Comments on: Live Music Review: The Weakerthans, Oct. 5, Seattle

By: Neil

Neil — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 23:48:51 +0000

TLTC – I just don’t think they play the right type of music for a large live venue. dreadful to watch and soooo samy.

Two people motionless playing self-indulgent Kate Bush/Clannad/80s style fem-goth. Maybe in a small venue they would be different, but they were totally lost in The Commodore. People around us stood and chatted… they appeared to be playing for themselves – majorly tedious.

Speaking of banter… if you thought The Weakerthans were quiet… TLTC were like Kermit the Frog without human assistance.

By: Supergenius

Supergenius — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 18:45:10 +0000

Lisa, you could certainly be right. This was a very off night for them.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 18:23:39 +0000

Too bad you experienced a poor performance of The Last Town Chorus. I think Megan of TLTC is super talented. Maybe you should give the album a listen and see if it sounds better than the live show.

I’ve seen TLTC four times. Three times she was amazing and the fourth seemed like something was “off”. Maybe you just saw them on an off night.

By: Interpol at In The Venue « MCQESQ

Interpol at In The Venue « MCQESQ — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 10:28:44 +0000

[...] As they began to play, IÂ was prepared for theÂ sort of impersonal, professional show that their whole vibe seemed to be geared for.Â And there was something a bitÂ impersonal about it.Â Interpol doesn’t exactly go out of their way to connect with the audience, and they are a deadly serious band, with deadly serious, blood-loyal fans who had, by the time the band started playing, jammed the clubÂ from the floor to the rafters.Â There’s no nonsense at an Interpol show.Â No chit-chat, no banter, noÂ stage talk between songs, no announcing the names of the songs or telling cute stories about how they came up with the tunes, none of that.Â This contrasted sharply withÂ Liars and provided us an opportunity to think about whether banter is generally a good thing or a bad thing (a subject being dscusseedÂ by Steve over on Kulturblog).Â [...]

By: aubrey

aubrey — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 05:06:04 +0000

supergenius, thanks for the introduction. i like their sound. and as for the banter, i love the banter. i love to know that the band is real.

By: tracy m

tracy m — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 22:58:17 +0000

when I see a band live, I want to see some variation and uniqueness vs. the album. Otherwise I could listen at home and be comfortably seated doing it!

Amen to that!

By: Supergenius

Supergenius — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 21:43:00 +0000

Neil, right on re: the dollar! They are loving life right now. And you’re right about the catalogue. This may just come down to personal choices and preferences, but when I see a band live, I want to see some variation and uniqueness vs. the album. Otherwise I could listen at home and be comfortably seated doing it!

By: Neil

Neil — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 21:37:29 +0000

Funny… I wrote similar about The Last Town Chorus in my review of their Vancouver gig…

I know what you’re saying about not doing a cover or medley or anything a little different – but they have such a big catalogue they couldn’t even play all my faves.

I took his smirk to be a grin, they were loving playing live and all of them had a grin for the whole show in Vancouver.

They were probably grinning at the first time in their lives the Canadian dollar they brought with them had real buying power

By: Susan M

Susan M — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 20:59:33 +0000

The smirk thing reminds me of the first time I saw High on Fire, a metal band. I was near the back of the bar and the singer had what looked to be a giant grin on his face the entire time. Then next time I saw them, I was right against the stage, and I realized it was a scary grimace. Funny how the two are so close in appearance.

The wishing bands would speak more can be one of those careful-what-you-wish-for things.