Saw Mogwai last night at Irving Plaza and they were quite good and quite loud. Some of the new album stuff in particular sounds really powerful and varied. They were much better than when I saw them last year at Warsaw when people talked through all the quiet parts, although Doug Mosurock assures me this is due to Warsaw's shitty sound system, which is doubtless true. Still, whoever thought I would be praising Irving's system? I guess it's OK if you stand back a bit. Some very loud moment which rocked me back on my heels. Mmm.

Some nitwit in the front kept waving this monkey puppet / doll on a stick, and at one point Stuart grabbed it and said, "Monkeys have tails, which is what differentiates them from apes. See, you learn new facts at a Mogwai concert. I'd like to see that at a Sigur Ros show." Everyone laughed. (Many people also laughed when, after the cheers for the beginning of "Xmas Steps" died down, I yelled "boo!") (No one really laughed when I yelled "You smell like pussy!" earlier though. I blame that outburst on my brain. No idea WHAT it was thinking.)

Japanther opened, and while they clearly hadn't played a hall that big before (they admitted as much) they amused me quite a bit and were nicely poppy in a kind of early Deerhoof way, and I'd like to see them in a small place. Very silly and noisy. They should get a full time drummer, though.

Afterwards, me and Kristie got McFlurries. Mmm. I think you're going to hear a lot more pretty, noisy, delay-ridden jamming from us at some point in the future. I forget about that sometimes when I get really focused on the pop songs, but we have produced some really excellent songs together in that vein. Of course, ideally I'd figure a way to mash those all together, but give us a while.

Incidentally, did you know there's a band called Moogwai? Weird.
posted by Mike B. at 12:36 PM 0 comments