SomeAngryIndian

Built to Spill at Irving Plaza.

Last Thursday, I finally got to see Built to Spill. I bought the tickets over six months ago. Then Doug Martsch had his cornea fucked up and delayed the tour. So, I sat on them till now. How was it? In short, good. Not great, not stupendous. But worth the wait.

I went with Seth and Shyam and we showed up around 9 to find the first opening band playing: Helveutia? The singer wasn’t even sure of their name. They were decent. Again, opening bands usually suck. The next band was Camper van Beethoven. They should’ve billed this concert as a dual effort by them and BTS because these guys played for an hour and a half. Seriously. I mean, they weren’t bad. And the final section of their set had some sweet guitar work. But I was too eager for some Martschy goodness.

Finally we got Built to Spill. Now, they played a lot of songs I didn’t really care for. Ones I can’t name. And they left off a lot of songs I really wish I’d heard: Car, Reasons, I Would Hurt a Fly, Kicked it in the Sun, The Plan, Carry the Zero, Time Trap (!!), Else, In Your Mind, and The Weather. These songs are fantastic and I encourage everyone to listen to them. Here’s the good stuff they did play: Goin’ Against Your Mind, Sidewalk, Distopian Dream Girl, Strange, You Were Right, and Randy Described Eternity (as a 22 minute encore).

The concert as a whole was pleasant. There were chicks standing around grinding and guys throwing their fists in the air but I just felt a warm calm. I really got into it with the last three songs. Strange was a pleasant surprise. But when You Were Right came on I was screaming my fucking lungs into sawdust. If you haven’t listened to this song, it’s a reflection on lyrics from classic rock songs. “You were right/when you said/we’re all just bricks in the wall”. It’s tense, explosive, and it was riveting live.

After that, we got Randy Described Eternity, a perfect showcase for Doug Martsch’s witty lyrics and sprawling, meticulous guitarwork. A fantastic song about the pressures of eternity bearing down on the mind and the subsequent desire to be “perfect from now on”.

Since I liked the Built to Spill sound, I was entertained. But BTS’ songs are so varied lyrically and emotionally I get caught up with certain songs I can really relate to. Lyrics like “we’re special/in other ways/ways our/mothers appreciate”, “i wanna see/movies of my dreams”, and “it’s barely yours on loan/what you think you own/the place that you call home/the ideas in your bones”, just impact me personally, and those songs are disproportionately more affecting than others.

The concert experience is getting frustrated. Having gone to a lot this year, more than any previous year, it’s been largely hit or miss. I got really lucky a few times (”Fake Plastic Trees” at Radiohead, “#41″ at Dave, the full verson of “Upwards Over the Mountain” at Iron & Wine) but Built to Spill was one of those concerts that, while still worth it, could’ve been so much more.

I have to go and see them again. That’s the only choice you have when you wanna be able to experience a certain song by a band live.

Next time, if Radiohead doesn’t play Let Down, I’m following them around the world till they do.
Later this week, I’ll write up a review for Tool, a very different concert experience.