"Concert Report: The Extra Glenns, Rilo Kiley, Xiu Xiu, 20 Minute Loop (Noisepop!)": 02/28/2002

02/28/2002 Entry: "Concert Report: The Extra Glenns, Rilo Kiley, Xiu Xiu, 20 Minute Loop (Noisepop!)"

Continuing the trend, this was my first show at Cafe du Nord. We wound up getting there a little early, but with Roger's amazing parking technique we got a spot about 20 feet from the club, which is unbelievable. A good start! We waited around, and my other friend showed up, and we waited a little more before they finally opened the doors. You go down some stairs into the club, giving it that basement feel, although a nice basement. They seemed to have a much better beer selection than Bimbo's, although I wasn't drinking anything. Oh well. We got to see a lot of the artists walking around while we waited for the room with the stage to open up. When they opened that up, everyone rushed in and grabbed the seats. Oh well! Standing for us.

The first band was 20 Minute Loop, who turned out to be really, really good, especially for an opening act. They had two singers, a man and a woman, and they were both individually very good and they sounded great together. Roger was impressed enough to buy their CD, and I would probably have done that if he hadn't. They had a really full sound, a little poppy, but I think the vocals were what really made it sound good. We were pretty happy at this point, since it was turning out to be a much better show than the last time we saw the Mountain Goats.

Next up was Xiu Xiu (pronounced like it was pinyin, I think!), who we had seen hauling suitcase after suitcase of stuff into the club as we were waiting. They played all sorts of instruments, including this gigantic guitar of some kind, a little guitar, a cool squeeze-box thing, and some various bits of metal hanging on some kind of frame. This was all interesting to watch, but I didn't really get into the music much. The guy that sang didn't have a voice that grabbed me, and the music was a little more "noise" than I'm good with on first listen. We began to get nervous things would go downhill again, although I started to wonder if some of the pain of last time was the extra 2 hours we had to wait before the show.

Then it was Rilo Kiley's turn. And they were really great! The lead singer was really good, the band sounded really good, and the crowd was in to it. Unfortunately, the tall guy in the front row was about as tall as the lead singer plus the stage height, but us short people handled it ok. Their guitarist was really good, too, getting in to it and rocking out to get the crowd going, while never veering into extreme guitar solo territory. They just had a really good sound, and convinced Roger to borrow money to buy another CD. Heh!

And then it was finally time for The Extra Glenns, everyone's favorite John Darnielle (from the Mountain Goats) and Franklin Bruno supergroup. They played mostly things from their CD that just came out, which was all nice, although really I think I get into their solo stuff more, so I was disappointed they didn't do more of that. They did a song Franklin had written last night, which was really cool, especially since John couldn't read all the lyrics. They had some funny interaction back and forth (Franklin's "I'll talk to you for free" probably being the best line) and John told a couple of stories. It wasn't as impressive to me as the last tMG show I saw, probably because there was less storytelling between songs, and maybe because my expectations were a little higher. The show was still really good - I probably haven't laughed that much at a show since Calvin Johnson - and the whole night was pretty good, but I think that first Mountain Goats show remains my favorite concert.

After the show, John sat on the stage selling his latest CD, which, from the first few songs I listened to, is really awesome. It was finally my turn to buy a bunch of CDs from the Absolutely Kosher guy. I was able to replace the Mountain Goats CDs I had given away or no longer had access to, get the earlier Franklin Bruno solo CD, and get my first Nothing Painted Blue CD - I let the AK guy pick which one, and he seemed to think it was a no-brainer, so we'll see how that turns out.

And then a drive back, full of conversation about distance, threats, idealizations, religion, and travel. Was that sufficiently vague?

Overall, the whole show was quite good, with 3 out of 4 very enjoyable sets. If only the shows could keep getting better the rest of the weekend! Not sure how that would be possible, though.