Friday 28 November 2008

november 26, 2008




little joy, my new favorite group of people, played at the lounge on elm st. (4 blocks away from my house!) on wednesday night, with their friends the dead trees (and another band, the cocky americans). the concert was practically perfect in every way: despite my extreme lack of love for the american peeps (weird voice, their songs all sound the same [and the songs weren't good to begin with]), despite the trees' and little joy's lack of soundcheck time (therefore sound problems for the first part of their sets), and despite the insanely loud music between bands (therefore preventing anyone to talk), it was wonderful.

so. let's skip right to the dead trees' set, shall we? i hadn't seen these guys since over a year ago, when i saw them open for albert hammond jr. at the cambridge room*. that set, in june 2007, was amazing. i had no idea what they would be like now, since i admit i hadn't listened much to their new record or ep that had come out in that time. but i knew it would probably be good, knowing them. and boy, was it good! it was wonderful, although they didn't sound anything like how they sounded a year ago. i really really liked their set, and they were just as fun and happy and crazy as ever, even though my brother didn't think so (dunno why). afterwards, lead singer guy (i'm ashamed i don't know his name by now arrrg) even said he remembered us! haha. i don't see how since he was a lil out of it last time. anyway, i was greatly pleased with how they sounded, and they definitely got me excited to see little joy after that.

even though little joy only played about 12 songs (correct me if i'm wrong, i didn't get the setlist), the short set was absolutely amazing. they were happy, excited, ADORABLE, and at what seemed was their best. i don't know how they could have gotten any better. (a little side note: fab said "what's your name", talking to me, "lydia? what a pretty name". heehee why don't you just kill me, fabrizio! [no one ever says my name is pretty and for fab to say it? ahhhh]) the dead trees played with them as a backing band (matt romano was on drums, i was so so so so so excited! and i said hey to him like 183787 times hahah), which made the music so much more epic. nathan and i sang so loudly and were just in heaven. absolute heaven. binki/rodrigo/fab all had wonderful voices and even though i couldn't really hear binki (she couldn't either), she was charming, as they all were. here are some pictures of the set: (yes, i did steal them off of mac's flickr! sorry, mac, haha)















(we would have definitely gotten better pictures if sofĂ­a had been there, but alas, she was not)

after the set had ended, we waited (and waited and waited) to meet binki and fab and rodrigo, and finally, we got their attention (after many die-hard strokes fans wouldn't leave any of them alone). they are all incredibly nice and huggable and approachable. i felt completely at ease, and totally not like the adoring crazy fan-who-is-in-love-with-members-of-the-band that i am. all in all, they were talented, beautiful, nice, and fun, which made for an outstanding concert.

*now pontiac garage, what kinda name is that? i despise the hob people. they seem to think they're better than everyone else, just by having ugly art and weirdly named venues. though i'm grateful that the hob music hall is an alternative to nokia for bigger bands (i really really despise arenas and gigantic venues like nokia), and that the kills and bands like them can play the teeny tiny "pontiac garage".

2 comments:

Mac J said...

so before Albert Hammond Jr. where did Matt Romano come from? haha I've never really heard of him...

lydia said...

hahaha i'm not sure! i think he was pretty much just a buddy of the strokes. i think that in 2001, he filled in for fab when he broke his hand. i thiiink.