Wolf Parade/Ogre You Asshole @ Wellmont Theater 11.03.10

"If anyone got their money's worth tonight, it was you two."

--Police officer who was witness apparent to our show-long madness.

After feeding our feverish excitement with caffeinated beverages at Eclectic Cafe, we walked down towards Wellmont in a bit of a panic think the line would be a healthy length by 6. When we reached the corner of the street where the venue was, we saw WP drummah and producer extraordinaire Arlen Thompson and Kool-Aid smiled it to the line. There was one person: a girl waiting for her friend who were both Wolf Parade live noobs. They were cute and nice and we assured them they were in for a treat.

Met up with two of my pals from college and sped into the venue to catch our prime spots between Dan and Spencer. The venue looked empty for a long time which made us fell like paranoid androids for acting like we were gonna have to fight for our places. Better safe than sorry, amirite?!

We were pretty excited for Ogre You Asshole. Snail had heard just one song and she already knew we were in for a good time. This adorable Japanese indie rock band with their fashionable sweaters and beautiful hair, as Dan so accurately described them, were so awesome. It was their first show outside of Japan and I'm sure they were grateful to see so many people responding to them. They had a Wolf Parade quality to them especially in their harder, more guitar driven songs. It was plain to see why the band chose them to open this tour and why a lot of people had fun during their set.

We fell in love with Kei Mabuchi, the guitarist with beautiful long hair and a navy anchor sweater. He was so beautiful I said I wanted to ask him if i could braid his hair while wearing his anchor sweater. We both swear we had eye-locking moments with him and no one can take that away from us. Singer Manabu Deto's cuteness was so that I wanted to squeeze his cheeks violently and ask rhetorically, "WHY ARE YOU SO FRICKIN ADORABLE!?!"

Ahem, back to the music.
They rocked our socks off. Snail asked the Manabu for his set list, at first he was confused --their English is not so good --but then he realized what she wanted and looked happy and appreciative :) He had another one and someone asked for it but he didn't give it to them :) We win.

Hyper hyper status was in full swing as we waited for the guys to come out and set up their stuff. Some fanboys asked Dan if they could have the set list after the show and of course he said he would give it to them (he never did) and from then our brains manifested an entire skit so funny we made my pal Christine cry of laughter. We are going to pitch it to SNL so they could hire us since the show has been so stale lately. Needless to say, we are ruthless. Then it was time to turn the crazy up to 11.

While almost all of the crowd stood about not moving much (again, for reasons we cannot fathom) we kicked it hard and sexy to "Ghost Pressure," "What Did My Lover Say? (It Always Had to Go This Way)," "Dear Sons and Daughters of Hungry Ghosts" and "Kissing the Beehive" as per usual. I even awed a white guy next to me during that last one with my native sassy hip movements haha. As Snail exorcised her demons, I got goosebumps and a bit sad during "I'll Believe in Anything" and "Little Golden Age" played back-to-back to torture our sensi souls, specifically...or so I tell myself. Snail got looked at by Spencer and fell into stare fail 2.0, where it is now scientifically proven that it is impossible for her to look him in the eye. It's alright though because Dan smiled at her and no one can take that away from her.

They played a new new song "Semi-Precious Stone" which I was iffy about when I got it the day before on iTunes but live I warmed up to it damn quick. Overall we felt the set was filled with too many songs we would rather not listen to live, more notably "Language City" "The Grey Estates" and "This Hearts on Fire". Hello? Where the hell is "In Direction of the Moon?" that song kicks both those songs' asses, I thought. But then, the moment that would make sacrificing that song to the setlist gods happened to conclude the all-too-short two-song encore: They played the song that defines/personifies/is the be all and end all of our friendship, "Fancy Claps." Spencer said they hadn't played the song in over a year but since so many people asked for it they were going to give it go. We hadn't seen it live since their August 2007 show at Warsaw. Earlier Snail tweeted about it and we got it! AMAZING! We danced so hard I think we scared everyone around us. If they didn't know how serious we were about this band initially, they fucking knew it after experiencing us during "Fancy Claps."

In our state of glory and euphoria amped up by the police officer and his quote above we exited the floor with a "fuck yea" strut...in our brains. Before heading outside we stopped by Ogre You Asshole's side of the merch table to buy their CD (which they were wowed I wanted two copies for us, so adorable) and their orange bear shirt. Standing right next to gorgeous long-haired anchor sweatered awesome, we died. We wanted to talk to them but fear of things being lost in translation stopped us (where is Karen when you need her? haha) I think they got the picture that we loved them due to our purchases so that was okay.

With our skeletons broke, ears blown out and smiles on our faces, we went into the night full of BFF love and band crushes and all fine things being fangirlin' buddies is made of to drop dead from tiredness in our beds and wake up like we got hit by trucks, the sweetest most well earned pain we could endure.

C&S note: If you made it this far without getting annoyed at our random acts of fangirlism, we congratulate you. We are unapologetic but  extremely aware of our potential obnoxiousness. The thing is, these fangirlisms are kept between us and this blog in joke form. We have too much of a sense of boundaries and immense respect for the artists we love and are too afraid of being idiots and treating these talented people like anything besides human beings. That said, we hope those new to our mental state can laugh with us (or at us) as we chronicle our overwhelming love for everything! 

