the fyrehaus

Jonny Lives: They were actually very good, though their pants were quite low. Their songs were actual awesome rock. There was a gaggle of NYU girls in the front who went absolutely wild for them and knew every song. The trouble was that they often turned around and sang at each other, which, if I were in the band, would make me feel unloved. That’s bar behavior. At a concert, we should all at least be eyes front. M: Quite well done. The lead guitarist worked the rocker vibe, even when his amp lead fell out.

Morningwood: What the hell is going on here? These guys were obviously Pink Floyd influenced. We were all just standing there in the dark while they jammed. And now there’s a girl! She came out of nowhere. And she shook like she was having some sort of painful convulsion. Her pants were really not very flattering, in light of the too-short t-shirt and the shaking. I would later spot her after the show and not recognize her at all because she’s actually quite tiny and thin. (She would also ask Megan to watch out for her while she pees behind a subway stop literally eight feet from the Bowery’s doors and then drunkenly accost Ricky Wilson and demand his phone number.) She wore cowboy boots. Cowboy boots are so in right now. She sang about why girls love horses. And she had one of those toy pony heads on a stick. During the first three songs, she repeatedly demanded that someone bring her a whisky. And someone did! That was just weird. It was feminist. Ish. M: She’s hot, but clearly off her rocks. The drummer was wearing a six-year old sleep time outfit.

Kaiser Chiefs: My notes are spotty because I was losing my goddamned mind. I love them so much. They played the exact same set as Valentine’s Day, but added a non-album track as an encore (set list at the bottom). Whitey was wearing an engraved steel belt buckle that said “BLOC PARTY”. They always look like Catholic school boys attempting to make the cut on mass day. Ricky is wearing his navy suit (the fabric looks lush, but also cheap) and a salvaged army shirt. Towards the end of the show, after downing every band members’ beers, he traded his plain tie for a crimson and yellow striped one offered by a girl in the front row. He tied it as neatly as possible and then buttoned up his jacket and it was all adorable.

They always seem so glad to be there. And Ricky obviously could not stop himself jumping up and down, even with the broken ankle. I have horrible fears that Ricky will end up addicted to painkillers. Also, Whitey’s losing weight. Whitey needs a sandwich.

I also must mention the introductions because they were the best introductions ever. They were just about ready to launch into a song (now I can’t remember which) and Nick counted off and everything and Simon, still tuning, just didn’t start. There was laughter. Ricky took this opportunity to say, with a flourish, “Nick Hodgson!” Nick, in turn, introduced Simon Rix. Simon introduced Andrew White. Whitey just stood there. And across the stage, there was Peanut, smiling and waving his hands and trying to get Whitey’s attention. And after a long pause, Whitey leaned forward to his microphone and said, deadpan, “Peanut.” It was highly, highly cute. Halfway through the next song, when he realized his omission, Peanut introduced “Ricky Wilson!” and there was much laughter. I like shows where the band members seem like they’re having fun as well and not so deathly serious about the art.

Some guy in the front just passed out across the amps before the Chiefs even took the stage. Ricky couldn’t stop talking about him and leaned down to ruffle his hair. When he came to, the whole audience cheered. I like Ricky because he chats with the audience. That is a huge button for me. If I just wanted to hear songs, I’d listen to the album at home. They really are one of the greatest bands I’ve ever seen live.

Set List:
Na Na Na Na Naaa
Everyday I Love U Less and Less
Hard Times Send Me
Caroline, Yes
I Predict a Riot
Modern Way
Oh My God
Saturday Night
Time Honoured Tradition
Encore: Take My Temperature

M.I.A. Sunshowers: Everyone’s been talking about Galang, but I guess this is to be the US single. I like this song better. Plus, the video has much better clothes. It looks like no one actually wants to be there. (In the video M.I.A. sort of wanders around the jungle in India while a bunch of villagers try to go on about their lives, and then they dance in a river with an elephant).

Handsome Boy Modeling School World’s Gone Mad: Weird video with a weak concept. (There’s some sort of fashion show going on. Dan the Automator is hanging around in the afterparty room. Del tha Funky Homosapien is a robot. Alex Kapranos is trapped in a magazine. I swear.) Why is Tim Meadows in this? Why is Del a robot? What’s with the guy who looks like Warhol? Dan’s drinking tea. Being British is so in right now (Megan: this video is heavy concept, light plot, and I think it works fabulously. Props to the 70s grainy film feel during the Warholy bits and the tongue in cheek parodic feel of everything else).

Doves Black and White Town: I love this video (Megan: this video makes me sad, every time. I have to fast forward). The basic point is, I think, that England is a horrible sad place to grow up and kids are bullies. There are little boys being bullied and sad lesbian girls who must hide their love and it is all very painful. And has no happy ending. But it’s excellently shot.

