what the fuck, denver?!?

I almost didn't go out tonight. The recent heat wave is killing me, and when I got home from work all I really wanted to do was sit on the couch, watch Friends reruns and eat popsicles. But seeing as how I included Get Him Eat Him on my most recent "best of 2007" comp, I could hardly miss seeing them at the Hi-Dive.

Because Mondays are notoriously early shows at the Hi-Dive, and because I didn't want to repeat last Thursday's debacle of showing up partway into the headlining set, I left home just after 9:00. I arrived at the Hi-Dive shortly after the second band, Blue Million Miles, had taken the stage. At best, they were forgettable. But in all honesty, they bored me to tears. If I learned anything from the My Morning Jacket show early this year it's that I really don't care for jammy rock bands. At all. I'm still scratching my head about who thought it would be a good idea to have this band open for the indie pop brilliance that is Get Him Eat Him. I survived, though... with a little help from $1 PBR night... :)

So, either my musical taste is getting more obscure, or I still just haven't figured out how to successfully predict what bands will make a good showing in Denver. I rarely hear a lot of the music that I like on the radio, even on a great station like radio 1190. And apparently I also rarely pay attention to what's big on the scene... So on nights like tonight I just don't know what to expect. Get Him Eat Him's new album got a 7.2 from Pitchfork. Not bad at all. And certain folks over at Via Chicago have been touting the album. Normally I would assume a decent turnout, but there were probably about 40 people at tonight's show. Their loss, IMO.

I was immediately turned on by the band's humor when they were setting up and the keyboards were obviously WAY too loud in the house and the bass player stepped up to the mike - "We're Get Him Eat Him and we're here to kill you. Accidentally, we promise." They got all the kinks worked out momentarily and played a great, energetic set (I'm like... 90% sure about this setlist):

2X2
Just 50
There's A Guy
~bass string change~
What We Do
Get Down!
Present Tenses
The Coronation Show
Push And Pull
CBT
Hand In Hand (Elvis Costello cover)
Murphy Bed
Diminutive

Unfortunately Get Him Eat Him suffered from a "small crowd killer" after the third song when a bass string broke. It took a couple of minutes to fix, and many people in the crowd migrated over to the bar. By the time the set ended, I think there were actually only about a dozen people in the stage area. Too bad.

The critic in me wants to say that this young band has a ways to go. I got the sense that they weren't quite as tight as they could have been, and while perhaps it was a venue issue, the vocals were muddy and the bass was a bit too heavy. However, the music fan in me had a blast and was very happy with the performance from these guys. Tonight I was left with a feeling that I've been experiencing all too often lately - I'm really glad I got to see this band at a small venue with a handful of other people, but at the same time I want them to come back, which gets sketchy when nobody comes out to the shows. Still, I'm glad I gave up my popsicles and headed out to the Hi-Dive tonight. As one last sign that I'd done the right thing, the house music came up after the show - and it was Band Of Horses' Everything All The Time... <3