Japandriods
Schubas – Chicago, IL
10/9/2009
I walked in. The Coathangers were rocking, Balloons on the stage, Troll rested on speaker, Four Gals, Candice’s Birthday, New singer/instrument set-up for every song, Every song = pretty damn good.The show only got better. Coathangers are an Atlanta quartet definitely worth checking out, “Pussywillow” is as awesome as its name, and “Shake Shake” probably tops the five on their MySpace.At 11:36 sharp, Vancouver’s Japandroids played what they called their first “own” show in Chicago (non-Pitchfork, as a headliner), and they were certainly excited about that. They joined the impressive duos that I’ve seen live along with the White Stripes, Fiery Furnaces, Black Keys, and Death From Above 1979.
They went with the strong “Heart Sweats” as their opener before launching straight into my potential favorite “Sovereignty,” which tweaked its lyrics from “cuz I’m in love with you tonight,” to “cuz I’m in Chicago tonight.” This was fitting because the show was in Chicago. The new song that followed was up to par with a lot of their tunes, it was described as a new song to dance to with easy lyrics that you can learn in 30 seconds, “so there’s no excuse for not singing along.”
“Rockers East Vancouver” sounded better live for sure and was one of their best, and although I prefer Brian’s singer more, David dominates this one.. While Post-Nothing seems to be getting a lot of attention – Pitchfork Best New Music – they do have 10 songs pre- Post-Nothing that are pretty good and will be release as an album in January. Any band that can get away with rhyming “together” and “forever” with “together” as basis for the three-line song is impressive.
The show moved at a pretty quick pace, and while both seemed so happy to be on tour, especially in Chicago, talking was kept pretty minimally, offering a few jokes in between every few songs. They got into some songs they didn’t have time for last time like “Darkness On The Edge of Gastown.” “To Hell With Good Intentions,” the McLusky cover, which served as the last song prior to when they would’ve done their encore, was my favorite concert moment in a long while – both the cover and the song itself is unstoppable.
“No encore. We don’t do that leave and come back bullshit, so here’s the last song. You guys rock,” which I believe came before “I Quit Girls.” Insanely sweet show from an insanely sweet band.
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