The Upstate Life

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

TUL's Take: Clap Your Hands Say Meh* @ Black Cat

Last night was a show I've been heavily anticipating since we entered the fall concert season, but I guess for every Katrina, there's bound to be an Ophelia. You see, I, like nearly everyone else thus far, wasn't exactly blown away by these guys, but it wasn't necessarily a bad show by any means. The group unassumingly took the stage around 10:30 and kicked things off in front of the sold-out crowd to not one, but two new songs. Since Clap Your Hands Say Yeah only has one LP under their Brooklyn belt, it was a given they would provide some additional material to those in attendance at the Black Cat, but I don't think it was the smartest of moves to play songs that 99.9% of the people there have never heard of before when making your DC debut. Things really didn't get rolling until they delivered the one-two punch of "Is This Love" and "The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth." Right after they performed the latter, just as The DCiever pointed out, things took a turn down south. The band took an extended pause between songs, finagling with their equipment without really acknowledging the anxious crowd waiting to hear their next number. When they finally started "Details of the War", all was well once again, until of course they took a few more of these prolonged breaks throughout the rest of the evening.

I'm not knocking these guys whatsoever, I thought they sounded great (while not taking ridiculous amounts of time tuning guitars and adjusting harmonica headpieces) and really got me going during some of their songs, "Heavy Metal" especially. They did, however, immensely lack any sort of stage presence. Granted this was their first nationwide tour, but there were definitely some moments where the band wasn't fully cognizant of the fact they were a playing a sold-out venue despite their hyped up image. Overall, the show was good, but not great. Setlist via DCist:

Graceful Retreat
Me And You Watson
Is This Love?
The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth
Details of the War
Over and Over Again (Lost and Found)
Cigarettes
In This Home Of Ice
Gimme Some Salt
Satan Said Dance
Let The Cool Goddess Rust Away
--
Heavy Metal
Upon This Tidal Wave of Young Blood

On a sadder note, be sure to pour one out for Tale of Two Cities as they'll be closing up shop this Friday after providing us nearly two years of humorous commentary on topics ranging from Uggs, the hilarious escapades of Laidie Magenta and ½ Nelson, and of course those wacky hipsters at the Cobrasnake that we love to shake our bewildered heads at. Believe it or not, but Tale of Two Cities was, in some ways, the inspiration for The Upstate Life when back in the day a younger TUL was trying to keep himself sane living at home after graduating from college waiting tables while trying to find a job that would eventually later pay his high-rent bills in Bethesda. But fret not Blue States Lose fans, the legacy will live on when it starts a new beginning over at Gawker. The real question is whether or not we'll still carry the moniker of "ToTC's DC farm team." The answer, my friends, is probably yes.

* - Royalties owed to ILB to be paid by The Upstate Life at the end of FY05

Posted by Brett at 2:40 PM |