See more pics of this show here and here.
Listen to Ogre You Asshole here.
Read about our Wolf Parade freakout this summer here.

Epic Moments: Accidental Stare Contest With Spencer Krug

Spencer Krug by Davoud D

When we went to see our first Wolf Parade show at Warsaw in Brooklyn on a beautiful-but-humid summer day back in 2007, our fangirling over this band was recent and we were incredibly psyched to see them live just months after discovering them. In true Cheep and Snail fashion we got to the venue way too early, early enough to see Spencer sitting at the bar being interviewed by 'some chick.' At Warsaw there's a little lobby/restaurant at the entrance with tables and chairs, and that is where Cheep and myself were hanging, ogling at the interview, 'he looks uncomfortable,' 'he doesn't like doing these things' blah, blah, blah we went on.

After the interview was over, he sat there enjoying a drink by himself, but of course our eyes must have been piercing his neck with our lazer-cat vision because he turned around and stared at ME in the eyes. In a matter of seconds I fell back on my chair, really really hard... if the chair hadn't been there I would have probably injured myself against the wall that held me when falling with my mouth in a gasp. Cheep took control and while still standing stared back at him and he looked away.

"Well you lost that stare contest," Cheep said as I hyperventilated out of his sight. We then proceeded to have a laugh attack like 16-year-olds.

Our unrecognizable little heads are going wild in the front row in this video for "I'll Believe In Anything". Our fangirldom for Wolf Parade still raging on 'til this day and we'll be catching them again this November at The Wellmont Theather. Woo!

Special note: We'd like to thank Mr. Davoud D. who let us use this photo for our anecdote. It would not have been the same without it! You can see this one and more of his awesome photography on his Flickr page.

Wolf Parade/Mools/Zola Jesus @ Terminal 5 7.13.10 + Album Review

This is probably the first show in a long time that I wasn't annoyed for 98% of it. The opening acts Zola Jesus and Mools were the best. Zola Jesus is a big, haunting voice in a little package that gave me goosebumps. Mools is a Japanese rock band that continues the tradition of great, riff based 90's alternative music. Their singer had this crazy big hair and the most random and fascinating on-stage persona. Could not stop smiling or looking at him.

When Wolf Parade came on, the geeking out began without stopping until the last note was played. Dancing, jumping, headbanging, singing every word, playing air guitar and air drums all to the possible dismay of the surrounding concertgoers who just stood there for whatever reasons I cannot fathom. We were touched when Dan intro'd "Little Golden Age" by saying "This is a song about nostalgia and the dangers of nostalgia" and how its best to live in the now. Snail and I were talking about that in between bands and forever and a day and it really amazed us that (yet again) someone we admire so much is THERE. At the end, we left that moment soaked in sweat and stank to go home to a world where this is all considered past tense.

Wolf Parade is one of those bands that is consistently delivering. My process with them usually has me loving specific tracks right off the bat then I grow to love the rest yet there's always a track or two I only like and listen to the least. Their recent one, Expo 86, continues this trend. I was instantly hooked on "What Did My Lover Say? (It Always Had To Go This Way),""Ghost Pressure," and "In Direction of the Moon" and they are still my absolute favorites. "Cave-O-Sapien" and "Little Golden Age" grew on me quite fast. Songs like "Oh You, Old Thing," "Two Men in New Tuxedos," "Pobody's Nerfect" have parts within them that love more than others but I like them a lot. "Cloud Shadow on the Mountain" "Palm Road" and "Yulia" are the ones I'm more quick to skip if I'm listening to the album with iPod in hand. Otherwise, I like them, too.

Each album has a particular feel as well and this one boasts guitar and drum prowess. This is the album Dan Boeckner and Arlen Thompson shine more than they ever have in my ears. As Snail assessed, Dan's songs have always been the most straight-forward and instantly catchy while Spencer Krug's more cerebral and take more time to get used to.

This album as an 80's inspired composition has made me think comparing Dan and Spencer to two of the decades most important singer songwriters, Bruce Springteen and Morrissey, respectively. Dan's effortless cool and songs about living as a small town outcast who has a love/hate relationship with his hometown and the modern world that threatens to obliterate the purity and realness he associates with it is undeniably Springsteen while Spencer's literary background, complex yet heart-wrenching and oft times absurd narrative and reclusive nature is so Morrissey. I love that these two geniuses come together to make a perfect balance. Everyone else in the band also has their role we can stuff them into: Arlen is the drumming and production wizard while Dante DeCaro is the multi-instrumental accent that ties the band together.

They are the best band of the millennium our book.

Especially since their existence has taken Snail and I's friendship to celestial levels as the only other band besides Radiohead that has sent us up for a twirl and made us realize how blessed we are to be alive and be friends and be able to share this beyond-the-realm-of-reality love of music, writing, art, etc. and the artists who make it. We turn into total saps about experiencing such things together that we bring each other to tears and (now we're not ashamed to say) that's okay.