new pornographers

[jkeisenh]

I saw 'em a couple years ago at Black Cat on the Electric Version tour.  They were awesome.  It's a huge band to fit on that little stage, but they had a good time of it.
 
 One thing to know, though, is that their albums are quite studio-produced, so the live sounds are markedly different.  It's a different sound mix, some different instruments, several parts dropped out.  I liked it better live, but if you're into that slick poppy stuff, you may not like it as much.

[HoyaSaxa03]

Originally posted by imaginarycolors:
  what does sexiness determine about a show?

if you don't get it, you don't get it

[Relaxer]

I think it will sell out. There's sort of a vacuum right now of the obvious sell-out shows, like something in the Interpol, Arcade Fire or Spoon league. Plus the new album is getting good press, and it's a show that anyone can enjoy.
 
 Is Neko for sure playing on this tour? I haven't read definitively that she is. That would be a treat. Having Destroyer as the opener is great because A) they're really good, and B) that means Dan Bejar will be playing with the band.
 
 I thought their Black Cat show was great. They did a great version of Cruel to Be Kind as the encore, which is the only cool way to do an encore.

[duderino]

from an interview at the end of june:
 
   

"This [fall] tour is going to be crazy," says a wide-eyed Newman. "It'll be the first time in four years that it will be Dan and Neko in the Pornographers. I think it will be pretty cool.
 
 "When itâ??s Neko and Kathryn, we have the double barrel of amazing female singers and we're gonna have Dan and we're gonna have me and Kurt [Dahle, from Limblifter] and Todd [Fancy], we can have six good people singing, which is hard to find."
   

[frostytheswami]

I read another interview where A.C. Newman said that the band lineup for the fall tour is basically his dream lineup for the New Pornographers. I think it's going to be a really good show.
 
 

Originally posted by duderino:
  from an interview at the end of june:
 
   

"This [fall] tour is going to be crazy," says a wide-eyed Newman. "It'll be the first time in four years that it will be Dan and Neko in the Pornographers. I think it will be pretty cool.
 
 "When itâ??s Neko and Kathryn, we have the double barrel of amazing female singers and we're gonna have Dan and we're gonna have me and Kurt [Dahle, from Limblifter] and Todd [Fancy], we can have six good people singing, which is hard to find."
   

[/b]

[zwirnm1]

I saw the New Pornographers in 2003 in Portland... here are my thoughts on their live set.
 
 [...commentary on opening acts Cinerama and The Organ...]]
 
 The New Pornographers set itself was something of a disappointment sonically. The sound mix, which was fine for the Organ and Cinerama, seemed shrill and distant. (In fact, listening to Mass Romantic recently, I was bemoaning the slightly shrill tones, so it could be a consistent issue with the band's sound.) But at the Aladdin, Neko Case and Carl Newman, sharing lead vocal duties, seemed to have a hard time hearing themselves through their own monitors, and there's something profoundly wrong when a voice as enormous as Neko's can't be heard clearly in a mix. In any case, the band's set was generous and included nearly all of Mass Romantic (omitting "The Mary Martin Show" and "Centre for Holy War") and huge swaths of Electric Version, which I haven't yet committed to memory. Despite the massive catchiness of the songs themselves, and the engaging dual-frontman approach from Wilson and Case, the set had a hard time kicking off. The sound was clearly an issue, although the crowd had gotten up to fill that space between the stage and the seats, conquering the Aladdin dilemma. I can't say if I'm just feeling curmudgeonly, but I am tempted to blame in part the elliptical (read: nonsense) lyrics. If the crowd wants to sing along â?? and trust me, we did â?? it helps to have intelligible lyrics. I think Wilson does a great job in couplets, but doesn't try to make verses that make sense, so the crowd is at a loss for 90% of a song. I praised the nonsense as "gleeful" in reviewing their first record, but I think I'd like it more if I could make more sense of it. Still, "The Laws Have Changed" and "Mass Romantic" and "To Wild Homes" are so engaging, you'd think there wouldn't be a problem. With so much going on in these songs â?? hand claps, backing vocals, dinky keyboards, strummed acoustic guitars behind the rock instrumentation â?? it can just get a bit messy. The sound man was having a hard time keeping up with the 6 performers and their instruments, and the audience was having a hard time keeping up with the poor mixd.
 
 Still, the set was absurdly generous, to the point that they were getting close to running out of songs. After two opening bands, the New Pornographers did one complete set, one three-song encore and then another couple of songs, rewarding those fans who stuck around to the end. The volume, unfortunately, was deafening. If the electric bass and guitar had been toned down, we'd have heard Case and Wilson far more easily, and probably enjoyed the show infinitely more.

[duderino]

who's wilson?

[zwirnm1]

I'm flummoxed. Why did I write Newman the first time, then Wilson after that? weird.