Arcade Fire some video. around this point, the titles cut out: Why do they dress like that? Like it’s 1912? (Basic plot: They parade around this town and kids follow them and then go into this house and then dig around in the woods and then disappear. I guess.) There are a shitload of people in this band. Now they seem to be resurrecting a couple in a bed. Now they’re in the woods. Quoi? (Megan: That video gets my official lack of endorsement). (Update 5/8/5: the song was “Rebellion (Lies)” and titles like that are why I find it so hard to get into them - Sarah)

I have no title or band for this next video: Man walking in the snow. He finds a lamp that makes things be in color. There’s a girl in a hat playing the accordion. Does that sound familiar to anyone?

Placebo Twenty Years: There’s no point in summarizing this. Placebo is in a pretty cool room with people doing circusy acts in slow motion. It’s freakin’ awesome. It’s bizarre and gorgeous and Moulin-Rouge-like. There’s a bit where a girl in this fabulous frilly gown (all of the ladieswear is rather 19th century hooker) falls from the sky onto a trampoline in front of the band, bounces, and flies back up out of frame. And never returns! Plus, fire eating.

Futureheads Decent Days and Nights: Plain performance video where they’ve cut the band out and pasted them all over, collage-style. The way they’re pasted over each other again and again pretty well mimics the vocal style of the band. And it takes the color and design scheme directly from the album art. There are actual close-ups of the band (it was all pretty fuzzy in their last video) and they’re in lovely clothes (I am so glad that suits and things with buttons are back in fashion).

Regina Spector Us: She sounds like Nelly Furtado, maybe, or Tori Amos. Just like Tori Amos. It’s all beautiful clockworky animation, the sort where it’s manipulation of real objects, but all tiny objects that make up cities and armies and lines. It’s so so gorgeous. And her piano playing is lovely as well.

Special Guest: Phoenix

Brendan Benson Spit it Out: Megan thinks he looks like Rhys Ifans. Me, I say Hugh Fink. There are four Brendans. Or maybe six. And they’re playing the song in a really nice house. They all look like heroin addicts. Megan: “The theme is of control. Or agoraphobia.” And now he goes outside so he can put on the traditional British big-ass parka. Honestly, how cold can it be there? And why are British men always wearing huge furry parkas *indoors*? The song is okay.

Doves Black & White Town: It’s still too depressing to watch, but that speaks to how powerful it is.

Commercial: I’ve decided to start also listing the commercials. Bands that are summarized on Subterranean often never appear again. They should be remembered at least for trying. This one was for Circa’s “Survive”.

Long-View When You Sleep: Jim introduced it by referencing Longwave, and now I want to hear “Here It Comes”. They look like glittery Kasabian. Exactly like Kasabian. It might be Kasabian. They have the sliding, slightly-off beat vocals usually associated with Interpol. It’s pretty much a standard Cheap Hipster Video. But there are big screens behind them showing stuff. They show some British street signs and that is honestly the most interesting part of the video. At the beginning, they showed footage of the moon and Megan remarked on how cliche that is. The song is unmemorable. It’s got a 2002 alterna-rocky thing happening. Also, everything is tinted green. Megan says she’s sick of that. So if you make music videos, it might be time to switch to mauve or something.

Ambulance Stay Where You Are: There’s a band called Ambulance! How am I supposed to keep them straight from Ambulance, Ltd? Assuming they’re not the same band. They don’t look the same. They’re in a cold warehouse, which gives them an excuse to wear giant parkas, even if they’re not British. It looks like Ian Brown showing up in Kasabian’s “Club Foot” video. Also, they use the 16-split frame. We agree that split frames are getting old.

Bright Eyes First Day of My Life: I warn you, I’m fast-forwarding already. No matter how much hype he gets, you can’t escape the fact that every song on his acoustic-or-whatever disc is 100 minutes long and makes everyone within 50 feet want to open a vein. This video was directed by John Cameron Mitchell, which is weird. Especially since it turns out to just be shots of couples and singles sitting on a sofa, listening to headphones and cuddling. This much sap can seriously fuck with your blood sugar.

Phoenix Interview: Jim: How did you decide to put out an album? Phoenix dude: We ran out of money. (This is totally why chicks dig Frenchmen.)

Saul Williams List of Demands: He seems really angry. M: He should go work with Conor Oberst. Then Conor would know the meaning of pain.

Hot Hot Heat Goodnight Goodnight: I’m excited to actually see this video instead of the 20 seconds in the commercial. They are using a serious number of effects here: Stop motion (so they move without walking), that paper thing A-Ha did, split screens, weathering. There’s a lot going on. It’s a really good song, though. Catchy in that way that only HHH can be. And I’m excited to see my man the bassist. M: Steve’s not androgynous, just cherry-lipped. And he may not work the goiter wrap.

