Awe Mom Your Just Jealous, It's the Dresden Dolls!!!
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Artist:
First show of the new year, and it was great. The show was at "The Vic":http://www.victheatre.com/ in Chicago, IL; so, it also meant another 5-6 hours or driving that night. I've never seen "The Dresden Dolls":http://www.dresdendolls.com/main1.htm live and wasn't sure what to expect. I was promised a crowd of interesting people, fun antics, and great music. Most of it was delivered.The night was more like a variety show than a traditional concert. It's mix of musical and theatrical acts provided for a very entertaining night. After several scheduled and unscheduled opening acts (reviewed in the comments), The Dresden Dolls took the stage. Amanda and Brian marched onto stage from opposite sides to the sounds of a military march. Both were masked and wearing military coats and caps. Brian was also wearing a pair of brown cut-offs with black lace stockings and a turquoise lion print shirt he'd stripped off by the end of the night. Under her jacket, Amanda was decked out in olive drab. She's dressed in a faded Black Sabbath tee, a can can style skirt, black knee high boots, and thigh highs with black garters and matching underwear. Hey, the skirt was open to the waist across the front; I wasn't peeking. After taking their places, they started playing a very familiar song. All I could tell at first was that the song was not theirs and seemed to fit with the march and outfits. It was only after Brian started singing, "So you thought you might like to go to the show" that I realized the song was Pink Floyd's In the Flesh. After the song, the masks flew off and they launched into Girl Anachronism. The crowd erupted in joy. What can I say? It was an energetic and entertaining show. I laughed as much as a I shouted and sang along. The crowd knew the words to almost every song and even out-sang Amanda at times. If there was one disappointing aspect to this show though, it was the crowd. Gabby, plaintive and rude come to mind. It was an all ages show and the talkative kids had turned out in droves. It also appears that all of Chicago hasn't adjusted to the smoking ban and there were constant complaints about it; even going as far as to state that without the smoke, you could smell how bad everyone else smelled. Whatever. I wasn't there for the crowd anyway. It wasn't too hard to ignore them either. I've rarely seen a band with such chemistry. It was great to see two people who love what they do so much and who get along so well. Even after focusing on separate projects for the past year, they played with and off of each other perfectly. Throughout the songs, Amanda and Brian were alternately snearing and making faces at each other. And when one did something funny, the laughter from the other was genuine. Going into the show, I thought Amanda would be the driving force of the show, but I was wrong. They definitely form a gestalt, and one without the other just cannot be as good as they are together.On this tour, The Dresden Dolls are showcasing some new material for a CD they are releasing later this year. Amanda referred to it as a B-sides compilation, but they are also writing new material for it. Whatever the case, they played about five new songs throughout the night. Most of the new songs were slower tempo, almost sad songs. A definite change from the usual upbeat songs of their two main releases. During a song called The Gardener (a song about the Grim Reaper), Amanda left the stage and wandred through the crowd. She passed close enough to me that I could make out the stencelling of her eyebrows. I somehow resisted rushing forward the few remaining feet to touch her. They also played a song from Amanda's Ben Folds produced solo album that will also be released later this year. All in all, some were good and some needed some work. The crowd received the songs well too; a fact commented on several times by both Brian and Amanda. Almost two hours later, they finished up their set and left the stage. I got the impression that they don't normally do encores, but they came back for a couple more songs. To end the night, Amanda took over drums, and Brian strapped back on an electric guitar he had played during a song called Night at the Roses. Brian quickly invited the crowd up on stage and launched into the opening notes of The Beastie Boy's Fight For Your Right. It only took about two seconds for the crowd to figure out what he'd said and to start pouring up on stage. People were jumping under the bars for the sectioned area behind me and running past me for the stage. I took one look at what was going to happen and decided to stay on the floor to watch the spectacle. Predictably, too many people piled on stage. The stage was so crowded Brian couldn't even play guitar and had to give up about halfway through the song. From the looks of it, girls were even standing on the drum riser. Eventually, they got things under control and restarted the song. The bigger mess was the crowd trying to get back down on the floor. Admitting that the song didn't really work out as they had planned, Brian and Amanda played one last song, took a bow and ended a great night of music and fun.I'm not really in danger of running out of black concert tees, but I wanted to stop by the merch table and pick up a copy of their first studio release. Surprisingly, they didn't have one. They did have one of the most beautiful tour posters I've ever seen. It was $45 dollars, and I was so tempted. I resisted though and bought a black concert tee instead. The shirt does feature a not-nearly-as-beautiful reproduction of the poster on the back though. With the new tee at my side, I headed back for Indy through mist and fog that was as thick as the proverbial pea soup. I was tired when I got home at 3:30 A.M., but I stayed up 'til 4 and couldn't fall asleep until 5; only to get up at 10 to start cleaning and fixing dinner before my family arrived at 3. After hearing about the trip, my brother asked if it was worth it. I said yes and meant it. In spite of the crowd, the weather and late hours, it was a fantastic show and one I would recommend for everyone to check out. The Merch-!http://images.zeroskilz.multiply.com/image/3/photos/9/500x500/2/IMG_0148.JPG?et=%2ClzYpAobQAnn62z8uqPe9g&nmid=76191248!They didn't play this song, but I like it a lot. The video is a play on David Lee Roth's Califorina Girls and features Kelly from Shoes!(Opening acts in comments)
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