Christina, who most of you know as Paul’s friend/the driver for most of our MFNW weekend, was very pukey sick yesterday, and couldn’t make it to to the Okkervil River concert. Paul, being the awesome guy that he is, gave me that ticket. So, in a way, Christina’s loss was not in vain — the show was one of the best I’ve been to.
The lineup was Zykos, Sea Wolf, and Okkervil. Zykos was too full of themselves for me to enjoy. They were the kind of band that plays more for themselves than for the audience, who are the first people you should play for, no exceptions. I hate bands who say they don’t write songs for their audience, or who “don’t care” about their fans. We’re the ones listening to your damn music! Don’t say that!
Anyway, they were lukewarm, but they were the opener opener, so what can you say.
Up next was Sea Wolf. They were much better than Zykos.
The Sea Wolf lineup. They were having some kind of technical difficulties, but they sounded great and their songs were downright awesome. Plus I want to marry their celloist. She was cute and was wearing a plaid dress. They had to cut their set short because, well, they weren’t paying attention to how long their set was, so that kind of sucked, but it was good music anyway.
Then came Okkervil River.
I didn’t know what to expect coming in, but their set was flawless and extremely exciting. They put on a good show and everyone in the audience loved them. Paul and I had gotten to the floor by the beginning of Sea Wolf’s set and were decently close (this was in the all-ages section, not the 21+ section), and I am always tall enough to get a great look at the stage. Sorry people behind me.
The set went from great to greater to holy shit this is awesome. Will Sheff has an undescribable charisma on stage. I really don’t understand it, other than, unlike Zykos, he knows his fanbase and knows that he is singing songs to people and he was having a great time doing it.
Sheff singing alone in a spotlight he personally requested.
The rest of his band was somewhat motley, I thought. A lot of older musicians, which I liked. The drummer was annoying me, only because he looked like he was fifty but acted like he was in Def Leppard or someshit. He kept twirling his drumstick through his fingers and I was like, “Yeah, I get it, you can do that. Great.” The multi-instrumentalist, Lauren, I think is her name, was great. She could really shred, and let’s be honest, it’s fuckin hot when a girl can shred. The trumpet player was great, the bassist played with his thumb, which I thought was really weird (and has a great voice; “Lost Coastlines” was fantastic), and their keyboardist looked too old to be in the group, haha. But it was a great show overall.
They played all the hits (Unless Its Kicks, of course), and some Black Sheep Boy and A Girl in Port started it off and it was great. Plus I met another /orator, maarvi, who is going to college here. She was cool, though we met only briefly.
And that’s all! Good show.