the fine line between heckler and fanboy, explained

Good god, where do I begin? I was all set to make this a short review, what with the time change and all (fuck you daylight savings time!). But Midlake and their fans apparently weren't on the same page, as they all gave me so much to write about. Midlake ended the North American leg of their tour in Denver tonight in front of a sold out Hi-Dive. This sold out Hi-Dive was an experience quite unlike my recent Cold War Kids sold out Hi-Dive though. In a good way. I managed to get second row stage left by the time Midlake began, and there was no shoving, no personal space invasion, and no people pushing their way up front. It was glorious. In fact, the entire front row was pretty much occupied by just two people: annoying camera guy and annoying fanboy. I'm not sure which was worse... ACG was snapping pictures on average at least every 30 seconds. It wouldn't have been so bothersome except that he had one of those big, fancy cameras, and when he was standing in front of me to take a photo, I had a great view of the camera, and not much else. Dude must have taken at least 200 pics. In a 70 minute set. You do the math.

Perhaps slightly less annoying but definitely more creepy was annoying fanboy. A few of his highlights of the evening include: attempting to talk to the band members - WHILE they were playing; waving at the drummer with his index finger (a la "redrum, redrum"), I can only assume to get his attention; AFB actually tried to grab Tim's pants when he was moving over to the keyboards - Tim kind of jumped back and said "don't touch me!". Dude. Seriously. He also seemed quite desperate to make friends with everyone around him. The guy in front of me got sucked in and had to endure back slaps and one-armed hugs all night for this mistake. Every time AFB even hinted at glancing in my direction, I averted my eyes as quickly as possible as to avoid eye contact. To their credit, Midlake were doing a banner job of ignoring the guy for the most part. AFB left and headed toward the bar right before Balloon Maker, prompting this amusing exchange:

Tim: "Maybe he's gone!"
ACG: "That's just love."
Tim: "If that's love... there's nothing worse."

Sadly, AFB came back the very next song. Luckily, he left again a song or two later and this time, people near the stage kind of closed ranks, I suppose hoping that if he did return again, he'd have nowhere to stand. Go fans! But he did re-emerge in the middle of the last song. Approximately 30 seconds later, though, he was tossed for getting all up in some woman's face. I don't think it was mean spirited, I'm sure he was just trying to hug her or something (shudder... see what I mean about the eye contact thing?!?) but she pushed him away no less than 3 times before he got the message. I just wish he had gotten kicked out earlier. Freak.

Anyway, enough about crazy fandom... here's the setlist:

We Gathered In Spring
Roscoe
Van Occupanther
Bandits
In This Camp
Balloon Maker
Some Of Them Were Superstitious
Children Of The Grounds (new song)
Young Bride
Chasing After Deer
Head Home

I really like the new song, though Tim said that it isn't indicative of what the new album will sound like. The new album that they haven't started working on... lol. He also mentioned that they'll probably do another US tour of Van Occupanther, and hinted that they'd be back through Denver. Then he said that since they won't have a new album, the setlist will be the same so it'll be pretty lame. Oh well, I'll be there anyway... ;)

There were technical difficulties aplenty this evening. During the first song, Tim was having trouble with some cord or another, and it took a few minutes to get it fixed. Apparently they'd had trouble getting over Vail pass so didn't get a soundcheck. Some fan in sunglasses (a Corey Hart fan we discovered later...) yelled out "we were fucking stuck!" and was promptly dubbed the "drunk translator" by Eric P. The guy kept yelling shit, and Eric said he couldn't understand a word... that he needed a sober translator. :) Also during the long equipment repair period, we somehow got to talking about the scientific process. Hello high school science! We only identified the first two steps (problem; hypothesis; the drunk translator was called on for the third step but failed miserably) before they were ready to roll.

That Eric is a funny guy. It took me a while to pinpoint who he reminded me of, but it finally dawned on me: he's a dead ringer for Jimmy Fallon. If Jimmy Fallon had a beard. After Head Home, he gave "a special thank you to the drunk translator, the heckler, and to all of you". Awww...

OK, I try to always mention openers, but it's nearly 4:00 in the morning so this'll be quick. I arrived in the middle of Dust On The Breaker's set. The floor was pretty crowded when I came in so I settled in back by the merch booth 'til their set was over. Lots of talkers back there and I couldn't really hear the band.

During the set break, Hi-Dive played The Thermals' The Body The Blood The Machine, which lifted my spirits and reminded me of the ongoing Thermals countdown... only 12 more days until I see them at the Hi-Dive!!!!!! I decided to check out the floor in front of the stage and was pleasantly surprised to see there was lots of room, so I went on in. Next up was Minipop from San Francisco, who claimed that tonight was just their second show outside of California. They weren't mindblowing, but they were very good. Their debut album is due out soon (not too sure on the date, and I can't find it anywhere in a quick web search...); I shall have to check it out.

Wow, I do ramble, huh? Must get to sleep... I'll be back at the Hi-Dive in t-minus 10 hours - I'm taking my niece and nephew to see The Terrible Twos. Rock on.