concerts

I'm tagging along on the concert meme that went around because I went to another show I wanted to blog about last week. I wasn't really interested in music for a long time growing up. When everyone else in my class was watching music videos on Saturday mornings I was still in bed with a book so I never knew any songs. I only owned 2 cassingles and half a CD ("Saltwater" by Julian Lennon and "I can see clearly now" from the Cool Runnings soundtrack and shared a Pet Shop Boys CD with my brother, just to give you an indication of how cool I was) until I was 18. I started listening to the radio in high school as an attempt to try to assimilate more easily, but it didn't really work. After I started hating most of the songs in the nightly top 50 and my brother made fun of how terrible the station was, I started listening to the alternative youth radio station and started to hear more music I loved. Unfortunately, I don't know a lot of people who share my taste in music so whenever I've been to a concert I've felt like I've had to convince someone, anyone to come with me. I'm not very willing to do that so I haven't been to too many concerts. I don't think I've ever seen a really big act, either. I guess Ben Folds/Rufus Wainwright/Guster last year is the closest. Anyway, enough rambling.
On second thoughts, I'm still somewhat paranoid about anonymity and once I typed the list I realised it's way too incriminating, so I'm just going to talk about the gig I went to last week.
The band was Architecture in Helsinki (watch out for music starting if you click the link). I was a little worried about dragging someone along because their music is definitely weird (in the vein of Belle and Sebastian, but even weirder) with lots of random noises, hand claps, kiddie shouts etc. I was also wondering how well it would transfer to a live show, but it was fantastic. There are 8 people in the band and they were crammed onto a tiny stage with a heap of instruments. Every song (and multiple times during songs) they'd switch instruments or grab something else to hit. They really seemed to be enjoying themselves, too (other than it being incredibly hot). It was really fun to finally see what it was that made the different sounds and effects I've been listening to on cd (at one point, they used a little toy that made a cow noise in a song). I was also amazed at how good they are at music. Each of them played multiple instruments (including drums, guitar, keyboard, glockenspiel, trumpet, trombone, clarinet and a host of percussion toys). It reminded me a little of when I played percussion at school and we'd have a pile of instruments to switch between in each piece. The difference was these people actually got every note and rhythm and made it look effortless. They said they were coming back in autumn so I'll definitely see them again if they do.