Thursday, April 9, 2009

I will one day sleep with all of you - Mountain Goats AND John Vanderslice @ the Portage Theater - 1 April 2009

Sometime, I would like to see both John Darnielle and John Vanderslice play with big giant bands including strings and keys. Their recordings keep getting more orchestral,and I want to see that onstage. But, I knew this "Gone Primitive" tour was to be solo acoustic, so I was prepared for bare boned Johns.

That said, I was very pleased with both sets at the Portage. Initially, this show was supposed to the at Epiphany, one of the Empty Bottle myriad venues, but then it was moved to the Portage. My new favorite venue. You can buy popcorn and wine. And you get to sit down.

Both of them worked great with the crowd. I got the feeling most people were not there to see JV though, but the theater seating lended to them generally behaving. He was great though. Even "Trance Manual," which I've always been sort of lukewarm about, moved me.

But John Darnielle - he needs the energy of the crowd, and by the end of the set, he had everyone on their feet and in the aisles. He spazzed out and barked into the darkness, sure to play a lot of favorites, including closing with No Children, sending us all home happy. (After telling us good night and promising that he would one day sleep with all of us. Nerd alert.)

1 comment:

Curtis said...

Hey Norah,
(In response to my Be Kind Rewind review...)

You're right, you are not alone in liking BKR. I hate to give a film an F, but sometimes I have to shake things up and be brutally honest about the way I feel. This film did not move me at all. I found it hard to care about any of the characters and any thing that was happening. I thought it was silly and the performances were awful.

My expectations going into the film was that it would be good (average at worst). I didn't read any bad reviews until after I saw the film. I too was not alone in hating this film.

I hope that you don't discredit my taste in films now, these disagreements make our discussion of film interesting/intriguing.

Btw, I think the last F I handed out was in 2006 - Keeping up with the Steins (which I found slightly more enjoyable than BKR).

Cp