Great American Music Hall - July 20
OK, so I finally got to see Camera Obscura with Georgie James out here.
Georgie James is completely different then Q and not U, but I don't think that mattered to anybody out here besides me. I even hollared a Q and not U reference and only the band got it, so they were well received in SF. I think change is hard for some bands, and DC will be extra hard for them to win over. Most comments on this board about them were spot on - they are a 70's sounding pop band and either that's your cup of tea or it's not. I think they're pretty good at what they do, although I prefer them when Laura is singing, and that seemed to be the consensus of the group. Nobody in my group thought well enough of them to buy the demo, but each thought that we would consider the full album in due time. Not a bad opener all in all.
Now Camera Obscura are a whole different story. They were brilliant. But you have to go in knowing that they're not going to rock. That's not what they do. I feel Tracyanne was probably a little more peppy with the SF crowd then what I read here about the DC crowd (purely a guess as I was not in DC). A quick shout out to Lulu for teaching me Scottish so I understood Tracyanne. I was translating for most of the group around me. They played a lot of stuff off of the new album and the favorites "80's Fan," "teenager," and "Suspended from Class" although in a different order from the set list at the Black Cat. At one point, they even skipped a song and before they played their last song before the encore, somebody in the crowd pointed it out and they played it before leaving. Of course, being in SF we were treated to "San Francisco Song" which was extremely well received. It's a brilliant live song. Oddly, they weren't selling the CD single that has that track on it. Others not familiar with CO liked them, but also wished that Tracyanne was a little more into her singing. Anyhow, they were everything I had hoped.
The venue is gorgeous (for those that haven't been, it's an old theater built after the quake and has balconies and lovely architechture all over the place) which fit nicely with the CO motif. They also offer a dinner ticket for the balcony, and although I'm opposed to the notion, this would have been the type of show to do something like that. They also have $3.50 PBR drafts. Rock on.
And for those that are interested, a California story. So when CO started playing, two girls next to me started talking louder to each other in order to hear each other. Me, not really enjoying the yapping and having been out of CA for a while forgetting how polite I'm supposed to be, leaned over to the ladies and as smart ass as I could, told them "hey, the band started playing!" pointing towards the stage. Perplexed, they looked at me and asked "what?". I explained "that was me being polite for shut the f#$% up, I didn't pay to hear you yap, I paid to hear them play." Not surprisingly, they were really quiet the rest of the show. No doubt if I had done that in DC it would have evolved into two law students argiung with me that they had every right to talk about whatever they wanted to in a public place. There is something to be said for not being polite in a polite enviornment - they had no idea how to deal with it, but were too afraid to keep talking. I probably should have just asked for a refund, but I really wanted to see CO.
