Friday, June 18, 2004
(5:23 AM) | Anonymous:
Unicorns Are People Too
Goodness gracious, how long has it been since I've written a non-music oriented post? Well, besides that Iowa one where I won a lot of money. I remember a time when I had some seemingly new thoughts, or some new experiences, something worth sharing that was a lot more interesting than the cds I happened to listen to in a week. Maybe instead of listening to my cds in the car, I need to start yelling random combinations of swear words at cars passing by, and then blogging about the reactions I get. That might at least bring some diversity.Anyway, this post is going to revolve around music. Mainly because I saw The Unicorns last night, and it was one of the stranger shows I've seen. My thoughts started out with a resounding "Man..I'm never going to shows anymore, all these are high school kids, and I don't even have Buddy Holly glasses to wear to try and fit in..and this club is so disorganized..how are they gonna open doors an hour later than posted!" to "Oh..wow..the doors are open and this is just the line for tickets that I've stood in for 40 minutes and missed the opening band..I'm a moron."
After that, I finally got in for the last song of the opening band, who were some locals called The Ice Walters. They were decent, but certainly not worth the awkwardness of going to a concert alone. And it was then that I began thinking the only time I'd go to concerts from then on was if my friends here who always back out on doing ANYTHING at ANYTIME will finally give in and come.
But then Canada saved the day. The thing about going to a concert that differs from a CD is mainly that it's probably the best introduction to a band you could ever get. I think it best to go to concerts of bands you've heard are good based totally off reccomendations of others. Maybe download a song if you have to..but if possible, try to just get enough info to know it's not a total waste of time. You're sure to be let down more than your share of times, but the times it pays off are worth everything.
That was the case with the Canadaian bands on the bill, The Arcade Fire and The Unicorns. Yeah, I know, I thought all "the" bands had to be from Detroit or New York as well. I totally wore my denim jacket and everything.
The Arcade Fire had the best opening song I've ever seen, not that I've seen any much less many of the all time great touring bands. But still, it started with the drummer strapping the tom around his neck and alternating between hitting the tom and hitting the tambourine in his other hand. On top of this came the greatest march ever, and a song that was more soccer chant than anything else. From there it somehow just got better, as their enthusiastic fist pumping brought down the stage's "lighting", which consisted of some christmas lights strung up above. I guess they don't have a CD out yet, but the September release of their CD should probably elevate Canada to super-power status.
But, a great opening band is a double-edged sword, just like the bible, living and active, able to seperate marrow and bone (I still remember that verse from bible quizzing. I also still remember Adam Kotsko out jumping me to quote that, the one memory verse I knew, and thus delivring his team the victory. I do hate him).
The Unicorns are an amazing band, a great band, possibly poised to take over the independent music stage once Death Cab for Cutie and others go mainstream. The music they produce is amazingly fun and energetic. I'm just going by instinct here, but they seem to have been high school friends, or at least to have known each other forever, and they just seem to have fun putting out the indie rock for the kids. I've replayed no song in recent months more often than "I Was Born A Unicorn". I intentionally held off listening to the rest of the album just so I could be blown away by the concert.
Yet, it's interesting how one elephant's butt hair (that's the real meaning of dude, dude!) can ruin an entire show. It's also amazing how when high school best friends (now I've confirmed that through reading an interview) tour for 8 months out of a year, they can seemingly get to the point where they'd like to see each other disembowled by part time CNBC financial consultant/WWE HARDCORE CHAMP, BRADSHAW!!
Both these factors were at work last night. The music was there, the band was all together pretty tight, they just seemed to not want to be there, at all. And I blame the girl in the front row. See, this girl in the front row apparently was complaining constantly about the guy next to her as he was elbowing her. She was so loud about it that the Unicorns stopped the show with some "Well, I just feel rude..I mean..you're trying to talk this out and we're here like, playing music over top and stuff..how terribly rude of us." antics. Eventually this evolved into the Unicorn fellow declaring a public forum and handing the mic to this girl, who said, drunkenly "I want this mfer to get his elbow out of my titties! that's just not cool man..not cool...man..yeah..that's just not cool!" The mic was next passed to some girl who were offended by an earlier joke the guy had made, one he had read off the bathroom wall. It was: "Why doesn't texas fall into the ocean? ... Because Oklahoma sucks". Simple enough. but this girl felt the need to go on and on about how Oklahoma has the nicest people. When he didn't apologize, she proceeded to flip the band off the rest of the show. Apparently, this showed just how nice and kind we Oklahomans are. Somehow.
This didn't help the situation..and when compounded by the fact that the two lead men in the band seemed on less than friendly terms, it made for something of an off night. Yet, the music itself had everyone moving, so that says something for the merits of the music itself. And, in an even stranger turn, despite the general feeling that stuff could have been better, the people I met at the show all seemed to leave glowing about the experience as a whole. This is what was so awkward. The main band was upstaged by their opener, they seemed to want to kill each other, and at least 15-20 minutes was spent passing the mic and voicing concerns about elbows in boobies and the self-worth of Oklahoma, and yet somehow through it all, it'd rank in the top 5 shows I've ever seen. I just wish the crowd hadn't sucked so bad, as you can probably now add the Unicorns to a growing list of bands that will never come back.
For those who love concert reviews, I'm going to see Spoon tonight in Norman. So, you might get another dosage. For those who don't, speak up, and I'll keep it to myself, as I'm really starting to feel music posts won't cut it anymore. In fact, maybe I need to skip a few CD Change posts until I can get other posting in order.. Heck, I did just get a book of the church father's first writings..maybe I could do a "Founders of the Church Change" post....
St. Cyprian of Carthage - To Pope Cornelius
I guess the kids call this "a letter" or something now. And it's pretty cool in it's style and all, but something about the content just seems..I don't really know, I can't place it. But like, we're gonna talk about readmitting the lapsed back into the church and stuff, why not do it with a beat I can dance to, in that sort of gesticulating, terrible looking dance that all of us in the habit of dancing in privacy have? This is my main problem with St. Cyprian, but, heck, with Phish breaking up, someone's got to bear the torch.
