i do agree that it was a good lineup. but first let me say something about the larimer lounge. it just may be my favorite venue in denver. there is certainly no better place in town for a punk rock show. it may not get as many great acts or have as great a sound as the hi-dive, but it's really the place to get down and dirty with your favorite band.
but before my favorite band, there were a couple openers. as i walked in, d.biddle was in the middle of their set. you know, i remember a long time ago i saw them and really didn't care for them. this must have been in college or something. i hadn't heard anything else from them until this year, when i saw that they got a westword award for best live band. so they must have really gotten better over the years, even though i hadn't seen them. so here they were, and i think they did improve. they rocked it pretty hard, but here's the thing. they were TOTALLY EMO. seriously. emo. there was a point in one song where the singer took out a sharpie and drew a heart on his hand. if that's not the most late-90s-emo thing to possibly do, i don't know what is. but then again, it could have been in tribute to hearts of palm, another denver band that shares a member with d.biddle. either way, the music was totally emo. not necessarily in a bad way. i still enjoyed it. but man...EMO.
upon this realization, and upon watching the next band set up, i began to worry. they were totally dressed like dorks and had their guitars up to their nipples. i felt like yelling 4 seasons songs at them or something. they looked like richie cunningham's band. or, worse, vampire weekend (sssssssnap!). but then they started playing and i remembered something. enon doesn't take just anyone on tour with them. i have been enlightened many a time by enon's opening acts. so i was glad i gave joggers a chance. they played what one might call "vampire weekend minus the eastern influence, and totally math rocked out." or maybe "math rock for dorks," which seems like a redundant description, but i'm not talking about the type of dorks that listen to math rock and spend hours on end at their local record shop. i'm talking about dorks like richie cunningham.
this is really just a roundabout way of describing them as math rock with pop sensibilities. as in, this ain't no battles or shellac. maybe a non-confrontational black black ocean would be a good way to describe them. this makes it look like i didn't like them, but i enjoyed them a lot in fact. good show.
and finally out came my favorite band with an annoying name, enon. seriously, everybody wants to say "eeen ON" but it's "eeeenin" but when you say it, people don't always get it. but now i want to be right, so i'll only say the band's name when necessary. but i'll type it a lot. it is nice and short in that way. enon.
phone pictures and the lighting at the larimer lounge is lucky when it hits the performers. so i did mess with them a little bit in post, but i did not have the skills to salvage much. but rest
assured, the blurry figures are indeed enon.
well, except for that guy back there. it was weird, i was thinking about how cool it was that toko was setting up all her equipment herself, but the drummer was nowhere to be found. i was like, "how lame! he's not even setting up his own drum kit!" but then when they started playing, i noticed that the man behind the drum kit was not matt schulz, the drum
mer for enon of about 9 years. i hope he's okay. i thought i saw him when i walked in, too...
anyhow, most of the set was really rock driven. i think this is the most rock driven i have seen enon play a full set. they played mostly stuff off the new album, grass geysers...carbon clouds, but it was a fair mix of new and old material. they also had a new 7" single for sale, called "little ghost of jon benet" (or maybe just "little ghost"), and they played the title track from that. again, very rock driven. i like this brainiac-style direction of the band.
and then the lights went out. john recalled when the whole power went out there last time they played the larimer. but it was just weird, all the lights were out. john said he was too scared to play in the dark. but he suggested that anyone drunk could do something uninhibited like yell something they wouldn't usually yell. i considered yelling "toko you're adorable!" or "play the b-side from the new single!" but you know, i just don't yell.
the lights came back on with a vengeance. like, bright and weird. but at least there was light. and soon after they did play the b-side to that single. another, even faster song.
in fact, when i wrote earlier of the larimer lounge being the perfect venue for a punk
rock show, i mostly meant it's really good to get dirty and loud. now, if you haven't seen enon in concert, you don't know how capable they are at hardcore punk rock. they announced that they were playing "natural disaster" and instead played a punk rock cover, i think by 88 fingers louie. but i'm not sure on that. but it was fast and loud and amazing.
then they did play natural disaster. good thing! it's one of my favorite enon songs.
one thing that was notably absent from this show was the "solo" songs, as i like to call them. by that i mean the songs where either toko or john will grab the mic, put away the bass or guitar, and sing, perhaps while noodling around on the synthesizer. the whole set had them both rocking out on their usual instruments. i didn't realize that as noodly as the new album is, it is very much guitar based (granted, with lots of distortion pedals and weird sounds added on top).
well, actually they did get to some "solo" songs...for the encore. it was so great. the encore was a triple-shot of toko's "pop" songs: "disposable parts," "in this city," and "knock the door." sadly, they didn't do my personal favorite, "daughter in the house of fools," or "carbonation" for that matter, but really...this show was no disappointment. no one boogies like enon.
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