american football and canadian rock

not one person wore a piece of clothing manufactured this century. and with the exception of maybe five people, they were all too cool to dance. with their tussled air and vintage clothing, this was your typical trendy-but-pretend-not-to-be crowd that made their way to the independent for wolf parade.

the first thought that crossed my mind was how many people from this crowd had watched the national championship game in football. and i got the feeling that the game, billed as the most important and anticipated of recent memory, hadn't factored one bit into the daily schedule of most in attendance. not me, however. yes, the game lasted for more than four hours and the first half was as sloppy as a local pop warner game, but had i missed the second half which made it one of the great football games in history, how could i forgive myself. i wonder, does that make me an oddball?

as for wolf parade, i have these things to say: first, they made the best record of the year. second, their record was far better than most people's best record of last year the arcade fire -- who they have a connection to. and third, the arcade fire's performance dwarfs wolf parade's in all measurable ways.

to be honest, wolf parade sounded pretty true. on the other hand, that their keyboard player hadn't figured out how to use his new electric piano and needed to take a timeout between every song to set it up got annoying rather quickly. it took any and all flow of the show away meaning they couldn't build any momentum, even after they would bang out a song that worked.

even worse was there encore, which was screwed on so many levels. after finishing their flawed set, the audience's applause had all the excitement of one who'd just seen a mediocre, high school talent show string quartet performance. again, i don't know if i'm the only one, but bands should play encores when the crowd gets raucous and demands it, not when they apply politely so as to not hurt anyone's feelings. letting the crowd stand out there why they pat their hands together lightly until they became confounded as the stage remained empty -- that's rock and roll. checking your blackberry in between sets and then using it's backlight to read some trashy paperback -- as the girl behind me chose to -- that's not rock and roll. and their two-song encore sucked, playing one song that they admittedly hadn't practiced and then finishing with the most mellow song from their record.