Sunday, May 18, 2008

The Long Blondes @ Bowery Ballroom - Fri May 16, 2008

Guilt

I wanted to blame Elron Alkan for how weak The Long Blondes' second album sounds, by coming to their show on support of Couples and seeing how they would rock the new songs out live. Unfortunately, it seems it wasn't Elron's fault.


Couples does indeed have several weak songs, and they sound even weaker next to their older stuff live. Long Blondes started ironically (or not?) with an almost non energetic Here It Comes the Serious Bit. Too serious perhaps guys? That song is one my favorite songs on Couples but live didn't translate as expected. Guilt, I Liked the Boys, Too Clever By Half, and Erin O'Connor are my other favorite ones and thankfully had better luck. Actually the very simple and interesting Too Clever By Half kicked ass.

Their old stuff still sounds fresh and as you can see below, there were plenty of good songs to help assimilate the other ones:

Here Comes The Serious Bit
Weekend Without Makeup
Autonomy Boy
Round The Hairpin
Erin O'Connor
Separated By Motorways
I Liked The Boys
Century
Too Clever By Half
You Could Have Both
The Couples
Once And Never Again
Guilt
I'm Going To Hell
Giddy Stratospheres
--
Lust In The Movies

but overall it was just OK. Are the Long Blondes let down? maybe disappointed that people are not responding the way they want to their new material? I hope the low sales don't discourage them of keep it going because even tho Couples is/was not a successful second album, at least it shows us they don't want to get stuck and keep evolving. See you next time for your third album... hopefully. [photos of the show]


Ah I almost forgot. The asshole that Long Blondes have as a keyboard guy/guitarist ate a banana on stage in the middle of a song and threw the peel to us. Some of it got sticked to my friend's glasses. What was that supposed to mean? that he rocks? that he is the most stupid fan of Velvet Underground? He apologized a bit later, but it was already too late... you suck big time dude.

♫♫♫♪

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


The Long Blondes Links: Stream Couples, Stream a sampler of Someone to Drive You Home, Official Website, MySpace, Wikipedia, YouTube

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