The Rise of British Sea Power

Phenomenal gig.

Groundwork: The show was at the Black Cat in DC which can hold about 1,000 people I guess. I went with my friend Wayne who knew absolutely nothing about British Sea Power. The stage at the Black Cat is only elevated by about two feet or so, which means that if work your way to the front, you aren't staring straight up the bands' nostrils like at the House of Blues in Las Vegas. And there's no barrier between the crowd and the stage, which I think always makes things chummier. We were one of the first people to get there, so we got great position, second row directly in the middle. Of course, getting there early means you have to endure the opening bands which were...Two if By Sea and Stardeath and the White Dwarfs

Two if By Sea: They were decent. A girl was flirting with the bassist during the whole set, which made him horribly uncomfortable on stage. It was pretty funny.

Stardeath and the White Dwarfs: Wretched, wretched experimental noise from the nephew of Wayne Coyne of Flaming Lips. After they had set up, the nephew changed into a green polyester one-piece jumpsuit and a tight 70s shirt. When he came back out, Wayne (with the comment of the night) said, "Oh my gosh, I didn't know she was a girl!"in all seriousness. The next 30 minutes was full of blinding lights, smoke, and music that at it's best can only be described as "arcadish" and at it's worst as "really really really crappy."

After that nightmare ended, I was stunned to see Yan and Hamilton start setting up for BSP. No roadies. Just them and some members of the previous two bands helped set up for the show. For the uninitiated, BSP consists of: Yan (lead vocals, guitar), Noble (lead guitar), Hamilton (bass, some lead vocals), and Wood (drums). Yan and Hamilton are brothers.

I was seriously bouncing up and down with anticipation for the gig to start. Did I mention that I was second row? Yeah, I was second row. Finally, they came out.

Yan was wearing flour-sack type pants. Noble and Hamilton were both wearing army-type pants. Noble had Boy Scout-type socks on and the pants were tucked into the socks. I feel like this is important to point out that they were dressed like, well, weird Indie Brits.

I don't think that I will give a song-by-song recap (setlist below). But they started with a ripping version of Remember Me. Then a new song. And then they began Please Stand Up. Absolutely phenomenal. Chilling the whole way through. I was so pumped, jumping around, pumping my fist, shaking my head during the chorus. The end part where Noble echoes the melody line is the part that always gets me and it just killed me. So great. After that song ended, they could have walked off stage and I would have been satisfied.

But they continued and they were awesome. Hamilton and Yan switched instruments and Hamilton took over lead vocals and stared glassy-eyed over the audience for a couple of songs. At one point in the first five songs, Noble lifted up his guitar as if to smash it on stage, but then thought better of it and brought it back down. Before Larsen B started (this is about halfway through the concert) someone in the front row moved away, and I moved onto the front row, next to an Indie guy and his girlfriend who both obviously knew some BSP (I think a lot of people knew a little, but very few people knew a lot of BSP). Oh, I forgot to mention that when Hamilton came out, he had two or three sprigs wrapped around his head (this is pretty typical for BSP), but they fell off during the first ten seconds of the first song and he tossed them into the front row. So, when I moved to the front row, there was one of the sprigs. On occasion during the show, when I felt particularly moved, I would pick up my sprig and wave it wildly.

So, Oh Larsen B was fantastic. Well, everything was, but Larsen B was awesome. And then, right before they did Carrion, someone yelled out for the fifth time "APOLOGIES TO INSECT LIFE!!" Noble and Yan stopped and looked at each other and said, "He's persistent, isn't he? Should we do it?" and then Hamilton started the bassline to Insect Life and they nailed it. It was great. I've never seen a band actually do a request like that. It was cool. I believe it was during this song that Noble started playing his guitar with his teeth.

So Carrion followed and that was brilliant. Please Stand Up and Carrion were the top top top songs of the night. It was incredible. And then began the Lately/Rock in A/Blue Man Train medley extravaganza closer...it was great, I waved my sprig and yelled to the indie guy next to me, "Wave your sprig, dude" so if you ever see a YouTube video of two idiots waving their sprigs during Lately at the Black Cat, that was me and indie guy. As things began to wind down, Yan hopped on Noble's shoulders and Noble staggered toward the crowd to dump Yan in. Well, I think that was the intent. What really happened is that Yan got dumped over, right over the indie guy and next to me, and then Noble tried to crowd surf while still dumping Yan. What ended up happening was fairly confusing (there were strobe lights going at the time), but Yan and Noble both ended up tumbling through the crowd, plowing the indie guy back about 5-7 feet, falling squarely on top of him and knocking a couple of other people down. Noble stumbled to his feet and I patted him on the back as he ran by and climbed on stage. So, then thing got really weird...Hamilton started making weird low sounds into the mike, Yan got back on stage and started banging on the drums and making weird noises into a mike by the drums and Noble laid down and ran his hand up and down the guitar strings. Then Hamilton started jumping around in circles in the middle of the stage until he got dizzy and fell on top of Noble. Then they all stood up and waved good bye and walked off.

It was a great show. There were a bunch of other funny/weird things that happened, but those are the highlights. I would see them again in an instant.

Setlist as promised:
Remember Me
Lights Out For Darker Skies
Please Stand Up
Lucifer
How Will I Ever Find My Way Home?
Atom
Spirit of St. Louis
A Wooden Horse
Fear of Drowning
Oh Larsen B
Down on the Ground
Pelican
Apologies to Insect Life
Carrion
Lately
Rock in A
Blue Men Train