Another Post About A Different Band
Jul. 28th, 2013 08:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
omorkaSo Adam Ant played at Warehouse Live last night. I'm not a huge fan, but I always liked his hits, and the Spouse was interested in seeing the show (and is more familiar with the back catalog), so we went.
Getting there was interesting; I think this is the first time we've tried to go to Warehouse Live when there's been a soccer game at the stadium, and not only was parking difficult, so was just driving around. At one point, we passed what used to be the Meridian, and its parking lot was full of food trucks. We ended up parking about three blocks away, but paying far more than we'd intended.
The opening band was a group called Prima Donna that I knew nothing about. They were a five-piece, with a drummer, a bassist who sang backup vocals on a couple of songs, a guitarist, a keyboard player who also played saxophone on the first song and did some backup vocals, and a lead singer who also played second/rhythm guitar on most of the songs. The first thing the singer said was a compliment on the local beer. They played what I described as a combination of roots rock and hair metal; I couldn't understand any of the lyrics, but they were more than competent and had the right vibe for the crowd.
Adam Ant's current backing band is a bassist, a guitarist, and two drummers, each with a full kit. Everyone in the band was tight and had great timing, but the drummers were especially impressive; at one point they did a nearly-two-minute-long accelerando in perfect synch without looking at each other. They also had very different styles - the male drummer was of the "I'm gonna beat the crap outta these drums" persuasion, while the female drummer was more of a "These drums will never know what hit them" type. It made for good stage presentation. I do wish they'd had a keyboardist with them, if only to fill in the horn parts on some of the songs - "Goody Two Shoes" sounds strange without it.
Adam himself started out looking stiff, as if his back were hurting him, and a little disconnected. However, somewhere halfway through the second song of the evening, he started flirting with the whole first row at once, and he took a moment to stretch during the intro to the next song, and after that everything was fine. His voice seemed to be just as good as it ever was, and while there wasn't a lot of stage banter, what there was was fun. I never quite shook the feeling that he needed an aspirin, but
I'm not a huge fan of Warehouse Live as a venue, because every time I go there some dudebro spills beer on me and half the time I get shoved or groped or both; the only time none of that has happened was during the Polyphonic Spree show, and that's largely because Tim DeLaughter is the best dang High Priest I've ever seen work - that show was church/ritual and the audience treated it as such. Also, the sound system isn't great and their in-house sound guy tends to mix very flat, which on that system tends to mean muddy. This was better than average for the venue, and I hate to say it, but I suspect it was because this is the first time I've seen the crowd there at gender parity - most of the shows we've seen have been sausagefests (the worst offender was the Devo show there, which I'd guess at about 75% male or more). The worst I had to deal with was three drunk dudebros who were clearly fans, and having a great time - but one of them felt like he had to explain what a great time he was having to his friends, rather than actually experiencing the show, and the friend he usually had to explain it to was built like a brick workshed, so they kept forming a wall that completely blocked my view. The shed also managed to spill beer on me, but not much.
Overall, good show, with some minor frustrations. Mostly nostalgia value for me, but obviously there were some far more passionate fans in the crowd.
Getting there was interesting; I think this is the first time we've tried to go to Warehouse Live when there's been a soccer game at the stadium, and not only was parking difficult, so was just driving around. At one point, we passed what used to be the Meridian, and its parking lot was full of food trucks. We ended up parking about three blocks away, but paying far more than we'd intended.
The opening band was a group called Prima Donna that I knew nothing about. They were a five-piece, with a drummer, a bassist who sang backup vocals on a couple of songs, a guitarist, a keyboard player who also played saxophone on the first song and did some backup vocals, and a lead singer who also played second/rhythm guitar on most of the songs. The first thing the singer said was a compliment on the local beer. They played what I described as a combination of roots rock and hair metal; I couldn't understand any of the lyrics, but they were more than competent and had the right vibe for the crowd.
Adam Ant's current backing band is a bassist, a guitarist, and two drummers, each with a full kit. Everyone in the band was tight and had great timing, but the drummers were especially impressive; at one point they did a nearly-two-minute-long accelerando in perfect synch without looking at each other. They also had very different styles - the male drummer was of the "I'm gonna beat the crap outta these drums" persuasion, while the female drummer was more of a "These drums will never know what hit them" type. It made for good stage presentation. I do wish they'd had a keyboardist with them, if only to fill in the horn parts on some of the songs - "Goody Two Shoes" sounds strange without it.
Adam himself started out looking stiff, as if his back were hurting him, and a little disconnected. However, somewhere halfway through the second song of the evening, he started flirting with the whole first row at once, and he took a moment to stretch during the intro to the next song, and after that everything was fine. His voice seemed to be just as good as it ever was, and while there wasn't a lot of stage banter, what there was was fun. I never quite shook the feeling that he needed an aspirin, but
I'm not a huge fan of Warehouse Live as a venue, because every time I go there some dudebro spills beer on me and half the time I get shoved or groped or both; the only time none of that has happened was during the Polyphonic Spree show, and that's largely because Tim DeLaughter is the best dang High Priest I've ever seen work - that show was church/ritual and the audience treated it as such. Also, the sound system isn't great and their in-house sound guy tends to mix very flat, which on that system tends to mean muddy. This was better than average for the venue, and I hate to say it, but I suspect it was because this is the first time I've seen the crowd there at gender parity - most of the shows we've seen have been sausagefests (the worst offender was the Devo show there, which I'd guess at about 75% male or more). The worst I had to deal with was three drunk dudebros who were clearly fans, and having a great time - but one of them felt like he had to explain what a great time he was having to his friends, rather than actually experiencing the show, and the friend he usually had to explain it to was built like a brick workshed, so they kept forming a wall that completely blocked my view. The shed also managed to spill beer on me, but not much.
Overall, good show, with some minor frustrations. Mostly nostalgia value for me, but obviously there were some far more passionate fans in the crowd.
