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October 24, 2005
second lowest odd prime [updated]
Wolf Parade at the Khyber, in Philly:
1. It's A Curse
2. Dear Sons and Daughters of Hungry Ghosts
3. We Built Another World
4. New Spencer Song (w/lyrics "Do you believe in ghosts or do you believe in fate?")
5. You Are A Runner --> Fancy Claps
6. Secret Knives
7. Day in the Life
8. Shine A Light
9. I'll Believe in Anything
encore
1. New Spencer Song (w/lyrics "I Sing You in Songs")
2. Disco Sheets
3. This Heart's On Fire
Absolutely amazing show, all around. Songs were faster, tighter, more nuanced- Dante DeCaro singing third part on a lot of them really just pushed everything out to a point where it was overwhleming. More later...
I'd never been to the Khyber before, and it's a lot smaller than I expected. Maybe room for about 250-300, comfortably. So of course there were about 500 people packed into this place last night, all seemingly emitting about 30,000 BTUs per minute, which raised the ambient temperature in there to roughly 900 degrees. Which, fine, that's pretty much standard for most Philly venues, OK.
Dante DeCaro came on first, accompanied by Arlen and Hadji, and put on an awesome set. Holy shit. I mean, I had heard that DeCaro was playing some kind of bluegrass/rockabilly or protest/irongrass hybrid stuff, but this was totally unexpected. First of all, Arlen's drums sounded brutal- same beat pattern on a few of the songs, but such depth. And DeCaro's singing voice is fantastic- kind of reedy, rough, subtly emotive (think of a gentler version of the Walkmen's Hamilton Leithauser). There was one song, with the phrase 'rocky road' in the chorus, that had the entire place dancing, and one at the end (DeCaro played banjo) that was so vibrant and joyful that I momentarily forgot about the sweat pouring into my eyes. Hopefully Dante will record some of this stuff soon...
Think About Life were next and I didn't know what to expect. I had heard good and bad things about their live show, and even though every recorded thing I had heard from them was great, there was of course no guarantee that they would deliver. But they did. This band has got so much goddamn energy, it's ridiculous. 3 dudes dressed in skin-tight green Underarmor (maybe?) rocked the abrasive keyboards meet Casio beats meet live drums schema, and danced harder and better than anyone has a right to on a Sunday night. Beaver (who was replacing Martin, apparently?) was an insanely entertaining frontman, singing the songs with his back to the audience at times, but then turning around to jog in place and bust out some wild aerobics moves (and illustrative hand gestures). Best moments were: the song where they sing 'all for the money' over and over again, the one where they all rap 'Stay in School', and when they played 'Paul Cries' at the end and just absolutely owned it. Cannot wait to see them again.
Wolf Parade took about 30 minutes to set up, which drew the wrath of a few assholes in the audience ("quit fucking around"), but didn't seem to phase the band- they launched straight into It's A Curse with such violent urgency that you could almost see some heads snap back in the first few rows. Like I said above, all the songs were more vicious, more bloodthirsty and desperate than when I had seen them before, back in June. The difference now is that they've got Hadji back and have Dante on guitar/percussion/etc., and have been touring with the "Apologies to the Queen Mary" songs now for a while- they've twisted them, shaped them, lived in them until the music's as worn and comfortable as they need it to be. And everything they played was just so full and ornamented and powerful. The two new Spencer songs, in particular, were wonderful- the first one was something he had played at the Believer showcase in June, a kind of jaunty, climbing number that features his usual sort of spare narrative ("you said you saw him on the hillside/I swear I saw him in the meadow", and "do you believe in ghosts/or do you believe in fate?"), and some heavy tambourine. The second one, with the silvery ascending scale intro by DeCaro and Boeckner, described by Rose as Medieval prog-blues (true), featured some fantastic, sinewy guitar work by Dan and Dante (they jammed out hard at the end, with thin, sharp solos falling out all over the place). Spencer's piano work on this one ('I'll Sing You In Songs") definitely sounds sort of Motown, and his lyrics on this one achieve the same kind of surreal beauty as on 'You Are a Runner' or 'I'll Believe in Anything'- the way he talks about singing someone in songs, it's almost as if it's a concrete thing, as if he's actually stitching this person, bodily, into a song, note by note (sort of 'Cask of Amontillado'-esque).
Long story short- if you get the chance, definitely go see this band. They're only getting better, and they won't be playing shows in places this tiny for very long.
Posted by Kevin at October 24, 2005 01:21 AM