Concert Review of the Week: The New Pornographers

I spent the weekend at my parents' farm working like crazy, and as always, I got a slow start heading out. For some reason, there are always a ton of jobs to do at the last minute. This time it was moving an airconditioner, cleaning lighting tiles, carrying a desk upstairs, and loading a bookcase into a truck.

In my new resolution never to get another speeding, traffic, or parking ticket I drove the speed limit. You know, the journey is so much longer when you don't break the law. I always remembered the drive to my parents' house was about 3 hours, but yesterday it was closer to four.

The original concert, which had been scheduled at The Docks was thankfully changed to the Phoenix Concert Theatre, but the band and their fans had to clear out by 10:00 to give time for the "Temple Sunday". The 6:30 starting time was quite lame.

So with my late start I was rushing around to get to the Phoenix on time for the show. Naturally, I missed openers "The Immaculate Machine" and "Destroyer". I heard that they were very good, and I'm sorry I missed them.

Despite the early start, the band turned it up right away with "Twin Cinema" and "Use It" to open up the show. We bounced around to most of the new album along with the usual suspects from Mass Romantic and Electric Version.

There isn't too much else to say. The band was very tight and seemed to be having a lot of fun. Drummer, Kurt Dahle, embodied much of the spirit of the show not only pounding out the beats, spinning his sticks, and throwing them up into the air (he rarely caught them to the crowd's delight), but also uncorking lines like "All I had for dinner was two whiskys and some pringles. I'm not into hard living, either, but that's all there was backstage." and "If it's any consolation [Neko] I had some cocaine and a blowjob."

In the documenting of the encore (see Michael Penn review), The New Pornographers managed two. It was an exercise in "the game of rock" since we could see them just standing around backstage waiting "just long enough" before they retook the stage.

A good show, but certainly not a life-changer. It was a great Thanksgiving Sunday out and definitely the first one that I've spent without my family. Fortunately, I bookended it with turkey dinners on both Saturday and Monday.