Phoenix Interview: Phoenix responds to Jim’s question in unison. M: They’re new to this. They need a point person. S: Maybe they’re a collective. Like Chumbawumba.

Phoenix Run: It looks like piano wires or something, colored and neon and sliding into and around the digital band. M: This is like if you took a tab of acid and then watched the visualizer on iTunes.

Handsome Boy Modeling School World’s Gone Mad: S: Can we skip this? M: ::pouts::. I still don’t understand the plot on this, my tenth or so viewing,. Why is Del a robot? Is it possible to parody too broad a culture? Just because you might be able to get away with nods to both Andy Warhol and The Ladies Man in the same clip, should you? M: It’s all concept. S: And no album. M: I think it’s metaphorical. (Stay tuned to watch metaphor and allegory bite us in the ass.)

Commercial: Adema - Planets (that one who is the Korn man’s brother has gotten very puffy in the head area)

The Decemberists 16 Military Wives: It’s set in a prep school. It has Royal Tenenbaums-type subtitles. They’re students, and the main man is the US in the Model UN. I am beginning to feel that this is going to be a very heavy allegory. He declares war on Luxembourg (Luxembourg is played by a 35 year old man). There are no-cafeteria-food sanctions and bombing raids involving rocks. He keeps saying that he can do whatever he wants because he’s the US. As allegory goes, this is pretty heavy handed. Then this girl, the representative of Ireland, brings the rest of the world together with rock music and they gang up against the U.S. kid. I thought it was going to be more fun than that. It comes off as the band wanting to make a loud protesty statement that was, at some point, watered down. (”Iraq is a hot-button. How about Luxembourg?”) That just makes it muddy. M: It’s Wes Anderson-meets-”Cruel Intentions”.

I still kind of hate New York crowds. They have very little respect for the welfare of others. Luckily, no one was seriously injured. There was also an insane amount of equipment for these three bands. They had to offload between sets directly into the audience. So Megan would run into me so that she was not crushed by an organ or a rack of guitars or something. Von Bondie spotting: The bass player from the Fever! He only has that one sweatshirt.

Group Sounds: They’ve got this Beach Boys tinge to their music. I couldn’t discern between the songs, except that the lead singer assured us that every song was “the dancing song!” But they gave out free snap bracelets. Oddly, because the lead singer played bass, he was all the way to the far right. This did allow for the hot band member (the vaguely Christian Bale guitarist) to be in the middle. They had fantastic jackets. In fact, the whole night was rocking that Victorian-sailor (hats and goiter wraps) chic.

Louis XIV: This was a lot more metal than I expected. Kind of reminiscent of hair metal. Lots of eyeliner, huge drum sound. The lead singer had this whole Ozzy Osborne thing happening and a very fitted leather jacket which, when coupled with his feathery hair, made his head seem enormous. I was fascinated. The drummer was girl-pretty in a way that I found kind of scary. Like bad Bond girls from the early movies. (He had Grace Jones eyes.) The bassist was playing it very cool, looking very normal, while everyone else went batshit. The guitarist got on the organ for one song (”Finding Out True Love is Fake”) and ended the performance with an organ/bass chord held two minutes too long. It was weird.

Hot Hot Heat: Let it be known that HHH has the best dressed roadie in history. He was wearing pinstripes and a white tie and had a faux-hawk. He looked like he was playing a gig with his ska band later. Steve Bays makes for an odd frontman. He behaved as though his (extremely impressive) jew fro was very heavy, and often just laid his head down on the keyboard. He got the mic cord stuck around everything (the mark of a new rock star). His singing is almost parody of itself. It was rather like seeing a band you loved a long time ago, like Journey, when they have gotten a new singer and written a new album. They know that you’re only there to hear the old stuff, so when they play “Lights” everyone goes crazy. And then they play a new song and everyone goes for beer. HHH played something from “Make Up the Breakdown” exactly every other song. And everyone in that packed room had obviously worn holes in their copies of that fantastic album, because it was more like group karaoke than coming to see a show. Lots of shouting, tons of adoration, the usual smattering of obnoxious people.

The rest of the band was a sight to see. Their bassist (see again the Victorian sailor) was excellent at his job and looked like he was having fun. Also, tiny like the British and with excellent hair. Elisabeth pointed out that he and the guitarist had bangs of complementary angles, so they were pointing at each other. He came out for the encore with his jacket off and he had badass pirate tattoos. Fantastic.

M83 Don’t Save Us From the Flames: We keep fast-forwarding through this. They’ve obviously consumed a lot of 1970s teen movies. Angst angst angst, then ghosts. Also, bicycles.