Last night’s show at The Palladium was supposed to be an exciting event. For the first time I was going to be able to see Silversun Pickups live. A band that I had been listening to since Pikul but just hadn’t had a chance to see live yet. My regular daily schedule of work went to hell from the get go that morning and I soon found myself questioning whether I wanted to head out to the show at all or just be a hermit at the house with the wife and dog. In the end I decided that getting out of the house and hearing some live music might do me some good. My wife probably agreed.
The show started at 8:00 with The Henry Clay People taking the stage first to get the crowd warmed up. Considering that they were the first act and not as well known as Against Me! or Silversun Pickups there was still a decent sized audience already in attendance. When I met up with Joey Siara after the show I mentioned that my estimate was that 90% of the audience had probably never heard his band before and that this must have been a profitable show for them, if not monetarily then definitely for exposure.
The Henry Clay People didn’t play a very long set, especially for a band with three LP’s to their name. A half hour, mostly consisting of tracks from the new album Somewhere On The Golden Coast. They did use their allotted time wisely though in playing tracks off the new album and cementing in everyone’s mind who this band was and what they were here to do.
After a quick stage change Against Me! began their set of power punk and although I was, at the time, mostly at the show to see the headliner I found that Against Me! was what I needed to hear. Something loud and something angry, Against Me! delivered and helped set my nerves at ease from a hard day. Most of the crowd were obviously not there to see Against Me! but there was a decent sized pod in the audience that were representing quite well with fists pumping. I was disappointed though that it took until the second to last song before the first (and only) crowd surfer was up and quickly back down. My suggestion to Against Me! would be to come back through again as a headliner and play a small club like Trees or come back to The Palladium but play The Loft instead.
The main event finally arrived. The place was packed and everyone was eagerly awaiting the start of the show. After a brief intro Silversun Pickups took the stage and light from the LCD screens of phones lit up the room. It was at that point that I knew I had missed this band at their purest. The little screens were so distracting that it was difficult to focus on the show and not on all the little screens trying to record it. That’s one thing that I’ve never understood. It’s a phone not a video recorder. The footage is going to be horrible. You’re going to get nauseous watching the replay because the person next to you keeps bumping your hand and the audio is going to be terrible. I can tolerate people taking pictures far easier since it’s one click and it’s over but recording the show is too much.
It didn’t take long before I decided that I was done for the night and had seen enough Affliction t-shirts to last me for a while.
My suggestion to anyone who is in my position that has enjoyed this band for quite sometime (and no, jumping on the bandwagon with Swoon doesn’t count as a “long time”) but has not seen them live is to not do so. Like me, you’ve missed your opportunity and you’ll only be disappointed. Not by the band mind you, the songs that I saw were fantastic, but by the audience and the main streamness of it all.
Call me an indie snob if you must, I just particularly enjoy small, more intimate shows where the band can actually see each person in the audience and speak to them personally. But that’s just me.
