Faint/Bright Eyes Show Report

It seems that the reviews of the current Bright Eyes/The Faint tour have been pretty accurate. Bright Eyes should not follow The Faint. The Faint is just too upbeat and wild to have such a mellow act follow them...even Bright Eyes. As I stated in a posting yesterday, my friend that I was going to the show with had to cancel at the last minute. In all honesty, that worked out better. Once I got to the Mid America Center and got to will call, I realized that although I had two tickets, I only had one laminate. So, my friend would have been spending a lot of time by herself, or I wouldn't have been able to enjoy my "all access" status. And I did enjoy that all access status!

When I got my tickets and came inside I bumped into Matt McGinn who is the bassist for Cursive. He is always really nice, and it was cool to see him. (**I learned some information on Cursive which I will get to later**) My laminate meant that I could go on the floor, in the seats, to the luxury boxes, or backstage. I decided to take a look around the arena since I had never been there before. It's a pretty new place, and it is nice for an arena. While wondering around on the floor, I bumped into one of the promoters who took me backstage to the production office. After downing a few of The Faint's beers (sorry guys), I went and checked out a little bit of opener Mars Black's set. He was decent, but I wasn't much in the mood for hip hop at that moment. I decided to wait backstage until The Faint was ready to go on.

I should point out that I have probably seen The Faint about 50 times since they started playing back in '98. I never ever thought I'd see the day when these guys were playing in an arena (point of fact, they did a tour as openers for No Doubt in 2002 that had them in arenas, but I didn't see that tour). The Faint rocked. Hard. They are very suited to an arena show. They had great visuals, the band was energetic on stage and moved a lot, and they were able to keep the crowd on their feet for the entire 70 minute set. The songs mostly came from the band's most recent record, Wet From Birth, but they did play some oldies from Danse Macabre and Blank Wave Arcade. I'm sure they will NEVER play anything from their first record, Media. Their set was very well received and the crowd was really loud. Just before their last song, I headed backstage to steal a beer before they got there.

I will say this for The Faint. They have some hot groupies. There were so many hotties in their dressing room that I thought I was at a Motley Crue show (the girls weren't quite that sleazy though). I congratulated the band and left the dressing room. I wanted to let them celebrate with their friends and family. I headed back to the production office to wait until Bright Eyes took the stage.

Though I am a bigger fan of Bright Eyes than I am of The Faint, I have to admit that Bright Eyes was nowhere near as good last night. Part of the problem is that The Faint is so upbeat, and Bright Eyes so downbeat that the contrast is too severe. Bright Eyes was very good, but should be pared with different bands for a smoother show. Most of the set consisted of songs from the excellent Digital Ash in a Digital Urn CD. The "band" on this tour featured two members of The Faint, the guitarist from Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the cellist from Cursive, and some other folks I didn't recognize. They sounded great, and received a decent response from the crowd, but not the thunderous applause received by the previous band.

I started to get a little bored of the show and headed out into the crowd to see if I could find any friends that I hadn't seen yet. Well, I didn't see any friends, but I did see the girl that I would most like to make "friends" with. I have no idea what her name is, but I see her at all the shows. She is usually accompanied by her boyfriend who is probably about 20 years older than her. The woman is one of the most attractive girls I have ever seen, and she has great taste in music. (not the actual girl but a reasonable facsimile) When I saw who she was going out with I assumed she was just some gold digger dating an old guy for his money. I then found out that the guy is not rich at all (and he ain't that good looking so she must like him for his "personality" -- which could work to my advantage if they break up). The guy was not at the show, and she was with two friends. Neither was as sexy as her. I caught up to her out in the lobby and she was alone making a call on her cell phone. If I had been more on top of things I might have at least tried to introduce myself and made a "move." I know she has a boyfriend, but she is not married, so there is always a chance. Well, I pussed out and just went backstage.

I came back out to hear Bright Eyes do my favorite song of theirs, "Lover I Don't Have To Love," before deciding to head home. Before I did, I bumped into a friend I hadn't seen in a while and he was speaking with a guy named Rob who tour manages for Cursive. **He told me that the band has decided to record another album (they have been on an indefinite hiatus since last year) and do one more tour! This is good news for Cursive fans, and I think an exclusive for Dark Stuff!!**

The show took a lot out of me so I am going to blow off seeing Rilo Kiley tonight at Sokol Auditorium. In case you are wondering, the tickets are still available here. I have seen Rilo Kiley before and was not impressed. Opening the show is the excellent Neva Dinova, and Tilly and the Wall (not so excellent). If you're going, have a good time. I won't be seeing you there!