The Zoo @ the Commodore
The Whalebones had already taken the stage and played some enjoyable, but slightly uninteresting, indie tunes. The male/female vocal sharing was nice and they seemed excited to be there.
I'm not sure if it was the buzz, the beer, the band or the bucks that had been paid by these people to get inside - but the crowd seemed overly excited for Frog Eyes. In my Human Eyes it was a one-man show and that one man annoyed the hell out of me. He stood under his unsuitable cowboy hat and sang constantly, filling every void with an ooh la or da da dah. As mentioned, people around me were eating it up. They inappropriately jumped up and down and they shouted "the drummer is hot" when she clearly wasn't. My most enjoyable moments were the when the pair of singers from the opening band started dancing around on the side stage, when I noticed a girl wearing a shiny chrome helmet in the crowd and laughed, and when I checked my email to find only spam.
The main attraction played fairly well. Playing most of their debut LP the standout songs seemed to standout while the others paled in comparison. Fancy Claps was my personal fave. A few new songs were played that didn't come across as overly original or potential standouts for albums to come but didn't totally bore the crowd either. There was some overly synthy stuff and they didn't remake the album note for note which is usually a good thing but I wasn't overly enthralled throughout.
The encore started out as most encores do. But shortly after breaking into song they started jamming and invited a soon-to-be-topless bald man to the mic to tell a story. Much of this story was garbage, rambled or lost in the mix but consisted of a boy named Alice and the mention of the son of God many, many times. Whether it was a joke, a legitimate story or a stab at impersonating a preacher I could not tell you. While this was going on a bit of insanity was breaking out. The large contingency of backstage pass holders began dancing. As this was a sort of homecoming for the two latter bands there were a lot of people swinging and jiving at this point. People in the crowd thought they would get in on the fun and started popping up on stage and trying to blend in with the others. Some were hauled off by security only to slip away back into the pit, others continued to break it down for our enjoyment. Members of opening bands took over instrument duties, including the one guy who headed for the most interesting noise maker of the night. It looked like a regular FM radio antenna but when you moved your hands near it a shrill noise could be heard that would change in pitch and frequency depending on the shape and movement of your hand. There was so much going on on stage I was having trouble taking it all in. Eventually the first song of the encore concluded with people still scattered across the stage. A singer leaned in and said something along the lines of "We're gonna do a couple more for ...... it seems we've been cut off". The blokes running the Commodore apparently weren't happy with what was transpiring and had pulled the plug. Naturally they had no problem scheduling the bands well into the night so they could cash in on liquor sales - but when it comes to the actual show the entertainment is over just as fast as possible. Dearly disappointed I stood longingly and watched as people hugged and slowly cleared the stage.
The love-in at the end was hectic and fun to watch. A few tunes were done really well and rocked out. Overall the live show did not stack up to the recorded album but considering I more than covered the cost of my ticked by scalping one, I can't complain.
I'm not sure if it was the buzz, the beer, the band or the bucks that had been paid by these people to get inside - but the crowd seemed overly excited for Frog Eyes. In my Human Eyes it was a one-man show and that one man annoyed the hell out of me. He stood under his unsuitable cowboy hat and sang constantly, filling every void with an ooh la or da da dah. As mentioned, people around me were eating it up. They inappropriately jumped up and down and they shouted "the drummer is hot" when she clearly wasn't. My most enjoyable moments were the when the pair of singers from the opening band started dancing around on the side stage, when I noticed a girl wearing a shiny chrome helmet in the crowd and laughed, and when I checked my email to find only spam.
The main attraction played fairly well. Playing most of their debut LP the standout songs seemed to standout while the others paled in comparison. Fancy Claps was my personal fave. A few new songs were played that didn't come across as overly original or potential standouts for albums to come but didn't totally bore the crowd either. There was some overly synthy stuff and they didn't remake the album note for note which is usually a good thing but I wasn't overly enthralled throughout.
The encore started out as most encores do. But shortly after breaking into song they started jamming and invited a soon-to-be-topless bald man to the mic to tell a story. Much of this story was garbage, rambled or lost in the mix but consisted of a boy named Alice and the mention of the son of God many, many times. Whether it was a joke, a legitimate story or a stab at impersonating a preacher I could not tell you. While this was going on a bit of insanity was breaking out. The large contingency of backstage pass holders began dancing. As this was a sort of homecoming for the two latter bands there were a lot of people swinging and jiving at this point. People in the crowd thought they would get in on the fun and started popping up on stage and trying to blend in with the others. Some were hauled off by security only to slip away back into the pit, others continued to break it down for our enjoyment. Members of opening bands took over instrument duties, including the one guy who headed for the most interesting noise maker of the night. It looked like a regular FM radio antenna but when you moved your hands near it a shrill noise could be heard that would change in pitch and frequency depending on the shape and movement of your hand. There was so much going on on stage I was having trouble taking it all in. Eventually the first song of the encore concluded with people still scattered across the stage. A singer leaned in and said something along the lines of "We're gonna do a couple more for ...... it seems we've been cut off". The blokes running the Commodore apparently weren't happy with what was transpiring and had pulled the plug. Naturally they had no problem scheduling the bands well into the night so they could cash in on liquor sales - but when it comes to the actual show the entertainment is over just as fast as possible. Dearly disappointed I stood longingly and watched as people hugged and slowly cleared the stage.
The love-in at the end was hectic and fun to watch. A few tunes were done really well and rocked out. Overall the live show did not stack up to the recorded album but considering I more than covered the cost of my ticked by scalping one, I can't complain.
posted by Stefan Andrushenko at
4:05 PM
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