2001-10-18 - 1:25

Orchestral pop noir romantique

Tonight was the group affair for Sloan and The Dears, as Aaron, Loralei, and Colin joined me. Tonight's concert turned out to be an even more impressive show than last night's and the time around the concert was better spent.

I wasn't so rushed this evening, so we had time to all go out for supper before heading downtown. I guess that opening the doors an hour late must be a policy decision, because Barrymore's did it again. I thought that since all of the gear was already in place from yesterday, it would have been very easy to set up for the gig; but they were late again.

The advantage of actually having tickets ahead of time, unlike last night, is that we could skip waiting in line by pretending to browse the videos at the Blockbuster across the street.

Once we got inside the club, Colin joined me at the front in anticipation of The Dears. Tonight's concert was all ages, which is good and bad. The main negative is that the younger crowd seemed less musically open, and they didn't warm up to The Dears as much as I would have hoped.

On the other hand, that lack of response did let me stand out. When Natalia introduced "End of a Hollywood Bedtime Story" by saying "You might recognize this next song as the title track of our first album" and I cheered, she thanked "the one guy who is clapping." Heheheh. That was my highlight of the night. Oh, and Natalia is the sexy one, too (no offence to the lovely and talented Brigitte). Sigh.

Um, yes, anyway. The Dears. Once again, The Dears were very intense and they kicked ass on every song. I'd love to see them again as headliners, with the proper attention paid to their acoustics and time for a long set. In any capacity, though, I'd see them again in a heartbeat.

Then it was time for Sloan. You know, I may not have given them enough credit with my reaction to the first concert. Tonight's show felt twice as good and the main difference was the crowd. The greatest advantage of the all ages show, and it was a big factor, was the audience's energy level. Everone was a lot more mobile tonight and it really helped me enjoy the set a lot more. It was great to be able to dance around a bit and pogo and actually break a sweat.

The band itself did a slightly better job, mainly because they didn't face any equipment problems. They added a song to the set and still tore through their material more quickly, because the show rolled non-stop.

I'll write a better review of the two concerts soon (likely, tomorrow). Once again, though, I'm in a fantastic mood. I had an even better time at tonight's concert and it was cool to have some company to share it with.

J.