Thursday, 18 Oct 2007
I guess it’s just my luck that one of my favorite bands and most anticipated shows happens while I’m out of town. Last night The New Pornographers played The Pabst, and, by all early accounts coming in, it sounds like it was quite a night! Obviously, a big plus was that both Neko Case and Dan Bejar were performing.
As usual, our friend and photographer Daniel Brielmaier was there to capture some great shots:
Go ahead and leave the highlights in the comments, so I can feel even worse for missing this show.
Myspace: The New Pornographers
MP3: The New Pornographers – My Rights, Versus Yours
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Download: eMusic
Buy: Insound
October 18th, 2007 at 11:26 am
The first opening act I could have done without, but Emma Pollock, the second was quite good. She’s one to watch.
I thought it was a fantastic show with a very comprehensive set list. I think they may have hit all of the songs off of Challengers with “Entering White Ceceila” being the only exception. There were also a number of gems from Twin Cinema (“Spanish Techo” and “Bleeding Heart Show”) as well as some golden oldies (“My Slow Descent into Alcoholism”).
Having said all of that, up in the pit, the crowd was excessively obnoxious. Where was security when the pair of drunken Buddy Holly impersonators decided to crash into everyone and in general, make asses of themselves and distract those around them from enjoying the show? For shame, Pabst security, for shame.
Sorry you missed such a fantastic show.
October 18th, 2007 at 11:29 am
Not at the show, but great pics. Nice work, you’re one of the best!
October 18th, 2007 at 11:56 am
The Buddy Holly lookalikes definitely took the title for “most obnoxious couple at a show” for 2007, especially when they started to move beyond just grinding on each other and actually dry-humping, but they got their deserved applause when they left.
I thought the show was great, despite not being a fan of “Challengers” all that much. The old stuff was performed with what I felt was higher energy and enjoyment than the new stuff, or maybe that’s just me projecting my own impressions onto the band. I’m also a big fan of light-up signs!
On a sidenote, is Dan OK? He seemed a little rough around the edges last night, even if his vocals were always well done.
October 18th, 2007 at 2:27 pm
Luke, you should definitely give “Challengers” a few more tries. It has really grown on me and is easily one of this year’s favorites for me.
October 18th, 2007 at 9:37 pm
Above-average show, I thought. Neko seemed to mail it in a little but everybody else was rocking hard. I have a powerful crush on this keyboard / accordion player, pictured 3rd pic, bottom right.
I thought Dan’s whole ‘I’m too cool for my own show!” bit w/ him wandering around stage with a glass of merlot was pretty hilarious / awesome.
Buddy Hollies, not so much. They were right in front of me most of the night; one of them would not stop staring at me while he was putting his tongue down the other one’s throat. Not sure what the deal w/ that was. Do a little less X next time, fellas.
October 18th, 2007 at 10:24 pm
re: the openers. I thought both were great and terrible and then good and then alright. We screwed up and didn’t stand (and get away from the friggin speaker) for Emma Pollock — it was just way too loud where we were.
re: the NPs. They may have been just as loud but since we had moved to standing in the middle: ahhh, much better. The show was awesome and Dan Bejar gets MVP in my book. I do have to agree with uwmryan though… the fact that he remained upright the entire time was pretty impressive.
re: the Buddy Holy guys. We must have been *just* far enough away to not be annoyed by them (lucky us). We were pretty curious about why 2 guys left and people started cheering that they were gone though… guess this explains it! What were they doing that was so bad over there?
October 19th, 2007 at 10:41 pm
A good show, and the new songs sounded great live. There did seem to be a lot of feedback problems though. Annoying after the second or third time.
A quick question for Milwaukee locals:
I’m starting to drive in to the city to go to more shows, particularly at the Pabst, and I’m wondering what the unofficial policy is for cameras and photography. Do they usually not mind much, as long as you’re not obnoxious about it? The photos in this post were great, and looked like they must have been taken with an slr, which would be a difficult thing to hide from security. I’m just wondering, because I’d love to start bringing my camera to shows. Any thoughts?
October 20th, 2007 at 12:00 am
What time did the show at the Pabst start? I saw the NP in Chicago last night, and they took the stage a little after 11:00 p.m., which seemed absurdly late. Maybe I’m just getting old.
October 20th, 2007 at 6:59 am
Noah: If you head over to my blog, Mirr World, you’ll see tons of videos and photos from The Pabst. They are totally cool about it as long as you’re not obnoxious. If it’s a quiet show you shouldn’t be holding your camera up and blocking people’s views etc…
I would not recommend bringing an SLR though because they already have a professional photographer at every show.
The same management runs The Pabst, Riverside and Turner Hall so you can safely bring a camera to all of those.
As for The Rave, which I try to avoid at all costs, I wouldn’t bring a camera there. Just not worth it.
October 22nd, 2007 at 2:48 pm
Dan B — pleasantly aloof. A real life Floyd Pepper, kind of. Can you picture that?
1st opener: music was ok. Personality was kind of annoying.
Emma: Adorable and played a nice set.
NP’s: A great mix of new and old. To nit pick, it would have been nice for them to have done more of the Neko songs like “Letter From An Occupant” and “All For Swinging You Around” since she was in the flesh for this show….but they played pretty much everything else I would have wanted to see. Although they didn’t play the song we’d been pimping on Indie Soundcheck…..No “Mutiny, I Promise You”….ah well.
When I look back on 2007, this will be one of the top shows of the year. Sorry you missed it Ryan!