Being the tour for their new album, Mechanical Bull, I would have thought they would play basically that entire album, plus, ya know, Sex on Fire, Use Somebody and maybe if I was lucky a few of the oldies from their 2003 and 2004 albums which are the songs that hooked me when I first stumbled on this band back in '06. BOY WAS I WRONG.. and all for the best!
I had a list of "top 5" songs in my head that I'd love to hear them play, and they played all but one of them and even included my 1' (yes, 1 prime) song that I never thought they'd play*, the song that started it all - but, wait I'll get to that..
They started out behind an opaque white curtain, where you could just see the shadows of four awesome dudes with instruments playing along to Charmer - the ridiculously catchy song from their 2007 album Because of the Times which involves a loud scream every few words - "WHOOOOOWWW!!!!". This was exciting enough.. then the curtain dropped. I loved the entire place going absolutely crazy when that happened.
There was video - gorgeous, crazy beautiful images like orchids furling and unfurling; nebulous, un-nameable shapes; water; milk*; colours and just incredible graphics. Most of the time the video was overlaid by live images of the band members playing - live! So a close-up of Caleb's face, or a sweet shot of Matt's fingers on lead guitar, or Nathan's hands flying along on the drums. Jeff and I had spotted the camera guys scaling ladders to hanging platforms in the rafters before the show got going, and went "are those cameras?". They were cameras. It gave the show even more depth than it already had. The music was enough. Add video, and gorgeous lights and lasers, and I seriously haven't had my senses dazzled like that in awhile - maybe not since some of our worldwide travels, or perhaps the last Tool concert we went to! :)
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| Lights, video, talent - augh! |
Next up: Rock City, clearly my favourite from the new album - way too fun (top 5, pick #1). Tons of great oldies like Molly's Chambers, The Bucket, Four Kicks.. more than I ever expected, honestly. Great choices from their new album - Temple, Tonight. Got through the few songs I'm not crazy about - Family Tree, Back Down South (come on boys, you're southern but not COUNTRY!). They played On Call (top 5, pick #2) which I only have a furry, fuzzy version of, so you can imagine how great it sounded LIVE!!! I've always kinda liked the song The Immortals from their Come Around Sundown (2010) album, but for some reason the video they played behind it and the passion in Caleb's voice as he sang it reduced me to tears - ladylike corner of eyes tears, no sobbing, just to be clear. This is still hilarious, I realize. What was it?! I'm still not sure! I haven't been able to recreate the moment, not surprisingly, in the car or on my dog walks. "Spill on the streets of stars... riiiiiiiiiiiiiide awayyyyyyy....." It will forever live on in Budweiser Gardens in London :)
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| I just kept yelling to Jeff "purple!" "rainbows!" - I'm easy to please |
*I'd been texting my buddy Dave as we were waiting for the concert to get going, and I asked if he thought they'd play Milk, my favourite KOL song and the song that almost made him never give the band a chance because it is SO WEIRD. Dave said "if they play Milk, most of the audience will have a "wtf" face on." I figured he was probably right. Then..wait... did I just hear the first chords of it?!!? I clutched my heart and Jeff's leg simultaneously. Jeff responded by clutching my leg back and laughing "what are you doing?!". This was the song Matt Rollwagen played for me all the way back in the spring of 2006, hanging out and drinking at Hanlon Rd. and we played it until we were all singing along: "she saw my combover, her hourglass body!" Tim and I messed up the lyrics from school tardy to schooltarded, as is our way. Kalo and I discussed in some depth different types of hourglass bodies. These memories are vividly carved into my consciousness for some reason, along with images of me obsessively playing the song over and over in my Waterloo apartment, and every month and year since as it's always on my "The Good Shit" playlist on my iPod (now iPhone). And after all that excitement, I wasn't imaging those chords - they played Milk (clearly top 5, #1')!!! My mind was blown. I taped the first couple of "salty leave"s just for Dave!
I have always adored the song Closer - my first clear memory of listening to it is driving somewhere in the middle of southwestern Ontario between St. Thomas and Stratford, hoping my GPS was going to get me to Jeff's house after a work event. The first line is "stranded in this spooooooky town", which was so apt. It's a gorgeous and ominous song, from the storm bubbling up in the sea to something coming closer, and closer. I have a very fond memory of enjoying this tune with my quiet and thoughtful coworker Gary from northwestern Ontario who doesn't say much, but who later posted on his facebook that a certain sequence of songs on my iPod, starting with Closer, had turned our 2 hour car ride along the Trans Canada into a thing of wonder. Closer is dedicated to Gary! Also, who knew that the crazy noise at the beginning of the song was Matt, the lead guitarist, "talking" to the guitar strings with his mouth on them!? Not this girl. That was freaking cool. Top 5, pick #3.Don't Matter is a great dirty rock song from the new album that was SUPER fun to rock out to! Loved it.
Cold Desert, the last song on the 2008 album has always been a favourite (top 5, pick #4) and I was not expecting it to snow indoors!! I just laid my head on Jeff's shoulder and watched the "snow" (which we figured was some sort of soap-like substance, that disintegrated upon touching.. very cool) fall from the ceiling. Their rendition of this already beautiful song was perfection.
I thought they were going to cut us off at Cold Desert - they had played 20 songs by that point. I felt well and truly spoiled. But there were 2 more!!! The single Use Somebody, followed by a closing song that I didn't recognize and hadn't heard before. I've figured out since that it was Trani and while it starts of kind of slow and boring, it picks up into a fantastic screaming mess by the end. I watched Caleb literally blowing out his voice singing it and felt moved deep down in my gut!! It was POWERFUL! I have clearly since downloaded the rest of the first album that contains this gem of a song so I won't be caught off guard next show!! :)
We called for an encore, and they've only given them at about 60% of the shows on this tour... we were lucky they came back out!! The encore was truthfully a bit of a denouement after the close with Trani, playing Crawl (blah), Black Thumbnail and Sex on Fire, the most overplayed song in the history of time. But you know, I'd take watching them play Sex on Fire live over doing just about anything else in life.
There WILL be a next time. This was a truly incredible experience. I lip synched all the way home from London - rocking out quietly while Jeff snoozed beside me. I fell asleep with Kings of Leon in my head and woke up humming them. Bailey and I danced and sang our whole morning walk, everything somehow seeming that much lighter and happier even after only 6 hours of sleep because of the great tuneage propelling me.
The top 5, pick #5 that they didn't play was Knocked Up, from 2007's Because of the Times. This one is extra special to both Jeff and I because after overhearing some of our friends wondering why in the world we were going to get a dog, being as busy as we already were, wondering if we could handle it (yup, I heard you guys! ;)) - we stubbornly kept looking at rescue dogs, and Jeff would sing to me when that song came on "I don't care what nobody says, we gonna have a puppy" (replacing baby with puppy). And we got our pup. :) Haha, and yes, it takes up a shit ton of time!!! Would have been great to hear Knocked Up in concert, but like I said, there WILL be a next time, and maybe we'll get lucky!
Caleb's voice is one of the most beautiful out there. Matt is an amazingly talented guitarist. In awe. I'm so happy to have seen it all in person. Totally. Worth it.
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