Historicist: "The city that nobody loves"
Elsewhere in the Ist-a-Verse
It was printed right on the tickets, but I guess the gravity of what “DRS 6” meant didn’t sink in until Saturday’s Wolf Parade concert was underway. Arriving with my friends close to seven, the band Holy Fuck was already into their opening set- which was odd, since Frog Eyes was supposed to be the supporting act. Maybe they had just added more acts to the bill, someone suggested. Of course, the fact that members of Wolf Parade were/are in Frog Eyes and that Wolf Parade opened their set with a brand new song only compounded the problem: it wasn’t until the second song of their set when the supposed Frog Eyes started playing a song from Wolf Parade’s debut LP “Apologies to the Queen Mother” that this was, um, Wolf Parade.
(It was a Spinal Tap moment for the ambiguous “musical collectives” of the indie scene.)
The Frog Eyes fans in the crowd might’ve been just as non-plussed as Wolf Parade themselves. Citing a 9 pm cut off time in order to clear the Phoenix for the mandatory 102 FM dance party, the band dutifully played their songs with minimal audience interaction.
After the band insisted that their show would be over at 9pm- several times throughout the show- the audience began filing out quickly when the band left the stage. Wolf Parade pulled a fast one though and actually returned for a short encore- although it’s hard to say whether anyone was actually fooled or just wanted to get their aching backs out of the underwhelming show.
Photo by PatrickKErby on Flickr.
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A very underwhelming show. As one of my friends said, I can't remember a more hyped show turning out so poorly. Not the band's fault, though the drummer did seem to be having a problem keeping tempo, but just a mistake on the part of whoever booked the show. They've known that was the Saturday night of Caribana for a year. Why not have it at another venue, or the night before?
I'm glad I didn't shell out the $20+ for the show.
I thought that the Wolf Parade set great, but everything surrounding that was just unfortunate. It would've been nice to see Frog Eyes, but thankfully Holy Fuck had a really solid show.
The early cut off for the dance party was just infuriating though - Clearly the owner just gets more out of overbooking an evening. Poor planning just shouldn't happen especially on a hyped summer show. Good music though.
I came at 7 and missed Frog Eyes as well. It's quite unfortunate b/c I later heard that they were great. I was a little disappointed with Wolf Parade, but I still had a good time. The whole thing with the 9pm cutoff was ridiculous and annoying, but Holy Fuck saved the night for me. It was my first time seeing them and I was totally blown away.
Regardless if you missed an opening band or not only $6 of your ticket went to wolf parade. Good or bad, $6 is a damn good deal. I thought they were excellent, but maybe that’s because I didn’t read into it too much before hand. The phoenix sucks shit anyways with or without their curfew, but coming back for an encore after the house lights and music were up, as well as taking a rather hefty fine for doing so…what more do you want?
$6 is a damn good deal.
It sure is! Or would be. But of course, everyone is still out 18 real dollars (or more) no matter what amount goes to the band.
I don't know if it was because of the Holy Fuck set before, but Wolf Parade sounded just plain sloppy.
You can't possibly cite your own interpretation of an early start time as effecting the overall value of the show for everyone. Just call and ask for set-times before every concert- the box office always knows and it assures that you won't show up late and be dissapointed.
Plus, I think early concert = great way to start a Saturday night.
And Caribana had nothing to do with the show's curfew either...