Dead As

Okay so Thursday night was the Dodos at the Middle East. Some strangeness went down. It was supposed to start at 9, with doors at 8, but in reality it was doors at 9, started at 9:45. I missed the bus from here to Central Square, so I walked. It was like 40 and raining, so I was pretty grumpy by the time I got there. Anyway, review:

1. The Place
The Middle East downstairs is growing on me, I guess. The ticket taking staff are a helluva lot nicer than some places (read: the Paradise) but I didn't have any cash on me, so drinks were off limits. Suxors, but not so bad.
2. The People
Despite being under 21, for whatever reason, when I go to a concert and see a sea of black Xs on the hands of the populace, it makes me angry. It makes me judge. And, well, this was no exception. Because of what amounted to this two hour delay, a lot of kids had taken to sitting on the floor, which was kind of cute, actually. It was like a sleepover, but much more pretentious, and much more PBR. Rare was the over college-age kid. More non hipsters than hipsters, but again, every beer was a PBR, so we're talking people who want to be hipsters but aren't. Me, basically. Kind of lame.
3. The Performance
So...this was a first. I am a strong believer that you should get what you pay for. Meaning, if a play sucks, I will stick it out, because I already bought my damn ticket. Meaning, if the movie is Wanted or Vantage Point, I'll sit through the entire thing, because I already paid $10 to see it. Ruby Suns were first, and I really wanted to like them. They seem to be following that AfroBeat thing that Friendly Fires and Vampire Weekend are all about, except they were all drums, which was odd given they had no drummer. They were cute, they were Kiwis, and every old song they played was rockin. Every time they announced a song as new, I got kind of bored. You can only hear synths wailing over a droning singer's wail for so long before you lose interest.

It wasn't really fair to the Dodos. The concert I had been to previous (Manic Street Preachers) has been seven years in waiting, and was blisteringly, blindingly fucking great. Two drummers and a Joseph Gordon-Levitt knock off with my last name couldn't possibly match up, and they didn't. They were too chill, the music too vague and uninteresting, the audience too static.

What I'm trying to say is, I left early. What I'm trying to say is, it wasn't entirely the Dodos fault, but they sure as Hell could've made it harder to leave.


Anyway, now on to better days.
Stay dunked in malt vinegar, cuddling your fishy friends
WF
Brighter horizons, yeah?