Midway through the Beach House set at Liberty Hall last night we overheard two scenesters at the urinal engaging in a lengthy, knowledgeable conversation about the band's discography. But even they were having trouble figuring out which songs the band had played earlier in the set.
Very true, chatty pissing scenesters. It's because so many of those songs sound more or less the same in a live setting: soaring vocals (60% unintelligible from the upper balcony but still pretty); dreamy keyboards; twinkly lights (with the stage so dim there was no hope of us getting a decent pic with our shitty camera phone: head over to I Heart Local Music for "ocular proof" that the band was actually on stage).
Despite all this, however, a Beach House show is a kind of zone-out-and-soak-it-up concert, largely enjoyable despite the kinds of criticisms we just leveled. We ended up downstairs for the last half of the set and the young crowd (which Victoria Legrand described as "cuddly") was having a blast, even pumping a few fists along with the encore's closer, "Irene," and chanting along with its refrain of "It's a strange paradise." True enough, but still we wish it had been a little stranger than it was.
The opener, Wild Nothing, coasted through a low-key set that sounded like an old-fashioned 80's synth-pop party. They should have had some slides of old John Hughes films in the background. We found it "pleasant," though a prominent local musician standing nearby was a little less enthused: he threatened to kill himself if they played much longer. We're happy to report he survived the show.
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Readers, do you like watching librarians demonstrate their knowledge in a public forum? And do you like the fine Channel 6 entertainment of 1-on-1 Trivia? These two elements will merge tomorrow night at the LPL as the program tapes a match-up between LPL and KU librarians in the "Town vs Gown Trivia Showdown." Who's smartest? (Chip: "And who's sexiest?"). Show up at 6:30 and watch along with host Andy Morton as these librarians go at it, hard. Full details over here .
Look: it's Andy Morton! (via Channel 6 ).
In other LPL news, the City Fathers are proposing a new tax on downtown property owners to pay for a parking garage for the library, which leads us to our LJ-World editorial rant of the week against Commissioner Bob Schumm. The rant even manages to work in a nice potshot at Schumm's Buffalo Bob's:
"...Schumm said he thinks the new parking garage will be an attractive place [for] downtown employees to park, which will free up more spaces closer to Massachusetts Street. Plus, he said during the summer parking for the swimming pool often spills into spaces that really ought to be utilized by shoppers. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ What a goon. Employees will park where ever they want to. If Schumm wants to do something, why doesn't he wipe the grease off of his tables and chairs."
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