sold out hi-dive? boo.

Two days later and I'm at Hi-Dive again. I really like this club, but tonight's sold out Cold War Kids show was so dramatically different from The Spinto Band on Wednesday that it's a bit ridiculous (see me pimping them? Nice...). There was a line to get in, even though I arrived close to 9:30; it was something like 25 degrees outside, but at least there were only a dozen or so people in line. Somehow, though, I found myself standing outside for at least 10 minutes. WTF?!? When I finally got to the door I was incredibly amused to discover that they were frisking people. I can't even remember the last time I was frisked at a show, let alone at a venue like Hi-Dive. Maybe it had something to do with the fight that broke out at The Spinto Band show the other night.... lol. Weird.

I finally entered the bar shortly before openers #2, Delta Spirit. The floor was already crowded and I hung out off to the side of the stage a bit, but somehow, without feeling like I really moved at all, I found myself mid-rabid-crowd by the end of their set. I'm not sure why, but this kind of thing always seems to happen to me. Delta Spirit had a lot of fans in attendance, which was a bit surprising to me. I'd never heard of them, and in doing a google search the only thing I really turned up was their MySpace page, from which I stole the photo over there <-, as a google image search of "Delta Spirit" merely unearthed several pictures of sorority girls... Delta, Delta, Delta, can I help ya, help ya, help ya?

They were good, they rocked out pretty hard, but I just am not a fan of bands where the lead singer doesn't play an instrument. I don't know why it bothers me so, but it does. Perhaps it's the fact that when they're not singing they've got nothing left to do but strut around, blow kisses to the crowd and do fancy microphone acrobatics. So cheesy. But it was a good set, just about the right length, and fun to listen to. Capacity for the Hi-Dive is around 300, and the floor in front of the stage was packed for the Delta Spirit set. Or so I thought. As soon as they left the stage people just started pushing their way in. Some dude who was around 6 1/2 feet tall went to pass in front of me, at least I thought he was passing, but then he planted. Right in front of me. I tried to tell him that I couldn't really see now, but he didn't seem to hear me all the way up there so I had to nudge him and give him a look. He said "Oh, do you want to stand in front of me?". Yeah, thanks man.

By the time Cold War Kids took the stage I had no personal space to speak of, was getting a bit claustrophobic, and despite being approximately 15 feet in front of the stage, had no real view. I decided to wait it out for a few songs and see if the band was worth putting up with people touching me on all sides. They weren't, so after about 4-5 songs I escaped back to the merch table area where there was room and I actually had a better view of the stage than when I was in the midst of the crowd. Not that they didn't put on a great show, but it will take something like The Thermals (20 days and counting!) for me to put up with a crowd like that. And on top of everything else, I had meant to bring the ear plugs Leah gave me the other day, but forgot them in my car. So in all, moving to the back of the room was probably a good plan.

I did manage to note most of the setlist (holes filled in thanks to Westward Bound):

We Used To Vacation
Sermons Vs. The Gospel (solving some technical problems)
Passing The Hat
Rubidoux
Saint John
Well, Well, Well (John Lennon)
Tell Me In The Morning
Robbers
Hospital Beds
God, Make Up Your Mind
Hair Down
Every Valley Is Not A Lake
Hang Me Up To Dry
Quiet Please

The new song(s) sound a lot like Robbers & Cowards, same Cold War Kids sound. This is not a bad thing; I like them a lot and would certainly see them again. It just really felt like they should have been at a bigger venue than Hi-Dive. Maybe the Fox next time.... well, I can dream anyway.


Now playing:

Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha (out on March 20 - buy it, it's fabulous!!!).