9/20/05 – Webster Hall – Kasabian, Mew and Onethousand Pictures

First off – let me just start by saying that each show I go to, gets better than the previous. I was sooooo convinced that nothing would live up to Starsailor. Boy, was I ever wrong. So, I arrived at Webster Hall later than I wanted to. 8:20 give or take, and One Thousand Pictures were on the stage. At this point, one of the guys in the band decides its joke time. Im thinking WTF. And he goes on to say how its his first time in NY, and he tells the crowd to sing along with him. He starts naturally singing ‘New York, NY’ from Frank Sinatra. Well dont ask me about this crowd, but no one did a thing. So he was getting irritated, and stopped his Sinatra renditions. OneThousand Pictures are from San Diego, CA and proud of it you can tell. I love my California boys, and they did not disappoint. Their music was catchy and they loved to talk it up with the crowd. I guess you could call them another one of those indie-pop bands, which would describe them. You could easily get into their music, as it was very attainable for the masses. I only caught about 15-20 mins. of their set, and was very disappointed (in myself obviously).

 Next up – Mew – I’d like to start by telling the people standing next to me, if you feel the need to sit all the time, at a sold-out show, go to the f’ing back of the room. And to complain about how much standing – c’mon, now! And enough of the high-school non-funniness of pushing yourself into me. I was not amused. And then acting like you didn’t know who did it. I did meet some interesting people who were placing bets on something (never figured that out) and the Asian girl next to me, who was so nice.

Anyway, I really didn’t know much about Mew. I tried to listen to their stuff on myspace at work, and it just wasnt grabbing me. The volume was low, so maybe that was the problem. Mew blew me away. A band from Denmark, the lead singer has a quality voice. He can hit such high notes, and his voice is never off-key, out of tune. Not that I am any Simon Cowell, far from it. But you know a great lead singer when you hear one. The music was great. Long, droning guitars, reminded me of a shoe-gaze band, mixed in with a bit of indie-pop. It was so easy to get lost in their music, and just feel it resonate in your body. I wouldn’t know a single song they sang, but I am definitely addicted! The band seemed friendly and so excited to be playing. Which is always such a great thing to see. I think they played just under an hour, but should have kept going.

Next up – KASABIAN!

Wow! Wow! I think I finally understand the hype of Kasabian, and they definitely gear their music to huge stadiums. You would have thought they were playing a huge set, which works with me. And listening to their first album- they clearly have a lot of anthem songs. So the set opens with “Shoot The Runner”, and the crowd is in love. Dancing up a storm. Tom is an incredible front man, all ready for the crowd to start rocking, telling everyone to get their hands in the air. Serge is an amazing guitarist. They feed well off of each other which made the night fly by. Some of the songs seemed to go on which was nice. Tom really plays it up for the crowd. Getting everyone to dance, sing along more often than not, and a light show that clearly works at stadium shows. It all worked incredibly well, I just wonder if next time I’m doomed to seeing them at a huge stadium. Tom came by after he finished, shaking people’s hands in the front row. And Tom clearly loves to dance. Most of the songs he was on the stage dancing his ass off, having a better time than the crowd. I wish I had taken more photos, but with the intensity of the show, it was near impossible to take so many, dancing around, and what not. At nearly just over an hour, and ending with Clubfoot (well I think), I wished they had kept going. There was no encore.

Either way, excellent show, and I can’t wait to see Kasabian again!