Clap Your Hands If This is Still Funny.
I’m nothing if I’m not selfish (well maybe inconsistant being that it’s tuesday and i promised you the pics for Monday but that is besides the point), after the Sufjan Steven’s show I attended a few weeks back I had an epiphany, well more of just a silly idea, I decided to call it the One Picture Project. During that show I was snapping photos left and right, too and fro, and once more again, I may have in all the photos taken came out with maybe 5 shots, which I shared with you, that were of any “decent” quality. Not only did I not get many salvageable shots, but it also put a hamper on the experience of the show itself for myself and those around me. So I decided from here on out I would begin the One Picture Project, which includes taking one photo, and only one photo of each band that performs, no matter what the quality, no matter if its just the picture of the persons head in front of me. I tried it for the first time at The National/Clap Your Hands Say Yeah Show Friday, and it was trying at best, the urge to click more photos was excruciating, thinking that each picture that I take would exceed the quality of the previous, but i did my best to stick to my new motto, and I am more than happy with the results.
First up was Nicole Atkins and The Sea, who I really didn’t know too much about, but all in all I thought she was great, her voice contained something that could only be matched to a Loretta Lynn or Emmylou Harris, the overall songs themselves need some work, think Rilo Kiley sort of goodness. I don’t really know why this picture looks so crazy, almost like I took it in an earthquake, but that is Nicole in the center there.
Next we had Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, who opend thier set with a Bob Dylan song, but it was virtually indistinguishable to myself, all I really could hear at that point was harmonica, and distortion, it was awesome. Once they got into the songs I was more familiar with from their self titled album, things really started to take off. This was the most dancing I have seen a crowd ever do at the Bowery, heck even in New York, most of the time they treat going to a concert like observing a heart bypass. I think this picture is kind of funny the way it seems to dictate the cover art of the album, with the orangey pink ghost like aura around the band.
Finally, out comes The National. I know what you’re thinking, that I’m going to go off and lecture people about how they should stay until the end, and see all the bands out of respect for the blah blah blah.. I’m not goin to do it though. Instead I’ll just say you missed quite an impassioned showing by The National, I always thought their cd’s sounded flat, never really getting a rise out of me, but that night they played everything with more of a forward lean than any of their albums. They also played “Mr. November” and rocked it hard. In this photo we have Chris Martin lead singer of … err wait, i mean we have ..Matt Berninger, who I was pretty impressed by, his voice sounds like oak, whatever that means.
And since I don’t think anyone will read this post with out an MP3 being posted here is one of the best songs ever written by a muppet, note the key change near the end, and the honest matter of factness of the vocal. I remember reading that Jim James of, yes, MMJ is often levitated by this song. Thats right levitated, or maybe it was elevated, I don’t know, never quote me.