She And Him @ The Opera House Review
The security at The Opera House was really tight and even borderline excessive. Probably the first time I’ve been totally frisked down at a concert and the security guy had a few “checks” at my bum. Definitely unwelcome, even more stupid was when he found that I had a camera and said you have to pay $3 to bring it in. After some confusion we told them we were press but they still gave us a hard time, so I asked “do you guys do this for every concert here?” the douchebag just said “read the sign” which said no audio, no video. Learn to listen you fucking prick.
My friend who was on ‘assignment’ for Format or more like there for his own enjoyment, was forced to sign this form for “guaranteeing” that he would only take pictures for the fist 3 songs and without flash. They forgot about me but whatever to go through all that for not wanting to take a picture, we said fuck it. I’d love to take a sexy picture of Zooey and show it off but it wasn’t worth it with all the trouble.
Despite security being total dicks, the Opera House is a pretty cool venue. The Opera House is a very nice looking venue and multiple places to hang on, including the balcony. Beer is tremendously expensive as if I was going to buy a beer at a sports venue. Getting rowdy for a band like She & Him would be a little odd.
Despite that, Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward were pretty good live. They played around with some songs, especially M. Ward playing around with pauses to fool the crowd a bit or just overall having some fun. Zooey herself is a great singer and spoke to the crowd after every song. At one moment, she seemed to be dancing which seemed to be contradict her introverted appearance throughout the night. I personally would’ve liked to see a jumping and jiving Zooey then the laid back one.
Either way there’s not much to hate about their concert, they were superb musically, on note with everything and not being afraid to play around with songs. They gave the crowd a new song which had M Ward featured a little bit vocally. The crowd was probably the loudest mid-song when M.Ward started singing on “You Really Got A Hold On Me”. Personally I love the mix of male and female vocals. M. Ward has a great voice live and She and Him can really lift off to unseen heights.
A great concert, I’ve been spoiled with some of the best ever but She & Him came in and gave everything expected. One downside was the placement of the piano, which hid Zooey Deschanel a few times, and it made it hard to see her playing/performing. I was just a little bit off centre as well. Dullest moment for me personally was when She & Him played a cover song that I didn’t know of. It was a country song I think and because I didn’t know it and many of the others around me others didn’t either, it was a bit of a downer.
However, despite my nitpicking, it was a great show, short set but definitely worth seeing them again when they record more stuff.
MP3: Sweet Darling by She & Him
Freakwater played to a loud reception as a lot of the concert go-ers seemed enthusiastic for their performance. It wasn’t my cup of tea though.
Thanks to Merge Records! The Toronto show kicked off their tour here’s their other tour dates:
25 Jul at Trocadero in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
26 Jul at Terminal 5 in New York, New York
28 Jul at Cat’s Cradle – SOLD OUT in Carrboro
29 Jul at Variety Playhouse in Atlanta, Georgia
30 Jul at Mercy Lounge in Nashville, Tennessee
31 Jul at Orange Peel in Asheville, North Carolina
2 Aug at Newport Folk Fest in Newport, Rhode Island
4 Aug at Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio
5 Aug at Park West in Chicago, Illinois
7 Aug at First Avenue in Minneapolis, Minnesota
8 Aug at Barrymore in Madison, Wisconsin
10 Aug at V Fest in Baltimore, Maryland
Sick concert!
Best I went to in recent memory!