Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Do you realize how much a Faster Gun cover would have reduced the 930 Club to a rubble of bricks and steel?

From the beginning, I pretty much conceded that the 33 bones I forked over last night were more for Okkervil River and less for The New Pornographers. Budgeting the show out only confirms this: OR played $30 worth of rock ‘n roll and TNP played an uninspired $3.

I still don’t see what the big deal is with New Pornographers. Is the average American indie music fan that starved for prog-rock that they need to fool themselves into believing that THP are a good pop group? What this generation needs is a new Meatloaf, not more Robert Fripps. If I wanted that, I’d move back in with my old roommate so we could sit around and listen to Peter Gabriel-vintage-Genesis again. The only difference is that AC Newman doesn’t suffer from night terrors (I assume) or bust into my room at 3am and scream like Donald Sutherland in Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

And I’m not going to comment on Neko Case on bailing on the show. She’s sold the District out before, she’ll do it again.

Also, Charles Bissell’s inclusion into the Okkervil proceedings has made them more Wren-y than I though possible. I’m not sure if this is good or bad.

3 comments:

catherine said...

i have to say it: i thought OR kinda sucked. they sounded sloppy and amateurish. whereas i thought, even without neko, NP was pretty great (though not spectacular). oh well. different strokes, etc.

the Nabob said...

Man, I have to disagree 100%. From where I was standing, even the folks who didn’t know anything about Okkervil before the set were saying how amazing it was when they finished up Westfall. I’ll grant to you that they were sloppier compared to the show at Rock N Roll Hotel but I chalked that up to having a brand new lead guitarist and that Will Sheff broke two strings on his acoustic. And I also think it added a little to their charm. The New Pornographers were just boring.

But I was on the floor so maybe I couldn’t get a sense of everything that was going on.

catherine said...

i have to say i've never seen a concert so divisive. i've talked to a few people who loathed okkervil river and a few who loathed NP. what's up with that?