When going to a concert at The Middle East, one can be sure of two things: great food and a packed crowd. While, it’s not necessarily hard for bands to pack a venue with a capacity rounding out at just under 600, that’s not to say that these bands didn’t earn each and every ticket sale. and last night was no exception. Packing the house last night was Canada’s Caribou and South Carolina’s Toro Y Moi.
To say that I was less than enthused about Toro Y Moi’s set would be an extreme understatement. I mean, they weren’t terrible. There were few, if any mistakes but then again, it’s pretty hard to screw up a show run out of a sequencer. In my honest opinion, there was a little too much falsetto Ooohs and Aaahhs. But that’s just me. As is the norm at shows, the crowd’s volume either meets or exceeds that of the opening act’s. As this was the case last night for sure, I was a little taken aback when we got asked by this chick if we could whisper instead of trying to talk over the band . . . because we were what was ailing Toro’s set. Go back to your dorm room and put on a Feist album if you want to listen to music in silence. It’ll save you the 18 bucks and your boy-toy won’t have to be seen with you in public. But I digress.
Toro finished their set and no one seemed to notice. It was finally time for Caribou. Let me just say, for a guy with a Ph.D in mathematics, the dude can put on a show. Rounded out by a guitar player, drummer and bass player/multi-instrumentalist, the Caribou train was set in motion. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the band. Having only recently gotten into the band’s latest album Swim, I wondered how they would put on a live show-much less-an energetic live show. The energy was anything but lacking. The crowd was into the songs almost as much as the band was. Through their spacey arrangements, instrumental breaks and trippy guitar lines, the energy Downstairs last night could have powered a small third world country for a month.
Similar to the opening act, Caribou’s on-record sound, to me, is very programmed and sequenced. The band’s live sound was a carbon copy, except they lacked a sequencer. With the exception of a few instrumental lines here and there, every note in just about every song was played live by one of the 4 dudes on stage-even down to the synthesized drums. Doing this could have ended in disaster for the band, but having clearly been well-rehearsed prior to this tour, the band had one of the tightest live acts I’ve seen in a long time. Another high point in the set for me was when they played their most recognizable song “Odessa” right in the middle of the set. Usually, when bands do this, interest is immediately lost and attention is averted elsewhere. Not last night. If anything, playing that song when they did got the crowd even more into what was happening. All in all, I’d easily pay money to see them again. Caribou has earned a spot in my permanent rotation for sure.
(Check out this post and others at The Record Crate)
