"Carry me through the window. I wanna get out."
With my last concert being way back in March, my recent Okkervil experience was definitely a great pick-me-up from my concert stagnance as of late. I think when any of your favorite bands announces a show that'll include the performance of "brand new songs, old favorites, very rare tracks, and probably some stuff we've never done before that we'll never likely do again", you're slightly more tempted to go, and go I did. Okkervil River took to the stage at the slightly hallowed halls of Hogg Auditorium, a building that's seen beter days and has since been host to, among other things, testing for University of Texas students. The bad vibes of numerous failures, however, hardly withstood the good vibrations of one great performance. One top of delivering what they promised in a setlist that included A King and Queen, So Come Back, Black Sheep Boy and a Fugs cover of I Want To Know, Okkervil performed alongside a full string and horn section. That's right, a string and horn section. It had been a while since the boys of Okkervil River had played a proper Austin show, and to make up for it they wanted to do something "a little special." Performing as a 21-piece is something that's more than just a little special. Performing as a 21-piece downright spoiled us.
There's always something to be said about the sophistication of a performance when 8 seats on stage are occupied by various stringed instruments, but I never found myself thinking their presence was out of place alongside the raggedy nature of Okkervil River. In fact, if I remember correctly, at the beginning of it all, vocal Will Sheff, bottle of water in hand, asked if it was too classy of a performance for him to work the bottlecap in the air trick. He ended up popping that bottlecap before he even finished the question. Clearly it was rhetorical, and if such an act didn't remind you that this is gonna be just as fun-casual as any other show, the screams of "Fuck yeah!" and "I love you" sure put you back in that mindset. The entire thing was amazing - the sound was more than ideal, you knew the band definitely loved being up there, and I don't remember having 2 hours pass as quickly as it did that night. I'm pretty sure everyone around me thought the same. At the conclusion of their set, and correct me if you were there, a standing ovation lasting anywhere between 2-4 minutes ensued. Clearly, an encore had to answer, and the band returned to stage for four more songs with one Will Sheff asking if they'd never merited a standing ovation before only because up till now they'd never had an actual sitting audience. Brilliant.
Various Songs From Okkervil River (all songs are right click - save as):
"You're pretty. Won't you play with me? This time I'll be nice."
The Noisettes opened the show with a mindblowing performance. The lead singer, Shingai Shoniwa (her name is so badass), had so much ridiculous energy. She was jumping all over the place in her bright orange hotpants, hair flying everywhere, belting out song in unbelievable pitches and tremors. Her stage presence is amazing, but her voice is even more so. She can go from seductively low and soft to piercingly shrill and high in a matter of seconds, while still holding down a solid melody. Shingai's hands down one of the most impressive front(wo)men I've seen in a long, long time.
Then it was time for the headlining TV On the Radio. For the first couple songs, I was really dizzy and blacking out, so my concentration was kind of affected. Then they started playing "I Was a Lover," I leaned over the railing and threw up profusely, and finally felt well enough to start enjoying the show. Lead singer, Tunde Adebimpe (yet another badass name) had better pelvic moves than Elvis. His hips just swiveled around and around, with his wrist and elbow raised, flapping any which way he fucking wanted. His voice remained relatively stable throughout the set and he was able to deliver the great falsetto he's been known for. Oh, he is also a fine whistler. Kyp Malone, the guitarist/background vocalist/bearded cutie pie, was so fucking lovable. With his tight little T-shirt and heart belt buckle, Kyp oozed endearing. The lone white band member, David Andrew Sitek was just as incredible as the rest. I've never seen anyone strum so fast -- his hand was a blur half the time. For a lot of the show, I was on the ground and didn't get to focus much on drummer, Jaleel Bunton, or bassist, Gerard Smith, but from what I could hear, they were amazing.
I don't know how the hell it happened the past two times, but lately YANP Matt's beat me to the post when it comes to reporting on Spoon things. For anyone that's been keeping up, it's no news that Spoon has been road testing some of their newest songs, and it seems they finally tagged a date for the album those songs are showing up in. Everyone's favorite quartet of everchanging parts (they got a new bassist on this draw) is releasing their sixth full length, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, this summer on July 10. I can't wait until people start asking for that in stores.