just saw New Pornographers for the first time. it was SWEET. no Neko, but a surprise Bejar* (including mini-Destroyer set) was awesome. songs played were
10 from Twin Cinema - Twin Cinema, Bones of An Idol, Use It, The Bleeding Heart Show, Jackie Dressed In Cobras*, Sing Me Spanish Techno, Three Or Four, Star Bodies, Streets Of Fire*, Stacked Crooked
3 from Electric Version - The Laws Have Changed, All For Swinging You Around, It's Only Divine Right
5 from Mass Romantic - Mass Romantic, Fake Headlines, Slow Decent Into Alcoholsim, Jackie*, Breakin' The Law*
plus a spot-on Cars cover of My Best Friends Girl sung by the drummer and a guest-Trumpeter on Stacked Crooked (which was probably the best thing they did live).
its funny that all bands seemed to have a 'bastard' album. was it coincidence or why did they draw more from their first album than the 2nd? many bands do this. its puzzling.
seeing them live though, i can sort of see why they're not a bigger band. i'm not sure if it was because they played so early (7:00) or what, but it seemed to take them a few songs to warm up. but when they were going they sounded great.
it's funny though when people talk about grunge as being a movement where the guys in the band looked like normal people. i dont think so. look at kurt cobain, it was grungeglam but it was still glam. he looked like the rock star of that era, and it was cool. new pornographers are not cool, they're just dudes (and chicks) that write great songs but they're kind of dorks. not neccesarily very attractive. kind of like wilco before they had all the YHF cred. and i sort of like that. in the past week i've seen a few bands (Sahara Hotnights, who really rock live and Dandy Warhols, who don't) who even though they're small bands they have the rock posturing down and the stage presence. during the new p's set they realized that at one point they had 40 minutes left but only 2 songs left on the setlist. it really seemed to bewilder them even though they have 3 albums to pull songs from as to what they would play next. it's probably only a matter of time before their stage presence catches up with their songwriting ambition. but for now it's nice to see a band as unpretentious as this play and have a good time.