the oh so quiet show

Editors

I’m not a big fan of “Editors”:http://www.editorsofficial.com/ (I like them, just not intensely so), but since my friend Patricia invited me to see them and it’s not like I have anything else to do on a Thursday night besides eat and procrastinate (homework?…no), I joined her at Webster Hall last night. We got there rather late compared to when I go to more concerts (I’m paranoid about tonight’s Flaming Lips show; I NEED A GOOD VIEW, NEEEED…first time I saw them I started waiting at 4 PM or something, seriously), but there weren’t a crapload of people there at 8:30. I still ended up standing right behind a tall person though–I think that’s Murphy’s Law.

I heard their live show was good, so that was another reason to go. And…it was good. I mean, they played really well, the crowd loved it, and the band looked happy. But Patricia and I had the same thought about the lead singer, Tom: “forced spazziness”. Did anyone else get this idea? At first, I thought, “Oh, he likes to wave his hands around and stuff,” but it looked…forced. I didn’t mind the “running around the stage” bit and overall excitedness, but after a while all the spastic hand movements got distracting. Hohum.

It’s kinda weird for me to go to a concert where I’m not a huge fan (I don’t go to random concerts unless other people ask me to); I more likely to observe other people’s reactions than just pay attention to the concert. To my left was a group of guys who’d go jumping-crazy every now and then and in front of me were some girls who’d also go jumping-crazy while pumping their arms in the air. All around me fans sang along to the most popular songs. The stage had some nice lighting going on…all the better for me to take photos on my dinky Canon powershot while others whipped out their digital SLRs. Ahh. Someday, someday.

You’ll probably hate me for this, but I’m one of those docile concert-goers. I was more of the screamy time in high school, probably because 1) I was younger and 2) I hadn’t discovered the importance of earplugs yet. Most of the music I listen to is pretty docile anyway though, so it works out.

Near the end of the show, Tom whipped his beer at the audience. My first thought was that it was water…until I realized it smelled like beer. Ohhh. Hm. Well, I can’t say I got showered with it, so it wasn’t the worst thing in the world, but some of it got into Patricia’s eye. Yeeeah…that’s not fun. Afterwards she asked why we didn’t dodge the airborne liquid as we saw it splatter towards us; we had noo ideeaaaa. Maybe brains work more slowly when they’re bombarded with the stimuli of bright lights and loud music, which is fine and dandy, until someone overexcitedly throws stuff at you.

So…overall, Editors know how to put on a tight show. As usual, I was freaked out by the drumming. Is that weird? As in, I love drums. Like..”Hey you other guys…are playing guitar…but that dude in the back that I can hardly see is pounding out 16th notes like a machine and watching him makes my arms feel tired.” I’d write something better, but I’m not qualified to write any kind of in-depth review.

But tonight? FLAMING LIPS? BUUH? YES.

Read a bunch of other reviews:

* “Music Slut”:http://musicslut.blogspot.com/2006/03/editors-webster-hall.html
* “Chris’ Music Snobbery”:http://musicsnob.blogs.friendster.com/chris_music_snobbery/2006/03/editors_webster.html
* “Stereogum”:http://www.stereogum.com/archives/002447.html
* “Village Indian”:http://www.villageindian.com/village_indian/2006/03/editors_webster.html
* “The Modern Age”:http://www.themodernage.org/2006/03/30/the-editors-overtake-webster-hall/
* “Yeti Don’t Dance”:http://noyetidance.blogspot.com/2006/03/editors-massive-attack.html
* “The Underrated Blog”:http://theunderrated.blogspot.com/2006/03/editors-webster-hall.html