Friday, September 25, 2009

Hipster Pick of the Weekend: A Kickball Documentary! / Also: Recent Concert Reviews

In a clever bit of counter-programming, the Spencer Art Museum will screen a Chicago-set kickball documentary called Left Field at 2:00 on Saturday while a real, live, actual sport is happening at nearby Memorial Stadium (KU vs. Southern Miss). Our intrepid local film critics at Scene-Stealers offer this description of the film's thesis:

By glimpsing the life stories of a select number of kickballers, [director] Steger posits that there might be more to their tight-knit community than merely suspended adolescence. Are they philosophical journeymen (and women) searching for more out of adulthood than the constricting template of getting married and raising a family? Or are they simply putting off the cold, hard slap in the face that comes with middle age?

Richard: "Yes, when I see the drunken guy in a Pooh Bear costume at Hobbs Field, I say to myself every time, 'That guy's a 'philosophical journeyman.'"


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The boys didn't make it to the recent set by Thee Oh Sees at the Jackpot, but one of the Pitch's Wayward Blog reviewers offers this nice assessment:

Thee Oh Sees set is best described if I just transcribe my notes, scribbled in the dark while rocking my head and tapping my foot. It reads, in barely legible handwriting: 'Thee Oh Sees are a fucking party band. The set-up is on the floor like a basement show & it works. Krautrock influence like whoa.' It's been a long time since I've seen a crowd at the Jackpot so riled up, and who would have thought all any band had to do was set up in front of the stage? People were losing their shit...There's an added quality when you have a chance to look at something up close, a relationship with the band you don't get when they're standing on a stage three feet above you."

Richard: "Any time a hipster band does anything slightly apart from the 'norm,' such as playing a toy instrument, the crowd is convinced they are witnessing history in the making. Setting up on the floor? All one has to do is walk across the street to the Replay to see a band at eye-level any night of the week."

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