oh man where do i begin...at the beginning?we (being me and my friend vanessa) arrived at about 9, missing the opening act (jeff johnson...i think). rewind...first of all, we went to sonic boom for cloud cult's in-store acoustic performance. they were half an hour late because they were doing sound check at neumos. while we waited, we spent our time looking at album art for a bunch of obscure bands. there is definitely some weird stuff out there. did you know there is a band called "the the"? i guess it was inevitable. they played about five songs - they being craig and a violin player (i think her name is shannon). it sounded so good for being so minimal, compared to their full band sound. it struck me as funny that craig's mannerisms when playing were very similar to john mayer - imagine the shoulder and facial contortions. it was fun to watch. he was really nice and signed my cd case afterwards.back to neumos. first up was the winter blanket. i felt like they really lacked energy. not that they didn't get into it at all, but at one point it seemed like even they were bored. the lone girl didn't show much range in her voice. sum it up to say it was pretty decent indie rock, but nothing blew me away. there wasn't much intensity or dynamic to their music.the night canopy was up next. it wasn't very memorable...i can't remember exactly what they sounded like. there were two lead females...i don't know. for some reason, i really am not into female vocalists. they had a pretty solid sound. the coolest instrument they played was this toy keyboard they played through a blow-tube...i really have no idea what is was, but it was pretty cool.now to the good part...the set up...two blank canvasses with a projection screen between. no strong lighting was used because of the projected images behind them. a recording of the track "2x2x2" (although i was sad they didnt actually perform it) opened the show as the band entered the stage...fog machine and all that. unfortunately, the smoke from it really gets to me so my throat was burning the whole show. by this time, the room was packed! i had been leaning against the wall, but eventually i was pretty much permanently pressed against it. anyway, cloud cult sure knows how to put on a show. the live painting aspect was really cool...craig's wife connie was on one side while another guy (craig's self-described "twin sister") painted on the other. connie's live painting!behind them, they projected computer-generated images...one of the most interesting was a series of company logos (including nbc, mcdonalds, disney) with a succession of religious symbols between. most of the images, though, weren't really original or 'artsy'...almost generic windows screen savers as vanessa described it. but all together, it was an intense spectacle. i enjoyed watching these incredible paintings unfolding...wow. they played a lot off 'the meaning of 8' - chain reaction, please remain calm, chemicals collide, pretty voice, brain gateway, deaf girl's song to name a few (or most). off happy hippo they played the intro, living on the outisde of your skin, and happy hippo (transistor radio at the in-store!). most of their songs translated really well...it wasn't always exactly as recorded, but they didn't lose any of their intricacy. living on the outside of your skin especially has a lot of layering on the album, but the live performance was very well done. this is getting long so i'll try to wrap up...connie took pictures of the packed house with her digital camera...i thought that was cute.the encore was well-received - that man jumped out the window and take your medicine ended the show to chants of "second set!" from people in the crowd. the only disappointment was that he didn't play "your 8th birthday", but i can see how that would be a hard one to perform. overall, it was highly enjoyable, danceable at times, mesmerizing at times...always good and more than i expected. see them live if you have a chance!i couldn't get any really good pictures...i'll end with a really good song.