The New Pornographers - Live

I saw one of my favorite bands, "The New Pornographers," recently so here is quick post on the concert. Now, it was a relatively short set (1 hour) but without any breaks, so a lot of music got packed into it. While I can't reproduce the set list in order beyond a few notes (they opened with "Dancehall Domine," "Use It" was the 3rd song, and they closed with "The Bleeding Heart Show) here is a breakdown of every song they played by album (and note, they played at least one song from each album):

MR - "Mass Romantic"

EV - "A Testament to Youth in Verse"
"The Laws Have Changed"

TC- "Use It"
"The Bleeding Heart Show"

Ch- "All the Old Showstoppers"

T- "Moves"

BB- "Brill Bruisers"
"Champions of Red Wine"
"Dancehall Domine"

WC- "Play Money"
"Whiteout Conditions"
"High Ticket Attractions"
"This is the World of the Theatre"

As I begin I should also make a brief note about the lineup: Dan Bejar was not with them (he wasn't involved in Whiteout Conditions but I hope that it is simply a timing issue, I may not always appreciate the Bejar songs as much, but they added a lot of texture to the albums and  "War on the East Coast" and "Born with a Sound" were some of my favorite tracks off of Brill Bruisers), and neither was Neko Case. Being a huge Case fan I was hoping she would be with them, but her not being there wasn't too bad since Kathryn Calder does a great job. There was only one song, "Play Money," that really needed Case, the violinist/vocalist who did Case's vocals had a little squawk with the high notes and couldn't give the song the verve it needs to work. "Play Money" largely gets by on its attitude (it's not nearly as strong as the other cuts from Whiteout Conditions that they played) and it was probably the weakest song on the list.

The runner-up for weakest song would probably be "Moves," which seemed like a strange choice from that album. I was really hoping for "Up in the Dark," which is one of my favorite songs of theirs, period, but even "Crash Years" would have been better. Maybe "Crash Years" would have needed Case, and "Moves" was more familiar because it was in a car commercial. Oh well, as I noted, they played "Use It" three songs into their set, so at least I got what I wanted there. Playing it early alleviated my anxiety about whether I would get to hear at least one song I really wanted to hear: on that list were "Use It," "Sing Me Spanish Techno," "My Rights Versus Yours," and "Up in the Dark"; sure I only got one out of this four, but I thoroughly enjoyed the concert. "Use It" may be their best song and contains one of my favorite lines: "Two sips from the cup of human kindness and I'm s#it-faced." The time-bending dynamics of "Sing Me Spanish Techno" would be really fun live, too. As for "My Rights Versus Yours," if its about a custody battle (or divorce proceeding) I can see why it doesn't get live play, but it is a fantastic song and I remember when that album first came out and I got it and played it for a friend, and those early "ooooooh" notes were part of what got him hooked on the band.

Among the pleasant surprises were how good "Champions of Red Wine" sounded, its shimmering texture on the album translated well into a live context, "All the Old Showstoppers" is a song that never really caught my ear, and yet it was good live, and the climax of "The Bleeding Heart Show" really worked as a finisher. Great show.