BSP III

So, I finally have a phone that takes pictures and it just so happens that this is the one week that Christina has it. So, I still have no pictures of a British Sea Power concert even though I was front row for the third time.

So, BSP again at the Black Cat. You'd think I be getting bored of this but I was so giddy to get there that Andrew Miller and I created the line in front of the Black Cat at 7:00 (doors opened at 8:00). I don't think anyone else got in line until about 7:45. First people into the club, first people to the merch booth where I had a discussion with Noble (BSP guitarist) about which shirt to buy.

I went with the I'm a Big Fan of the Local Library which I plan on wearing to the White Oak Library next time we go. (I had to buy it. I'm an ex-librarian after all...)

I could have bought one of the shirts that Yan and Hamilton drew and designed, but I figured I would regret wearing one because it kinda looked like those wildlife shirts (you know, the ones with a giant picture of a bear or wolf) that you can buy at Little America or from other fine kitchy Americana peddlers.

Anywho, I set up in between lead vocalist and guitarist. I am obviously craving human communication with Christina and the kids out of town because I was talking to everyone: Noble at the merch shop, some other huge BSP fan (first person I have ever met who shares the passion, nice to know there are people out there), the lead singer of A Classic Education (he is Canadian-Italian, the rest of the band is straight-up Italian), and BSP's roadie (I promised not to dump any liquid on a special amplifier...of course the drunk girl next to me kept trying to do that very thing...she also kept beckoning for members of the band to come to her. I hate fans like that.)

Overall summary of the gig: Wild professsionalism. They sounded tight, like they should as the concert was near the end of their tour. Not as much insanity. No climbing, no crowd surfing, no other kind of stuff that they did last time. However, Yan did stare at the ceiling for a good bit during the Great Skua and then stumbled and knocked over an amp with his head (of which Pat Tiedemann, the toughest man in the crowd, later said "That was the only thing I didn't buy about the performance. Totally contrived." I say, contrived or not, knocking over the amp with your head is neat.) Also, Noble took his bass and mic stand into the crowd during the finale of All In It and had people singing with him and also let a couple people play his bass (he was on bass that song). Plus, the drummer of A Classic Education came out and held another mic stand over the crowd during All In It so we could sing along.

But, yes, they killed it on the music. Opener was Who's In Control, followed by We Are Sound, Atom, Stande Null and Luna. Then Hamilton took over and did Blackout, Baby, and Once More Now. Yan came back on vocals and did some order of Remember Me, Ended on an Oily Stage, Larsen B, and Living is so Easy. Then Hamilton did Mongk II and no Lucifer. Yan then came back with Spirit of St. Louis and Lights Out for Darker Skies. Encore was Waving Flags, The Great Skua, Carrion, and All in It. I hope I didn't miss anything, but I probably got some of the order wrong.

What really struck me this time was the sheer enormity of the sound. At some points you had Noble, Yan, and Phil all on guitar. Especially on Once More Now, we were, well, drowned in sound. The song that really got me going was Remember Me. The opening of that song live is absolutely unbeatable.

Sign of getting old: I hardly jumped at all. Probably just a couple of times. Of course, no one in DC jumps.

There were about three or four photographers at the gig, and I just found some of their flickr pages, so I'll link to them: http://www.flickr.com/photos/escphotography/with/5640970182/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/taracchini/sets/72157626419008493/with/5639278939/