Posted 4 years, 4 months ago in the early morning by moreno
Wolf Parade had 3 shows in NYC this week which explains the reason I live in NYC. I went to their first one at the Bowery on 10/24. I missed the one on 10/25 because it was 4 blocks away from where i live and would have been extremely convenient to get to. Last night, 10/27 , they played the last show of this leg of their tour. I guess it was a secret show? I am not sure but for some reason this was the only show that wasn’t sold out. It was at NYU so i think a lot of people thought it was students only…not me tho, i’m wise to that kind of stuff. I took a 2 hour lunchbreak to get these tickets, i dont fool around when it comes to the Wolf Parade, or as I like to call them, The Magnificient Parade of Light and Wolves Extraordinary Extravaganza.
You know the funny thing about these guys, they dont have the best live show. Their songs are played a lot faster than on the album, i try nodding my pretty-little-head along to the music and next thing i know i’m headbanging like a 14-year-old Pantera fan just to keep up with the tempo. The drummer seems to aspire to John Bonham. But not the youthful John Bonham of yore, we’re talking the 300 pound bearded cannonball who would play with a 4 foot tall bottle of champagne next to his drumset that he would finish by the end of the set (and if you’ve seen The Song Remains the Same, you know that Zeppelin sets were pretty long and painful…yess Robert Plant, you’ve read The Hobbit, we get it).
Wolf Parade (TMPLWEE) recruited dante decarlo (i think thats his name)…he quit Hot Hot Heat because the singer was spending all the bands profits on his perm. Dante played guitar, sang backup, and beatup windchimes. you gotta love what you do. Theres the other guitarist, Dan i think his name is. He has a last name too, Wolf Parade is one of those bands. Dan’s got a scratching rocky voice that i really dig (for fans of the album, “Modern World”, “Shine a Light”, “Its a Curse”. then theres Spencer on keyboards and also vocals.. its funny because this guy reminds me of a high school buddy of mine named Spencer who looks exactly like this guy. is anyone still reading this? Wolf Parade Spencer does bass duties on one keyboard, lead lines on another keyboard, and he sings. If you’ve heard the album and the songs he sings (“I am my fathers son” , “Dinner Bells” ) then you’re as surprised as I am that a voice like that comes out of a guy who looks like this. god bless ‘em.
The band was pretty excited to be off the road soon. The power went out to half of the equipment and Spencer cut the song “Dinner Bells” in the middle, apologizing and asking for the power to be fixed so they could turn on their guitar amps and keyboards. You can see the hype is already starting to go to these guys’ heads…the demands of a primadonna. While waiting for the power to be fixed the band erupted into an impromptu cover of Paul Simon’s “Graceland” which was started by Dante (whose amplifier mysteriously continued to work with no problems…hmmm). It was great to see a band like this sing a song like that and know most of the words. I was grinning from ear to ear, but thats from a botched facelift. I digress…
There was a guy in the audience who felt he had a personal forum with Dan. He kept yelling from the floor up to the band:
Fan – “WHAT ARE YOU DOING AFTER THE SHOW ?!”
Dan – “Uh…I’m going to the airport. ”
(awkward silence)
Dan – “What are you doing after the show”
Fan – “I’M HANGING OUT WITH YOU GUYS!!”
Dan – “Oh….”
Fan – “I JUST WANT TO BE YOUR FRIEND!!”
Dan – “uh…I just want to be your friend too..”
Fan – “WOOHOOOO”
I’m pretty sure he was by himself. Mild success is creepy.
For some reason everyone seems to love the third song on the album”Grounds for Divorce” and for some reason this is my least favorite song on the album. The Pitchfork review said something along the lines of “the album really doesnt get started until the third track ‘Grounds for Divorce’”. Are you kidding? the first two songs are the best in the whole wide world! Then everyone at the show starts yelling for that song…no other songs, just “Grounds for Divorce”…this happened at BOTH shows I went to. Was I On the outside here? can i not even relate to my fellow Wolf Parade fans? Luckily, I was not alone. The band hates that song too and refuses to play it. “Look, man, that song is gone. We don’t even remember how to play it anymore,” Dan told the audience last night. I was thrilled to hear that. I should be in Wolf Parade because I hate the same songs of theirs as they do.
Listen to “Its a Curse” and tell me if your booty doesnt start shaking and your nostrils widening. Oh, Wolf Parade, all i want is to hear the songs played exactly the way they are on the album. At the same speed so I can get down. Entertain me!
In conclusion, Wolf Parade is a band. They are from Montreal, which is abbreviated French for “Royal Mountain”. Thank you.
I was still with you when you asked your readers if we were still reading. Interesting how Montreal is a hotbed for bands right now. If I was Mugato I’d say, “Oh, [insert any band from Montreal], they’re so hot right now.”
I was at a Montreal SXSW Showcase last year and they’re some bad-ass shit coming out of that city. Remind me that I need to listen to Wolf Parade. Moreno, I feel like I can’t keep up with you, fool.
I don’t know why people go to see bands only to hear one goddamn song. It annoys me when I’m at shows and people go wild over one fucking song, while they totally ignore the much better tracks. If I’m not entirely familiar with a band that I end up going to go see, I like to listen to see what songs stand out and what songs suck–but you can immediately tell when people go apeshit for the song.
So, you dig Wolf Parade but you weren’t too impressed with their live show?
Oh, by the way, everytime I hear the name Wolf Parade I think of the indie pop band, Wolf Colonel. I like Wolf Colonel. They’re not from Montreal.
now im really happy i left early and missed out on graceland. damn paul simon sucks. yea it’s hard for them to capture the album live. now sure why though. not doing a chipmunks impersonation would be a start though. i say live bands have two options: 1) stict to the script, play the songs as tight and close as possible to the way they sound best, fuck moving around and looking cool, let the music take over, or 2)go balls to the wall james brown nuts and freak everybody out w drunken drug induced antics ala wacky tim harrington or some shit. wolf parade sadly did neither, but hey fuck it, they still rocked pretty fucking hard. and they did sound better last night than at bowery somehow. but what do i know, i spent most of the night drinking hari’s whiskey and bumping into the girl next to me (or was that hari?) good times. (or were they)
People in real cities don’t appreciate how lucky they are to be ablte to go to shows. i am jealous. touring bands need to remember though that Columbus, Ohio is the 15th largest city in the US.
I didn’t get most of the jokes but I laughed anyways, and that guys perm was pretty amazing. Also, someone recently told me that Houston is the fourth largest city in the U.S.
Buenassssssssssss nochesssssssssss..
como estas Oso……… espero que bien?
oye, tu haz estado en nyc? creo que si, porque necesito que me ayudes en algo… sip?
Josh – yea that pic of the Hot Hot Heat guy is pretty funny… seriously, tho, how sweet is Jaya Gupta!
May goose tah moo chow L track “I’ll be anything.”
Mando,
Porque siempre piensas que soy Moreno?