MOG

I was lucky enough to get a heads up about this show from a friend. I think I would have heard about it independently, and I was aware of British Sea Power, but I may have blown it off if he hadn't insisted that I need to go. What would we do without friends who look out for our best interests?

So, the show. We arrived at the Vaudeville Mews for the opening band, Colour Music. Four guys in completely white jumpsuits, save for a piechart logo, took places behind completely white instruments and proceeded to freak out with a nice sound. Fun opener.

British Sea Power took the stage with a guitarist slash lead vocalist, a bassist slash backing vocalist, a lead guitarist who may have added backing vocals, a drummer, a trumpet player slash keyboardist, and a violinist. The band proceeded to make the most of their sound layering in the small venue. The vocal wasn't high enough in the mix, but I pretended they decided to shoegaze for the night.

All of a sudden, after a few songs, the lads in the middle--the lead guitarist slash vocalist and the bassist slash backing vocalist--switched places and instruments. I found out later they are brothers (I actually guessed fairly early, they look quite alike), but smaller brother moved into the vocalist role and taller brother moved into the backing vocals role. What surprised me most was they swapped instruments. Guitarists don't generally swap for the bass. Lead vocalists don't generally swap for backing vocals. I don't like generalizations as a policy, but I've never seen a double switch. It was refreshing. Both of them must have egos to be touring a foreign country trying to be rock stars, but apparently neither ego is too large to share the spotlight with bro. It was refreshing.

The music was good, not ground breaking, but the crowd had fun, and I bought the album the next day. What more can you say? I'm not great at describing musical genres, but it had some pop, some dance, some atmospherics, and some edge. I suppose British Sea Power is of the post-Franz Ferdinand movement of new wave sounding bands, and I like it.

The antics at the end of the show sold me on the band's entertainability. (Yes, I make up words.) First, a few songs before the band left, the lead guitarist wandered into the crowd for a guitar solo. It was exciting, but a standard crowd-pleasing antic. After the band left for the encore break, the guitarist spent most of the first song on the shoulders of one of Colour Music's members. He then moved to the top of the speaker cabinets, which visibly wobbled from his presence. Some time during lead guitarist man's wanderings, the band started a second song. It was almost tribal sounding and the crowd was bouncing. Wandering guitarist guy gave up his guitar to the sound guy (or maybe to a random person) and proceeded to climb the balcony. Then he hung over and dropped fifteen feet. Those young legs must have been bouncy because he hopped up onto the stage and beckoned the crowd to join him. So we did. And we danced on the stage, we helped with the keys, we helped sing, and Colour Music's drummer helped with drums. It was plain fun.

After the show, I had a chance to meet the band over a drink. I only talked with the smaller brother for a moment, and he was gracious, but a bit disappointed that more of us didn't stay around to hang out. He described our stage invasion as the most courteous he had encountered, noting that dancers avoided the pedals and didn't squash the trumpet. Nice folks, we midwesterners.

Great show.