Do I like Art Brut? Sure, why not. I have to respect any band who can end a song called "18,000 Lira" with the line "sounds like a lot of money!" But I just found two new reasons to like them:
1) They just played at my alma mater, Haverford College, and apparently kicked ass. That's quite a task... this is, after all, a student body that could barely follow Black Thought's call-and-response instructions when The Roots played there, so getting the kids excited is no small feat. (More on this later, in the appendices.)
2) They reenacted the best part of Almost Famous by sticking around after the show and doing keg stands. No word on whether Eddie Argos screamed "I AM A GOLDEN GOD!!!" Either way... priceless. And you gotta love the "let's just get drunk" variety of invincible-rock-star behavior, as opposed to the "bang me in this toilet stall, I'm the bassist" variety. Boy, do I hate getting propositioned like that.
Anyway, well done Haverford, and well done Art Brut.
Appendix A: The Roots
So, here's the deal. They were just incredible... best show I've ever seen. Nobody can match their instrumental skills and live charisma. I just wish the crowd had appreciated what they'd seen. That audience was... bold, italicized, caps-locked and underlined... AWFUL. If The Roots felt at all ridiculous for taking a gig at the whitest school in Philly, those feelings were confirmed by their customers' utter lameness. Thought was basically like "OK, when I stamp my foot, scream 'Hey' three times, and point at you, you say 'Ho!' Okay?" And the fuckers still couldn't do it! You could see BT was embarrassed. Imagine the "Mr. Thompson" exchange from The Simpsons, except with Black Thought as the FBI guy and the crowd as Homer. Psst... I think he's talking to you! No, asshole! It's called rhythm! He wants YOU... to say HO!!! Can't you speaky the English?!? God.
I will go to my grave carrying shame for having disappointed Black Thought that night. If anyone from The Roots is out there reading this, I'd like to apologize, on behalf of the Haverford community, for being lame. But it was still one of the coolest things that ever happened at school.
Actually, I forgot to mention that they played in the basement of Lunt. The basement!!! It must've been pretty awesome to see a band of their magnitude/importance down there. And it seems like the band doesn't take itself too seriously, which is good. Then again, they wrote a power ballad about not getting it up. That was the first clue.
ReplyDelete