The Wily Filipino

The Polyphonic Spree, The Great American Music Hall, SF, 7/17/2007.

(No, it's not an attempt at poetry; just notes.)

And so, the beginning stages:

gimme some truth on red cloth
"I've had enough of watching scenes
Of schizophrenic, egocentric, paranoiac, prima donnas"
heart-shaped hole for the black-clad
fragile army to step through

and they wake up slowly to the american dream
they're running away and younger yesterday
they hang around the day and watch us explode
we crawl and get up and go
we gather around the campfire for "it's the sun"

and a slow departure:

as we, the audience
(all in good time)
raised our voices

procession of white robes
through the screaming crowd
together they're heavy

and the audience goes nuts at lithium
tim jumps into the crowd
beer spills
people jump
sweat flies
i like it
i'm not gonna crack

and the big 1-2-3 punch of total bliss:
soldier girl hold me now light and day

and frozen bodies wake as the fool becomes a king

and at the end of two hours
i got my religion
courtesy of The Polyphonic Spree

The first time I saw the Polyphonic Spree (perhaps a couple of years ago, at Bimbo's), I thought it was one of the best concerts I'd seen in my life. (It helped that I was close to the front, as I was this time, where I dragged Romeo.) Their two-hour Great American Hall concert was no different -- a perfect example of Durkheimian collective effervescence, with the crowd singing and cheering and jumping as one. A total antithesis to the dignified head-nodding at the Slint concert I saw a week later: with the Spree you learn to drop that indie hipster facade quickly.

If the spectacle of 24 musicians and singers crammed onto a stage (and showers of confetti!) doesn't move you, then perhaps Tim DeLaughter, working the crowd like a gospel preacher, will. It was then a welcome sight to see the band return for the encore not in their black militia uniforms, but in their choir robes. This was church, after all.

And the music never ends. As in the previous concert I saw, the band members left the stage one by one, leaving the audience singing "All in good time, raise our voices" -- all throughout until the Spree returned for the encore, walking through the ecstatic crowd. And that was the point: we were the choir too.

The highlights: a crowd-pleasing "Soldier Girl" / "Hold Me Now" / "Light and Day" sequence near the end (DeLaughter lists the songs, asking if the audience wanted to hear any of them, and goes, "Ah, let's do all three!"). John Lennon's lyrics projected onto a red banner covering the stage, then DeLaughter cutting a heart-shaped hole in the center and unveiling the band. And a fantastic cover of Nirvana's "Lithium," where DeLaughter jumps into the pit in front of him, the audience going completely batshit.

(YouTube video here.)

Posted by the wily filipino at July 27, 2007 08:35 PM