Made Up Dreams

This was a hell of a week for concerts, and I only went to 2 of them. Phoenix, as Clark (and others) have mentioned, was easily one of the best shows of the year. In my book right up there with Girl Talk and The Hold Steady. Wednesday was another highly anticipated concert (for me at least), Built to Spill.

Back in 2007 when Slowdown opened I noticed that the first "big" show was a little band called Built to Spill, who at the time, I had heard of but never listened to. Turns out I'd had their 1999 album Keep it Like a Secret on my computer but had never given it a proper listen. I fired it up and was blown away by it. Infinitely catchy songs that hint at the possibilities of extended guitar freak outs. This quickly became a favorite album of mine, and still is to this day. This alone was enough for me to purchase a ticket to the show. As I dove headfirst into their back-catalog I discovered that Secret was somewhat of an anomaly; everything else I heard was in fact extended guitar jams which was initially off-putting due to my lack of appreciation for "jam bands" (i.e. I don't smoke weed). The 1997 album Perfect from Now On is the perfect mixture of jams and pop hooks, and also became one of my favorites by them. The most recent CD at that time was an '06 disc called You in Reverse which I liked a few songs off of but seemed jammy in parts (I came around on this one too and quite enjoy it now). Needless to say I went to the show, it rocked, hard, and I left a happy man having recently discovered a band that I probably should have been listening to for years.

Fast forward to 2009 and they have another album, There is No Enemy, coming out on October 6th which is one of my most anticipated of the year so I was obviously delighted to find out the guys from BTS would once again be making a stop at Slowdown on their fall tour. This in part makes up for missing Pitchfork this summer as these chaps were one of the bands I most wanted to see. Andy and I arrived at Slowdown around 9:30 to see the last song of the Swiss openers Disco Doom, from what I heard they sounded more or less like a band you would expect to open for BTS: loud, lots of guitar, not a lot of singing.

Right about 10 the guys from BTS got on stage and started tooling around with their instruments, I wasn't paying full on attention and I honestly thought they were roadies tuning everything up. It wasn't until the tuning turned into a little song (improvised perhaps?) that I realized this was in fact the band I had paid money to see. Having seen them twice now I think it is safe to say they are one of the most modest bands I have ever seen, or maybe they're just shy. Frontman Doug Martsch said approximately 30 words to the audience the entire night and with the exception of 2 full on sentences consisted entirely of "thanks" and variations there of. But I expected this, this was not a surprise. What was surprising was the set list, and not in a great way.

Now I realize that they have a new album coming out in 2 weeks (emphasis on the not out yet and not available in advance at the show) and they were obviously going to play tracks from said album but I question the first half of the show being new songs. Coming from a fairly well versed fan I can recall only 1 song in the first half of the show that I recognized, from the sporadic (very sporadic) cheers I heard on a few of the other songs I concluded that they must have also peppered in a few deep cuts from the few albums they have that I'm not familiar with. Bottom line is all these new songs and unknown songs did nothing to get the crowd into the show. Now that's not to say they were ungrateful, very loud cheers and applause after each and every song, just no one moving or rocking out during them. I also don't want to say they are bad songs, cause I'm sure after a few listens I will dig the hell out of them, they just weren't good concert fodder.

They really shined once they got through those and onto the songs that people have actually heard, and the crowd reacted appropriately. The second half included some gems such as Carry the Zero, Else, and You Were Right from Secret and 1 or 2 from Perfect that I unfortunately can not remember. The crowd was really juiced after they finished Carry the Zero, the last song of the set and they came back for a 3 song encore that ended with and extended Goin' Against Your Mind off of Reverse. A great end to a somewhat mediocre beginning.

I must add my two cents about my theory as to why the odd set list among other things. A few albums ago BTS signed to Warner Bros. and it is my belief that the label essentially forced them to tour in support of their new album. This could explain the large group of new songs clustered at the beginning (to get them out of the way) and also the lackluster merch booth. Last time I recall a wide spread of all their CDs some vinyl and several different t-shirts, this time all we got was one t-shirt. No old stuff, no other designs, no new album. I don't know why but this just seems lazy to me, and perhaps something a band who was being forced by their label to tour might do. It is my opinion that the good lads of BTS would have chosen to start their tour a few days after the new album drops to give people a chance to digest it and prepare for the rock that was about to be served to them. I also have to say once again that I have absolutely no basis for any of these claims, pure conjecture on my part.

All in all it was a good show but didn't live up to the show from '07 (and the 15 minute encore of Randy Describes Eternity, whooo boy that was a doozy). Glad I went, glad I saw them, glad I bought a t-shirt. Just wish it would have been a few days after October 6th.


If I remember I'll try to pull up some videos/mp3s when I get home, can't do it at work.