Another week, another concert. Peter, Bjorn & John blew into town and played 4 small shows all over LA in 3 days. The shows were to debut the music off their forthcoming Gimme Some which comes out in March. I caught their final show Monday night at Bardot in Hollywood.
I was really surprised by the fact that they played the entire new album with no old songs until the encore. Even though most of the crowd hadn't heard the new album, the new songs are catchy enough and upbeat so everyone was dancing and having a great time. I had heard the new album (dropbox) and knew the words to a few of the songs. The band already seems to have improved upon the album by playing with the tempo and including some great new guitar solos. The guys already seemed comfortable with the new material and the only lyric mess up of the night came during the encore when they played the first and last old song of the night.
I got to the show really early to make sure I could get in. It was a free show in a small club so I knew it would fill up fast. The venue is abnormally long and skinny with the stage right in the middle of the space surrounded by a VIP section. Right behind the VIP section was a set of stairs. I managed to claim a prime spot dead center on the stairs with a direct view of all the action. This spot put me at direct eye level with Peter and I am convinced he spent half the show staring directly at me making large amounts of eye contact. He was probably staring off into space and it just happened to choose a spot seemingly on my forehead. This made it awkward when I was singing along with a few of the songs from their unreleased album. I don't think I will ever see another show in which I feel like the singer is actually singing directly to me as I did at this show.
Below are more pictures and some videos I shot wherein Peter continues to make a ton of eye contact. Please excuse the bad video quality, I think I need a new camera but I keep spending all my cash on concert tickets. Case in point, I now need to buy Peter Bjorn and John tickets on Thursday to see them at the El Rey in March so I can try and reignite the connection with Peter.
I saw Pete Yorn play the summer that PB&J's Young Folks was blowing up. Apparently a bunch of people kept asking him if he would play Young Folks during his show because Peter Bjorn and John -> Pete Yorn, I guess? People are idiots. Anyway, he is a good sport so he actually did a cover and it was great and I love Pete Yorn. Thanks CA!
ReplyDeleteThe thing about Peter staring right at you reminded me about the time I saw St. Vincent play. I had a spot in the middle of the venue and spent the whole concert staring right into Annie Clarks eyes and she into mine. I don't have to say but that night I was hypnotized and fell in love with her.
ReplyDeleteAwesome post again CA, I liked that Music for the Morning After he put out a while ago.
ReplyDeleteOff topic: how do you do the page break on an author account?
CT to make a page break do this:
ReplyDelete(Less than sign) !--more-- (Greater than sign)