Friday, August 24, 2007

Camera Obscura @ South Stree Seaport - Aug 25, 2007

This is lovely, but very odd

Those were some of the first words Tracyanne told us tonight before starting with their lovely Come Back Margaret off of their even more lovely and latest album Let's Get Out of This Country. She was in a really good mood tonight, being funny and pretty talky between songs... did she have a couple of those infamous frozen margaritas at the seaport? We did!

So, why the comment? The River to River shows at South Street Seaport are the best free shows in the city during the summer. That's what everybody seems to agree with, including the bands that let us know so during their sets. And it has to be very nice from their view. It's an outdoors venue in front of a couple of fancy buildings, which are part of the Financial District area, between a couple of big ships, and a road that goes straight to the Brooklyn Bridge. Lovely, right? With Camera Obscura's melodies it was even more...


Camera Obscura is one of the cutest bands out there playing some of the cutest pop right now. Their latest album, Let's Get Out of This Country, was one of my favorite albums last year, and together with highlights of their previous Underachievers Please Try Harder they were the perfect soundtrack to a calmed night out in the city. The show was excellent and even better than last time I saw them at Warsaw. They played almost the whole Let's Get Out of This Country leaving out only I Need All the Friends I Can Get, and they played some classics their fans cheerfully appreciated, including Teenager, Keep it Clean, Suspended from Class, and Books Written for Girls. We couldn't have asked for more.

Their interpretations in a live setting are a bit different from the recorded ones, in a good sense. For example, Tracyanne doesn't sing exactly as the CD you have in your house (you don't have it?). For the end of some of those catchy choruses you've memorized, she sometimes, after singing high, would cut the verses coolly bringing down her voice to your surprise. My description might be inaccurate, but it actually made the songs sound kind of cool. And they have fun and play with their songs. They for example finished their song Let's Get Out of This Country adding a couple of lines from Paul Simon's You Can Call me Al... a nice touch.


They finished their set, with Razzle Dazzle Rose, which is probably my favorite song of theirs. Razzle is the last song of their new album and it's such a good last song that it makes (me) want to play the whole album again. It left you the feeling that what you just heard was something you need to let be part of you (again). No wonder why they chose it to finish... it made us clap for more, it made us clap hard for an encore.

The encore was of course a gift to their old school fans. It was a couple of songs from Underachievers. One of them, probably my second favorite of their songs, Books Written for Girls. I love this song and you should listen to it if you haven't. It's just a very pretty song. I have no idea what the lyrics say but its music and Tracyanne's voice are so gorgeous that they have to be likewise. I hope.


Funny how one year ago Camera Obscura was this unknown band I was seeing too distant to get to know, but now I feel I've known it for ever. Thanks for the show! [photos of the show]

♫♫♫♫

Were you at the show? How did you like it?


Camera Obscura's Links: Stream Let's Get Out of This Country, Official Website, Wikipedia, MySpace, YouTube

4 comments:

catalba said...

Hola Eduardo, cómo vas?
Te cuento que yo estoy viviendo en NYC, me vine a estudiar inglés y a descansar un poco del trabajo, voy a estar por 4 meses y medio y pues obviamente quiero disfrutar al máximo. Chévere si podemos conocernos ya que la otra vez no pudimos cuando fuiste a Colombia y de paso me cuentas de dónde sacas toda la info sobre los conciertos a los que vas y mejor, si algunos son gratis. Yo estuve el 23 de agosto en uno de los Amigos Invisibles gratis en el Museo del Barrio y estuvo demasiado del putas. Cualquier cosita me escribes a mi mail, es catalina_alba@hotmail.com.

Unknown said...

Hola. De una. Te voy a poner en una lista que tengo de gente a las que les mando info de lo que pasa en NYC y eso. Y pues la otra manera es que mires el calendario que tengo linkeado en mis blogs. Bienvenida! Comienza este viernes por ir a Deerhunter/Battles en South Street Seaport (gratis!). Te mando mi teléfono por email.

Anonymous said...

I went to the show on Thursday at Soundfix Records, but it was too packed and my friends wanted to leave, so I only got to hear them play one song.

Unknown said...

What's up Eduardo. What did you don on Friday night? I thought I was going to see you there. Coming to Deerhunter/Battles this Friday? If you come I'll show you a place we are all going after where drinks are $3 around Cooper Square to celebrate... cause it's gonna have to be a great show (or if not, then just to get drunk).