Nec Pluribus Impar, buddy... Pluribus!
Concert Review
Phoenix, The French Kicks, The Etiquette
Thursday, July
27th, 2006
The Rave Basement, Milwaukee WI
or 'Nec Pluribus
Impar, buddy... Pluribus!.'
So after my last late week-night excursion I had to try it again and prove I am still 'young' and 'cool' enough to handle a concert on a weeknight. But this time, I wisely chose a venue in my own city, nearly within walking distance from my apartment, rather than a several hour drive. The only hinderance to my being 'young' and 'cool' this time was that no one else in my very small music-loving circle has Thursday nights free. But undaunted, I decided to venture out to the show by my lonesome. And this, as I've experienced a couple times before, usually makes for a very clear distinction between all the 'normal' people with their friends and girlfriends ... and me. You're never more lonely than when you're alone in a crowd of strangers.
But that feeling didn't hit me this time.
If you've ever been to a real indie show before - not a pop-indie show like Modest Mouse or Gnarls Barkley, but a real indie show, where the bands are mostly unknown, except for this one room of obsessively devoted fans - then you know that it's not very hard to feel right at home with your fellow freaks. Sometimes you get the feeling that the people here are actually, finally, a little bit more weird and losery and 'uncool' than you... and that's a little bit of an ego-boost, yes... but it also endears you to the geeks and creates this sympathetic "we're all one big family, let's stick together" bond.
As The Etiquette started their set, I piled in to the tiki-lounge-inspired Rave Basement with my fellow dorks and watched all the glasses-clad geek-sheik begin to rock out to the band that none of us really knew. The band turned out to be extremely lo-fi and "garagey". Even my band has more production, but what we don't have that The Etiquette has mastered is the greasy shaggy indie haircut. It seems every indie musician these days has that required shaggy unkept hairstyle and all the fans that night followed suit.
I started out standing by the indie hipsters who lean arms-crossed against walls or poles at venues and stare blankly in an "I'm too cool to dance" pose. But I moved up when The French Kicks took the stage since I am more familiar with their stuff.
Unfortunately, they never played their best known, SXSW hit: The Trial of The Century but admittedly, that song is a little slow and intimate for a rock concert. And with all of the wimpy indie fans there, we may have all started crying. So they kept the mood light, the energy high, and the falsetto higher.
After each song, you're just as likely to see the odd indie girl doing The Smurf as you are to see her clapping. It's the kind of crowd that loves the show overwhelmingly, but then is just as happy to get back to their Dungeons & Dragons discussion or argument about Peter Jackson's faithfulness to the books. But it's also the kind of crowd that will throw their arm around you and sway to the music out of sheer exuberance over seeing their favorite bands.
And that shared exuberance turned frenzy for Phoenix.
In fact, I think they were a little surprised by how crazy we geeks were for them. But their music is infectious. Just try: If I Ever Feel Better. I dare you not to move your tush in an embarrassingly dorky but care-free manner. A lot of Phoenix's songs have this beat. beat. pause..... beat. thing that is just absolutely funky. And they know how to play with that in a way that got all the freaks shaking it and screaming in adoration. And in no way am I too 'cool' to get busy on the dance floor right along with them.
Their set was framed by a big flag in the backdrop flying the words "Nec Pluribus Impar" which confused me to no end until I later looked it up and found it was King Louis XIV's motto for the subjugation of Europe (Phoenix is from Paris) meaning "No Unequal Match for Many" or a little more loosely translated: "Not Inferior to Anyone". And that about sums us up. Not only is it perfectly geeky that our motto for the night was in Latin and part of obscure world history... but our geekiness binds us and stands defiantly in the face of 'cool' music genres that tout their popularity as superiority. Indie fans are Nec Impar, buddy. Nec Pluribus Impar.
Posted by heydomsar
2006-07-31
go back | random brainstorm | go forth
Rachel Ray - 2009-05-03
The cold wind was the reason - 2009-03-02
The Collected Wisdom of Angela Chase - 2009-02-15
All's well that ends well. - 2009-01-07
In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. - 2008-10-04
