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Concert Report: Death Cab for Cutie, Dismemberment Plan, The Velvet Teen, Aveo (Noisepop!)

This was my first show at Bimbo's, which turns out to be a pretty swanky place. We parked at a nearby hotel, since street parking seemed pretty difficult, and wound up having to wait int he "passes, badges, and vouchers" line. It seems like people who bought the badges should not have to suffer so much, but oh well. I'll try to make the best of it. But the place is very nice inside, including lots of tables to sit at that still let you see the stage over all the standing people. The sound is not quite as good at the tables in the back, but we didn't know that initially, and got a nice table on the end. We also wound up with a funny waitress (Alison?) who even joked about the hot dog being made out of "lips and assholes". Hehe! Of course, she later shortchanged me $1, so maybe she wasn't that nice...

Anyways, first up was Aveo, a 3-piece that played some pretty straightforward not-too-hard rock. They only got to play a few songs, though, so they didn't really get much of a chance to make an impression.

Next up was The Velvet Teen, another 3-piece, which had a little more dynamic sound and was pretty enjoyable. Their sound didn't quite distinguish them enough to get me too excited, but they were certainly listenable.

Then it was time for Dismemberment Plan. And they were cool! Finally, some crowd interaction, although the people they got up on stage were all escorted off right away, which seemed weird. But they throw in lots of samples and 80s video game sounds to keep things sounding interesting. I really like the lead singer's voice except when he is doing one of the more rap-style songs, which didn't quite work for me. But they had a neat sound, anchored by some solid drumming, with the other three band members trading around guitars and synthesizers and stuff. At one point, there was even a forehead hitting the keyboard, bringing back fond Sesame Street memories. Oh yeah. Convinced me to buy one of their albums.

Finally it was another 4-piece, Death Cab for Cutie. They wound up having the same problem their album had for me; it was listenable, but undistinguished. It didn't really hold my interest. I can't completely write them off, since I was getting tired and had had a few beers by that point, but they didn't grab my attention, especially after the unique sounds of Dismemberment Plan. Some of their songs were all right, but... it just doesn't come together for me. So we left when they said they only had a couple of songs left, since some of us need to get up for work tomorrow.

Overall, a very pleasant start to Noise Pop. All the bands were decent, one turned out to be pretty cool, and we had a fun time. Hopefully things get even better from here!