. Thanks Dave.
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