When they started rapping their song “Hurt Feelings” the audience cried with laughter. In between songs, Bret and Jemaine carried out a long-winded conversation about charities. “We’re into anything that Bono’s into,” cried Bret at one point. They then went on to talk about saving whales, because whales can’t call emergency services with their big flippers.
The final song of their set, “Bowie”, was off their first album Folk the World Tour. The lights went black and came up a few seconds later, to find Bret and Jemaine in sparking sequined shirts. After the final number, it was plain to see that the audience didn’t want them to leave. “If we don’t go now,” Jemaine said, “we’ll end up living here.” The reaction he received for saying that was the cacophonous sound of adoration, which they completely deserved.
I know the title of this post probably makes absolutely no sense, so let me try to explain.
Today is kind of a crazy day for me in a few respects. It’s my last official day at Google as a full-time employee, which might seem like something that could put a damper on the rest of the day for me, but it’s being offset by tonight’s Animal Collective show here at the Fox Theater in Oakland. I don’t think I’ve ever been more anticipatory and excited for a band that I’ve never seen live before. I’ve become largely familiar with their humongous catalog over the past year or so and this band has really been what I’ve listened to the most since I moved out of my comfort zone in the Midwest to the Wild West. And because I have this show tonight to look forward to, I’m proud and happy to announce that this show marks the start of a whole new era for me and the site itself.
I know that all of the changes we’ve gone through around here have definitely caused a loss of, well, confidence in our ability to be a kick-ass music blog. I think a lot of that has just been me responding to a lot of the external pressures of life and love and the search for inner happiness, which is nothing that any of you live music fans really care too much about, so for that I want to deeply apologize. I’ve learned a lot about what turns my gears over the last year, and music and being a music fan is something that is deeply important to me. It’s something I want to continue to share with the world, so thanks for all the people that continue to read the site and hang out with us on a weekly basis. This week is when that weekly stop-by can start changing to daily, because I’m going to be focusing a lot of energy on the site over the next few months. I know I’ve said that before, but this time I really do mean it, bitches.
Let’s start our week off with a little clip from the fantastic Flight of the Conchords show I saw last night in Berkeley. The band opened with “Too Many Dicks on the Dancefloor” which absolutely killed it, and the show was hilarious front to back. Some of the comedy interludes were really just Bret and Jemaine winding down from a long tour (Berkeley being the last stop), which brought out this moment that you’ll see below.
