Pharaoh, all your methods have taught me...

I love the New Pornographers. I cannot express this enough. What an incredible show they put on Saturday night. It was an all around great night because we kicked things off by meeting up at Cafe St. Ex for some pre-show drinks and were lucky enough to score a table before it got insanely packed. I think this will be the routine from now on. I used to have a hard-on for getting to the club super early before a show...mostly because I couldn't contain my excitement. But then you just end up standing around for HOURS slogging through interesting to not-so-good to terrible openers and drinking way too much beer (because there's nothing else to do). From now on it's hit a nearby bar and then walk through the club doors 10 minutes before show time. Perfect.

Anyway, the important thing is that the band was firing on all cylinders that night. Lots of energy, big sound coming off the stage, and the band's voices were blending together nicely. I was very surprised by the set selection which somewhere around 80 minutes (including encore) of pop ecstasy. I was expecting to hear a lot off of Twin Cinema (the new album) with a healthy dose of Electric Version. Instead they played a good cross-section of tracks from the new album and then threw in all of the really hard-charging material from the previous two albums. And it worked fantastically. A real highlight was hearing 'Body Says No' off of Mass Romantic. One of my favorite tunes, they didn't play it the last time they were in town and I was not expecting it in the least. A very very pleasant surprise. And of course hearing Neko wail on 'Letter From An Occupant' is always an experience to be relished.

I think Saturday's show is a standout example of why I keep going back to the Black Cat and 9:30 Club time and time again. There is a serious energy and euphoric feeling that comes with seeing a really good show at those places. It can't be replicated. Good times.