TV on the Radio at the House of Blues, New Orleans.
Headed over Friday night after work with the GF. Some road work caused a traffic jam, but we still arrived in plenty of time to sit on the stairs in the bar and wait for the opener, a weird band called Little Dragon. After the first couple of songs I decided they were kind of like Bjork, but boring, but little did I realize their show had a definite arc. While it started in a more traditional pop (kind of, it was weird) fashion, it devolved into a whole lot of noise and chaos over several songs. It was a fun little journey the band took me on, but not interesting enough for me to buy the CD.
Then, the main act! Hugely enthusiastic crowd, sold out show. The House of Blues in New Orleans is basically a bar. Its tiny and it sucks, but they book the bands. "Dirtywhirl" opener, which was sick. I don't know the names of all the songs, but they did "Crying" and "Halfway Home", and early in the show busted out with "Wolf Like Me", and the crowd reaction was like hearing Metallica bust into "Last Caress". Crazy energy! I'm saying nice things about the crowd's energy, but unfortunately I think a lot of these arty kids and preps were too cool to dance. Instead they just watched and cheered. This didn't go unnoticed by someone in the band (don't know any of their names), who chided the crowd after a few songs, "hey, if you maybe get the urge to, you know, move back and forth a bit, AKA 'dance', feel free". They also did "Family Tree", which I was really hoping for.
All the playing was surprisingly tight, I was happy to see them care as much about their live output as the obviously do in their studio work. The songs are all different versions then what you hear on the record, which is fun. If I just wanted to hear the record I can stay at home. I love it when a band entertains me. This was the kind of live performance that really sold me on a band. I just felt great the whole time dancing my ass off and digging on everything the band was bringing.
Big encore with the big songs, "A Method" and "Staring at the Sun". Short show, under 90 minutes with encore, but I was glad for it, it'd been a full day at work and a two hour drive to New Orleans with another two hour drive home. We got home about 2:30 and crashed at 3:00.