Muh wife and I recently headed into the city for an evening of fun and games with another couple friend of ours.
The primary goal of the night was to see the Barenaked Ladies perform at Radio City Music Hall.
I have seen two shows now at Radio City Music Hall and neither of them were the Christmas Spectacular. The shows were two completely different kinds of bands and both seemed out of place for the elegant concert venue.
The Smashing Pumpkins in 1997 and Barenaked Ladies in 2006.
For a formerly avid concert goer, I am always impressed by the venue that is Radio City Music Hall. The staff is attentive and well groomed. The floors are clean and bathrooms are phenomenal. Simply put, it is a class act so why the heck is it the host of rock bands -- goofy or grunge?
Standing -- At most concerts, as soon as main act comes out, the audience generally stands for the majority of the concert. At Radio City Music Hall, the audience all stayed seated in the big plush, comfortable seats for the entire concert. I actually appreciated this more than I thought I would... I guess it is a product of getting older. During the final encore of the Barenaked Ladies show, however, I got annoyed at the guy in front of me who decided to be the only one of the 15,000 attendees who wanted to stand and dance. Weird switch for me and I guess I am getting old.
Falsetto Singing -- One of the best parts about going to any concert of a band that you really like is singing along with the band. You know the words and you feel comfortable enough to sing with them. The Barenaked Ladies' music is fun and easy to sing along with... but they often hit notes that unaccomplished singers should never try. One of those notes is during "Brian Wilson" where they hit a few really high pitched notes at once. There really is something to be said about an entire venue who all try to hit that note at once. "Ooof!"
A and Grade 9 -- Bands often get caught up with playing the new music and forget about the music that made them famous. It was a pleasure last year during the U2 concert to hear them pull out two really obscure and old songs for their show. It was equally pleasing to hear the Barenaked Ladies pull out A and Grade 9. Both are fun songs and we had a blast.
It was a good night out.
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3 comments:
BNL really do put on a great show, don't they? I love the interplay with the crowd, love the fact that no two shows are alike .... they appreciate their fans and enjoy having a fun night out with them, rather than going to work to perform their music so it sounds like the CD, get a paycheck, and go home.
I liked this show a lot, and was glad they played A and Brian Wilson. I wish they'd played Life, In a Nutshell, Be My Yoko Ono, and that one acoustic song from their album from two years ago, the one that includes the phrase, "an enigma wrapped in a mystery" and the chorus goes, "And for every uselss reason I know, there's a reason not to care; if I hide myself wherever I go, am I ever really there?" I am blanking on the title, but I have random snippets going through my head. I wish they'd done those and left off In the Car. But otherwise, I agree it was a nice mix of the old and the new, and a good time as always. There were technical difficulties at one point, and they just totally improvised a song about the problem, which was kind of awesome. I think I will never get bored of seeing BNL live.
The song is called, For You, and I absolutely love it. Yes, for the chorus and for the fact that Ed sings it. We saw them at the Spectrum and when they moved to center stage, clearly about to break into their acoustic set, I got so excited that I started jumping up and down and telling Matt that they were going to play this song that I looooooooooooved and instead (yes, good options but not the one I wanted) they played Yoko Ono and something else I can't remember. BUT, they did play King of Bedside Manor earlier on in the show so I give them some old school credit.
-J
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