Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Concert Review: Cold War Kids and Spoon

Last night, I attended the WFNX holiday concert at the Orpheum. The lineup included Spoon, Cold War Kids, Against Me!, and Mute Math. Feat was also listed on the ticket, however, I did eventually figure out that Feat is in fact short for featuring, and not a band. We arrived in time to catch the end of Against Me's set, and were perplexed by the refrain to their song The Ocean: "There is an ocean in my soul where the waters do not curve." What? Curve? That doesn't make any sense, and it doesn't even rhyme. It gets worse, folks, check out the full lyrics here. Sharks and dolphins? Estuaries? Really? Yes, I realize that I am a big jerk for making fun of a band's lyrics, but whatever. Your favorite band sucks.

Things took a turn for the better when Cold War Kids , an indie rock band from Long Beach, CA (birthplace of Snoop Dogg and yours truly) took the stage. I like their music but had never seen them live before, so I was really looking forward to their performance. They exceeded my expectations. I was most impressed by the musical talent and stage presence of lead singer Nathan Willett, who plays guitar and piano on several tracks. (piano + rock music = awesome) The songs with piano sounded excellent, especially my favorite, "We Used to Vacation." They ended the set with an chills-inducing version of "Saint John." So, yes, we went from a band that sings about dolphins to one who sings about death row and alcoholics destroying their families. Our seats were in the third row right in the middle of the stage, so I could have taken some good photos, except that flash photography was forbidden. I turned my flash off and took the photo that you see here, but when I tried to take another one, the flash went off, and not just a one-and-done; it was on some crazy red-eye setting that was all flash-flash-flash-flash-FLASH!, thus drawing the ire of not one, but two, angry security guards. I didn't want to get thrown out so I put my camera away. (The Spoon photo was taken by a friend with better camera etiquette.)

Lastly, Spoon took the stage. I saw them back in October and it was nice to see them up close once again. They performed most of the same songs, but this time had a horns section on stage with them, so that was fun. They played for about an hour, and by the end of their set, it was like a thousand degrees inside the Orpheum. Nevertheless, they sounded great, and seeing them and the Cold War Kids was well worth the price of admission.

Downloads (right click and "save as"):

Cold War Kids:

We Used to Vacation
Saint John

Spoon:

You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ugh - piano!!! Do you also like it when bands wear shorts on stage? I bet you do.

eileen said...

Only when it's the drummer.

Kevin said...

Man, those lyrics for Ocean are simply terrible. It just kept getting worse. And surely he should have his kids taken away if he lets them get sunburned and doesn't put proper SPF protection on them. :)

You might want to check out this article about bad song lyrics:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/6633489.stm

eileen said...

Kev- great article, thanks!
Although I still think Africa by Toto is a great song.

mj said...

That's funny that you went to that concert because I wanted to go see Cold War Kids and I thought to myself, I bet Eileen would go.

Dan said...

Hey Eileen,

It's a shame that you did so poorly in high school English. Maybe you did manage to get the grades, but you're missing much knowledge about the art of metaphor. I am sorry to be so pedantic, but you started it by posting such a negative comment about what I consider one of the most beautiful example of modern lyricism. Think about the following questions and ponder the lyrics of the song again: What is the common belief about the location of Heaven? What is and has been the cause of most wars in history? Is it possible to stand on a spherical object anywhere than at the top? Is there a "best" culture?
Hopefully this will change your opinion of the lyrics of this song, but, if not, I hope I ticked you off a little. If you are irritated than remember that I am of no importance to your life, but that there are those that love you and it would be best for everyone if you concentrated your energy on loving them back instead of being angry about someone you will never meet.