Beer Rating: 1 Beer
Was it just me or were the Faint amazing last night at Bimbo's? OK. Probably it was just me, since all of my friends thought that the show ranged from "unconvincing" to "it made me dance." There are a number of reasons why I thought the Faint show was one of the best of the year. First, and probably the most correct explanation, is that I’m a sucker for synths, visuals, and skinny guys from the red state of Omaha, Nebraska. The other, and somewhat likely reason, is because I was in desperate need for distractions to get my mind off of my inevitable fate on November 19th. I don’t want to talk about November 19th so I’ll just focus on the former reason.
First off, let's talk about the visuals. The Faint put forth two screens, side-by-side with one another, and the effects in those screens, along with the lighting, added so much "umph" to the music. The displays range from rather abstract animation likened to the photographic works of Maholy-Nagy, Man Ray to just plain funny effects similar to Conan O’Brien’s monologue where a still photo of a famous individual is interposed with someone’s moving mouth. For example, the images for "Erection" was Regardless of what was on the screen, it gave the audience an added sense to the show. The Faint’s stage presence was also amazing. Not one member was still for the entire show since they were constantly dancing or encouraging the crowd to participate.
The music itself was beyond belief. I stood in the back of the dance floor and I couldn’t believe how great they sounded. Bimbo’s is notorious for having sub-par acoustics, but tonight’s show was an exception. Every single noise oozing out of their synthesizers, every beat of the drum, and every dissonant noise made by their guitars were accentuated. All of this taken together made for great dance music. New songs such as "Desperate Guys," "I Disappear," "Paranoiattack," and "How Can I Forget" were so much better live than in the album. My personal favorite, "Worked Up So Sexual," almost made me want to rush up to the front and dance with the other audience members. They also did a cover of the Talking Head’s, "Psycho Killer," which was a good cover, but sounded too much like the original. I was expecting some sort of Faint-ish touch to the song, which they sort of did towards the end, but that was about it.
Finally, the crowd was really active and dancing throughout the whole show. With a few exceptions, everyone in the crowd was dancing like crazy. Like myself.
Overall, it was such an amazing show! Definitely one of the best of 2004.
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1 comment:
This ones sort of late but it's my first time and this review just begs a dissenting opinion. Ian seemed to enjoy the show but the rest of us felt it was flat and listless. It's a little hard to pinpoint what went wrong because the right elements were present, graphics and music, but it just failed.
Like I said the graphics were excellent they were specifically choreographed to go with the music and matched perfectly with the flawless sound. If they simply had removed The Faint from the stage it would have been much better. One has to wonder if they were in fact lip synching to the CD as it did not seem such flawless sound could be emanating from the sleepwalking band onstage. They certainly kept moving the whole time but this movement had little to no correspondence to the music emanating from the speakers. Maybe it's just Ian's enthusiasim for corn fed boy's from the red states that so colored his otherwise sage opinion.
They did seem to hit a high point with a perfect repitition of Worked Up So Sexual. But that is the perfect show song and they added nothing to it live and the high point was not as high as it should have been and it was all downhill from there.
Overall I would give it a 7 beer rating with a forty for afterwards. Beware that my beer rating is far steeper than Ian's. It would go something like this.
0 beers-Jesus Christ descended from heaven and played the show.
1 beer-Radiohead just played a full set in your living room. Just for you and all their groupies sitting on your lap. Backed by Beethoven with a synth.
2 beers-Show of the year.
3 to 4 beers-Damn fine show.
5 beers-A good time.
6 beers-Average.
7-8 probably should have stayed home and saved the money.
9-12 beers-Group should be banned from charging admission.
Hard drugs-Group needs to be taken out back and terminated with extreme prejudice. Not saying there is anything wrong with hard drugs they just shouldn't be imbibed simply to enjoy a show.
A disappointing show along with Blonde Redhead. Two Bimbo's shows in the middle of the best music month of the year is putting a real damper on this high season. A couple smaller shows, though, have picked up the slack and as soon as I figure out how to use this Blogger deal I'll try to review them.
Randy
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