The Ketel One diaries
Regarding the Cold War Kids' concert at San Francisco's Great American Music Hall on Sept 26th, 2008
For some unknown reason the Great American Music Hall didn't mail the tickets for this concert. Even though we bought them as soon as they came out we were forced to buy will call. Kind of lame but what can you do, right? Just for shits and giggles, the day of the concert I visited the page of the GAMH only to find out that to pick up your tix not only do you have to bring your ID, you also have to bring the confirmation e-mail! Having bought the tickets a while ago, this led to dramatic searches on different mail accounts to find the stupid confirmation e-mail. In the end it was found and all was well... or was it?
Not having our tickets in hand, used to concerts starting at 8:00 PM and in search of the best places in the venue we left home at 6:30, got there and realized the concert didn't start until 9:00. No problem.
At around 9:10 the same band that opened last November for Cold War Kids, We Barbarians, took the stage. Their contribution was even more mediocre this time than last. Pure noise. The fact that the GAMH just has one toilet per gender for the whole ground floor gave attendees the opportunity to comment at length the We Barbarians segment, everybody in the bathroom line agreed on how much they sucked and how nobody had been able to make out a single lyric of any of their songs.
After the break, Richard Swift (who also opened for CWK last year) took the stage, and spent like 25 minutes getting ready for his act. People were getting very impatient, which in turn sort of got transfered to Richard Swift, who instead of being super fun during his performance like last time, was just going from song to song. At some point a drunk yelled "Cold War Kids!" to which Richard responded "Don't worry, little guy, they're coming!" He then proceeded to tell us that he was just going to do one more song, neglecting to mention that it was the extended cut of the song, then he played yet another song. A lesson for the drunk guy maybe? Or perhaps CWK weren't ready and Richard was stalling for them. At least the music was good and everybody responded positively.
At 11:00 PM CWK finally came out. They were fantastic. The tactic they followed to get people to warm to their new material was to play one song from Loyalty To Loyalty and one from Robbers & Cowards, a new song, an old song... Also since the new album doesn't have many songs "For the Feet" as George Michael would say, the new song/old song method worked perfectly. We all sang the old songs at the top of our lungs. There was lots of participation from the audience, but since the new album had drooped just 3 days before the concert not everybody knew the lyrics yet, except for some of us who had studied them :P Still everybody loved Cold War Kids. Unfortunately the concert felt super short and the encore was just two songs long: St. John and Against Privacy. Was it because having two opening bands was a huge waste of time? Was it because Nick Cave's 6 song encore spoiled us rotten? Who knows! I just hope CWK dumps We Barbarians from the bill like leftover Chinese takeout from two weeks ago.
Heads up to those going to the concert: The posters are free! I didn't find that out until the concert was in progress. Luckily I scored mine on my way out. Speaking of lucky, the merch girl gets to see Cold War Kids play every night! If that isn't an awesome job I don't know what it is.
For some unknown reason the Great American Music Hall didn't mail the tickets for this concert. Even though we bought them as soon as they came out we were forced to buy will call. Kind of lame but what can you do, right? Just for shits and giggles, the day of the concert I visited the page of the GAMH only to find out that to pick up your tix not only do you have to bring your ID, you also have to bring the confirmation e-mail! Having bought the tickets a while ago, this led to dramatic searches on different mail accounts to find the stupid confirmation e-mail. In the end it was found and all was well... or was it?
Not having our tickets in hand, used to concerts starting at 8:00 PM and in search of the best places in the venue we left home at 6:30, got there and realized the concert didn't start until 9:00. No problem.
At around 9:10 the same band that opened last November for Cold War Kids, We Barbarians, took the stage. Their contribution was even more mediocre this time than last. Pure noise. The fact that the GAMH just has one toilet per gender for the whole ground floor gave attendees the opportunity to comment at length the We Barbarians segment, everybody in the bathroom line agreed on how much they sucked and how nobody had been able to make out a single lyric of any of their songs.
After the break, Richard Swift (who also opened for CWK last year) took the stage, and spent like 25 minutes getting ready for his act. People were getting very impatient, which in turn sort of got transfered to Richard Swift, who instead of being super fun during his performance like last time, was just going from song to song. At some point a drunk yelled "Cold War Kids!" to which Richard responded "Don't worry, little guy, they're coming!" He then proceeded to tell us that he was just going to do one more song, neglecting to mention that it was the extended cut of the song, then he played yet another song. A lesson for the drunk guy maybe? Or perhaps CWK weren't ready and Richard was stalling for them. At least the music was good and everybody responded positively.
At 11:00 PM CWK finally came out. They were fantastic. The tactic they followed to get people to warm to their new material was to play one song from Loyalty To Loyalty and one from Robbers & Cowards, a new song, an old song... Also since the new album doesn't have many songs "For the Feet" as George Michael would say, the new song/old song method worked perfectly. We all sang the old songs at the top of our lungs. There was lots of participation from the audience, but since the new album had drooped just 3 days before the concert not everybody knew the lyrics yet, except for some of us who had studied them :P Still everybody loved Cold War Kids. Unfortunately the concert felt super short and the encore was just two songs long: St. John and Against Privacy. Was it because having two opening bands was a huge waste of time? Was it because Nick Cave's 6 song encore spoiled us rotten? Who knows! I just hope CWK dumps We Barbarians from the bill like leftover Chinese takeout from two weeks ago.
Heads up to those going to the concert: The posters are free! I didn't find that out until the concert was in progress. Luckily I scored mine on my way out. Speaking of lucky, the merch girl gets to see Cold War Kids play every night! If that isn't an awesome job I don't know what it is.
posted by Evil Chick at 2:01 AM
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