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8-2-03 // 4.31 pm praise the lord above, and sell sell sell NP: David Gray - "Sell Sell Sell" I'm writing this on my old PC, and I keep attempting to use Mac keyboard shortcuts, which of course do absolutely nothing in Windows. The show last night was fantastic, and was marred only by two things, which I will elaborate on in a bit. In any case, the American Theatre was as beautiful as it was last time I was there (save a few bits of flaking paint), and it was nice to see the gig in a proper venue, as opposed to the echo-y arena it was first scheduled in. So yes, opening act Turin Brakes were as good live as the studio material I've heard was. Acoustic rock, mostly, but with a full band this time. Especially noteworthy was the one guy's acoustic slide guitar playing. It was a very full, rich sound and the band actually got a rousing cheer and ovation from the crowd after finishing their set. David Gray came on about a half an hour afterwards and put on a hell of a show. His songs, while excellent on record, take on an added dimension in the live setting. There's just more "oomph" behind it all, he does a lot of vocal improvisation, and he just seems more comfortable in that atmosphere. But yes, the setlist was pretty good, a nice mix of older tunes, covers, and songs from the last couple of albums (the ones most people know him for), and I left satisfied. The two blotches on the show were thus. One, the crowd was generally very wild and many seemed to be very casual fans, as in this was more of a Friday night method of blowing off steam rather than a chance to see an artist that they're big fans of. I mean, they paid their money and therefore can enjoy the show however they choose, but for me, I was trying to listen to the songs and pay attention, while throughout the show a large number of people were just up and walking around, talking to friends, gabbing on cellphones, and generally not paying attention to the concert itself. Of course, when Gray played Babylon as the last song of the main set, everyone perked up and starting singing along, etc, as if they'd endured the rest of the set just to get to that moment. Again, it's their money, but why not just stay home and listen to the song on the radio if that's all you care about? Hrmph. Second, sitting directly in front of me and my sister was the archetypical Drunk Girl. She was definitely partially intoxicated, as evidenced by the number of mixed drinks I watched her suck down throughout the night. But apart from that, she was just one fucking stupid bitch. Damn. Every thirty seconds she would launch into this long, howling "woooo!" and then wave her arms around in the air. She kept yelling out "Caroline!", being the song I assume she wanted Gray to play. At one point after her doing this, I yelled out "play the song so she'll shut up!" To a small measure of my satisfaction, the song was never played. Anyway, this girl was utterly obnoxious. At several points she got up and just started flailing around in what appeared to be some sort of drunk dancing. It mostly looked like a full body spasmic episode, however, and several times I found myself wishing that she would lose her tenuous grasp on balance and tumble over the balcony railing to the floor below. Sadly, I had no such luck. But yes, she was loud and drunk and unruly when Gray played the several songs she knew and "absolutely loved", as evidenced by the way she also kept talking to her embarassed boyfriend/date. When a song she didn't like or recognize was played, she simply turned to him and had a long, very loud five minute drunken ramble of a conversation. That's when she wasn't using the chance of an old song to go to the bar for another fucking drink. My god. I dunno, call me an old fart or a killjoy if you will, but this chick represented everything about behavior I hate at gigs. And it never fails that I get situated next to or behind some drunk, shouty, pushy man or woman. Otherwise, I slept in this morning, took a walk, ate a bagel, watched some baseball, read a bit, and generally just chilled out. It's been a good, proper Saturday.
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