I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: February 25, 2017] Japandroids

I was mostly excited to see Japandroids because in addition to liking their music, I wanted to see how two guys could be so powerful live.  I’d also heard that their live shows were a ton of fun.  And was it ever.

Interestingly, I had tickets for the Friday night show, which sold out.  But then something more important came up–a father daughter dance.  I was able to get my ticket to someone I work with and he enjoyed Friday night and I was still able to get a ticket for Saturday night.  So everybody won.  There was also some joking from Brian King the guitarist/singer that Friday night was a better crowd–until the Saturday night crowd decided to prove him wrong.  They were also filming on our night, so I wonder if anything will ever come of that.

But back to the show.  When the crew set up their gear, I was surprised to see them putting the drum set literally right in front of me, sideways–facing the guitar.  I knew that he faced that way but didn’t think they put him right a the front of the stage.

And then there were lights and lights and lights.  I was really close to the stage, so I didn’t get to fully appreciate the lights, but I did enjoy being where I was (and watching everyone stage dive).  Plus, King kept coming over to the drums to do stuff right in front of us.  The crowd was so dancey/pushy/surfy that by the end of their set I had been pushed about twenty feet away from the center of the stage off to the right.

It was pretty exciting when the two guys came out and David Prowse sat at the drums just a few feet away and they launched into “Near to the Wild Heart of Life,” their new single with a ton of sing along vocal parts.

Japandroids have 3 albums out (and a B-sides collection).  They played 7 of 8 songs from their new album and 7 of 8 songs from their previous album Celebration Rock, and the show was one non-stop, sweaty party.  It was really great watching them so close like at ending of this song.

They bounced back and forth between those two albums for a bunch of songs.  Here’s a clip from True Love and a Free Life of Free Will where you can see both guys singing.

King came over to our side, did some rock star poses, hung out by Prowse and was really chatty with the audience.  After the second song or so some guys started stage diving.  And every once in a while someone would stay up there too long.  King explained that they have strict five second rule to be on stage before someone removes them and puts them back in the crowd.  And, more importantly both guys were always making sure that he people in the front row were okay from all of the bodies hurling around them–he even gave one of them his set list before the show ended to ensure that her tenacity was rewarded.

And so, the whole night people were going up on stage, jumping off, falling off.  Someone even did a backflip before jumping into the crowd.  A few people almost crashed into King and he just laughed it all off. I really enjoyed his attitude.  After the second or third song, King said to a group of guys in front of him–will you stop asking for “Hearts Sweat” if I promise we’ll play it later.  Prowse jokes that he was setting up a bad precedent, but King confirmed that no one else should shout out requests, but these guys were driving him crazy.

Before playing that old song, they played “Wet Hair” from Post Nothing as well.  They slowed things down for the great, song “Arc of Bar,” which is really intense live.  This song allowed for lots of stage diving like this young lady and this gentleman.

After the slowdown of “Arc of Bar,” they ramped back up with “The Nights of Wine and Roses,” the Celebration Rock lead off track, and “Evil’s Sway.”  Then it was back to the new album with Midnight to Morning (I love this video, there’s two different people diving, and the crew guy gives him a gentle push at the end).

They played the final song from Celebration Rock, Continuous thunder (I love that in this video you can see Prowse singing even though he isn’t singing into th emic).  It was some time around here that a roadie came out to fix something on the stage and King climbed on his shoulders and continued to play from up there (I am bummed at how bad a picture I got of it since I was so close).

And then he told us that if we were going to take one message away from the show it should be this one: No Known Drink or Drug could ever hold a candle to your love.  They finally got to “Hearts Sweat” which they said they haven’t played in years and were pleased that  they didn’t mess it up.  (It was great).

They ended their set with two of their bigger, most crowd-pleasing songs.  The first was “Young Hearts Spark Fire.”  This song got a whole bunch of stage divers, and this great moment when the whole song stopped and we all just screamed along with the band.  And then came The House that Heaven Built (I think people were taking this message more: “if they try and slow you down tell em all to go to hell”).

They didn’t play an encore, (their show was about an hour and 45 minutes), but they did have a kind of encore when Craig Finn joined them for a cover of The Saints’ “I’m Stranded.”  It was cool seeing Finn scream a little more than he did during his set.  And also cool watching people get up on stage with Finn–which they did not do during his set.

And just like that it was over.  We were all sweaty and a little exhausted, but it was awesome.

SETLIST

• Near to the Wild Heart of Life
• Adrenaline Nightshift
• Fire’s Highway
• True Love and a Free Life of Free Will
• North East South West
• Younger Us
• In a Body Like a Grave
• Wet Hair
• Arc of Bar
• The Nights of Wine and Roses
• Evil’s Sway
• Midnight to Morning
• Continuous Thunder
• No Known Drink or Drug
• Heart Sweats
• Young Hearts Spark Fire
• The House That Heaven Built
• (I’m) Stranded
  (The Saints cover) (with Craig Finn)