Nov 9 2005
SFA OK!
Despite purposely not drinking too much, last night was mental. But that's not a bad thing.
I went to the venue about 7 o'clock because I had to make sure my spot on the guest list was secured. I went and knocked on the door of the tour bus and the tour manager let me on. Daf was half asleep on the couch in the front of the bus and as soon as saw me, he jumped right up and gave me a big hug. I'm always nervous to go intrude on the tour bus but the band always seems genuinely happy to see me and as soon as we start chatting and catching up, that all goes out the window. It's an awesome feeling.
Once that was sorted, I met up with L Boogie and she came with me back to my place because I left my camera battery in my charger at home. When we got back into the city, we headed to DC9 and met up with Jillian, Randi and Randi's friend Andrew. We had a few beers over there and headed to the venue at 9:30 where we met up with Gl*mrocker and Mike Grass.
The band went on promptly at 10 p.m. and played a great set. I will hopefully get my shit together and have a review up on DCist at some point today. About the show, yes, it lags in the beginning. I spoke to the guys about it after the show and they're aware of it. They're still working out some kinks and are gonna change things up a bit at future shows. But the new stuff sounded amazing (if only a bit too laid back). Once they got to "Slow Life" the set really picked up and took off. And I finally got to watch a show from the VIP balcony/dressing room at the 930, so that was cool. While I was up there I could see all the things Cian does during the set, which is very hard to see from the floor. He was either fiddling with his laptop or his keyboard the entire time, either playing a melody or setting up stuff for the next song. He's one busy dude.
After the gig the band eventually made their way downstairs to the bar in the bottom of the club and we hung out there until the bar kicked us out at last call. I love seeing SFA play live but I like hanging out with them and just chatting after the gig even more. And since I hadn't seen the guys since Feb. of '04, we had lots of catching up to do.
The best bit of the night was when Bunf mentioned the gigs they did opening for Oasis over the summer:
Me: Shit, I totally forgot about those! How were they?
Bunf: Fookin' great man. Why didn't you come over for that show? I had a ticket for you and everything. As soon as we booked that show, I said to myself "Kyle is definitely coming over for this show."
Me: (mouth totally on the floor, speechless) Are you serious? FUCK!
I had a bluestate gig that weekend and really couldn't afford to go, but damn, now I wish I would have. I also asked Gruff about those gigs and he said Oasis "treated them like kings", gave them full use of the video screens at the show and things like that. Gruff also told me the band turned down an opening slot at the shows Oasis did in Loch Lomond in 1996. That's insane. 80,000 people went to those shows. I was stunned, but the way Gruff explained it, it made sense. He said they were happy to finally be able to do a show with Oasis.
The second best bit of the night was when Daf asked Mike if he was Latvian. He is. I have no idea how Daf knew that.
I also talked to Dav and Bunf at length about the band's future plans, which could be both depressing and very exciting at the same time, and the much rumoured "techno album". I'm not sure what I can reveal about that right now (I don't want to betray any confidences) but I'm going to be interviewing some of the guys later this week so I'll see if they'll go on record about it then. Bunf said the venue in Norfolk has a hot tub in the back stage area and he insists on doing his interview in there, so we'll see if that happens or not. Hehehe.
And before anyone freaks out about the previous paragraph, Daf looked me right in the eye and said, "I've been in this band for 11 years and I'm fucking ready for the next 11." So it's all good fellow Furry fans. I'm spacing on a ton of funny stuff that happened last night. More later if I think of it.
Here are my Super Furry Animals pictures on Flickr. Because of their glow-in-the-dark track suits, the lighting wasn't optimal, but I still got a few keepers.
Posted by Kyle in Concert Reviews | Permalink
Comments
great show last night. i agree a bit slow in the beginning but it definitely picked up. here's a photo of gruff i took last night:
darkshapes.com
and a few more on flickr
Posted by: Jay Parkinson at November 9, 2005 2:14 PM
nice writeup. i haven't been to the 9:30 club since it was the WUST Radio Hall (went to the old 9:30 lots) but it's got to be a better venue than crappy Webster Hall. Great pictures too.
Posted by: bill p at November 9, 2005 3:00 PM
i should add after seeing jay's picture, glad to see gruff shaved off that grizzly adams beard!
Posted by: bill p at November 9, 2005 3:02 PM
The show was outstanding. Although, you missed Manitoba, which is a shame. They were really good. Their visuals were amazing too. I was completely mesmerized. (Although, it was the first time I had seen them, in the name of disclosure, I was on Manitoba's guess list, but only because of a mutual friend in Toronto.)
Posted by: DC1974 at November 10, 2005 3:21 PM
Kyle, so amazing to see you again with the guys! So worth the crazy impulsive drive south to March on Washington.
~ Karen
Posted by: Karen at November 11, 2005 11:33 AM
Man, that "depressing" bit... I hope it's nothing bad.
Posted by: Samuel L. at November 12, 2005 7:35 PM
