Blur - 7/18/2003 - Avalon, Boston, MA
A week before this concert and there were still tickets on sale. The week of the concert? Still tickets! I think it finally sold out around Wednesday or Thursday, which is about when the Boston Globe promoted the concert and said something to the effect of, 'don't you idiots know how fucking lucky you are they're here playing at Avalon?! don't you realize these people sell out fucking arenas overseas?' Apparently people listened, much to the chagrin of the many many boys and girls drifting about the Lansdown Street sidewalk and whispering "tickets? Do you have any tickets?" like desperate junkies to anyone lurking about the entrance.
And, as there was a fucking baseball game going on at exactly the same time, there were many people lurking. In cluding myself. Would the T deliver our friends in time? Would the Red Sox fans allow this strange trickle of people in decidedly non-baseball appropriate wear to wind their way through the red, white, and blue crowds towards Avalon? The tension mounted. Sort of. Okay, mostly there was no tension, just a bunch of bored people waiting and twiddling their thumbs. I lurked, eventually the roomie arrived, alcohol was obtained, and all was well.
The openers were Moving Units. I don't really know anything about them. They were decent but also making a fairly typical late-nineties twitchy britpop kind of noise. I think it's harder to earn meals off of that these days, but that's just my opinion. I liked their twangy guitar quite a bit though. They were very bouncy and while some of their songs sounded the same, there was still variety. However, while I was quite amused with the drummer's dancing about at first, the extreme pelvic thrusting was a bit more than I needed.
After this there was the obligatory break between sets and I found the powder room, which intimidated me with its newly rennovated and swanky chrome vibe. Time moved on, pretty bodies circulated about and showed off their belt buckles, life was grand. This is probably a good time to mention that we had a perfect viewing spot. We were congratulating ourselves about this when the lights dimmed and the cheering began-- or the roaring began, the place was packed.
So.
Blur opened with Ambulance and my life was pretty much complete from there on in.
I need to repeat that. Blur opened with Ambulance. Do you know how much I love that song? By the time Damon got to the line "getting getting getting there" I realized I'd been singing along since the beginning and that nothing was going to make this concert suck for me. Maybe it's because the song's lyrics speak to me, maybe it's subliminal messaging, I don't know, but this song it pretty much perfect. It starts quiet as can be, is perfect for Damon's rather imperfect voice, and moves along very very gently all the way to completion. It's simple, but I think it matches the message of the lyrics perfectly.
For the stage set they had three, maybe four, simple LED sign screens. The really narrow ones, kinda like they use on a bus, and they just used those, fashing to certain beats, with the regular stage lights for some splash. They'd change color sometimes and flash with the music, but were still just a nice background. They also used three amazing back up singers. They provided a perfect layer of extra noise during certain songs, to replace the noises produced by studio equipment on the album, in addition to songs like Tender, where back up vocals are already built into the song. It gave the songs that could have been just been performed with some sort of tape track, a really full, rich sound.
In general, Blur does a really good job of making the fun studio noises and effects work live. I always worry about how bands will manage the translation of songs from studio to stage, particularly with Blur's newer material and Radiohead's material in general, but in this case they chose to bring in a second percussion guy, another guy for piano and some saxophone, and a second electric guitar player (err, no idea if it was bass or not, because I know jack). It worked, because none of the songs sounded like they were missing anything. Frequently, they sounded even better. There's something about having a live body, plus a live performance, that no computer can beat.
Damon was quite possibly on... something. Though I'm going to just pretend he's happy on life. That or he really trully sees his microphone as a sacred object. However rockstars are a strange breed so perhaps he's just like this all the time? Dave had his glasses on for a bit and they always make me happy. Alex however, god. That man's hips, when he gets into it? And he knows. Oh I accuse his of knowing his powers, because he gets this smirk on his face and twinkle in his eye and it says, 'yeah, I'm shimmying. Yeah, I'm sexy, aren't I?' Guh. These rockstars and their powers.
We interrupt this recape to say: God I fucking love club shows. Because I wasn't up front at all, but I could practically see their pores.
Over the course of the evening, they performed songs from everything, every album. It was a really nice mix, considering they have how many albums to try and include now. Most of the material came from 13 and Think Tank, but every album was represented in some way. They did not however, much to the dismay of the very vocal boys behind us, sing "Parklife". However, they did sing "Girls and Boys" and actually looked like they weren't being tortured to do so.
"Caravan" was just perfect live. The song's very sleepy, with a lovely quiet opening on the piano, but still with that twangy guitar and little bits of drumming. It was perfect for a resting point in the show, because at the end the backup singers come in on the chorus to finish it out, bringing up the energy just enough to get things ready for the next song.
The twangy beginning to "Gene x Gene" was wonderful as well. Apparently however, I'm all wrong when I sing it, because the little doots in the chorus are apparently not "doot doot dooos" but "bum bum bummms". They sang "Trimm Trabb" as well and again, I was perfectly willing to die happy. God, that sooooooong. It's so slow and it has those little trills that slowly come in more and more until all of a sudden it's a little faster, a little less quiet, and then there are even more layers of noise appearing, it's getting even faster, and then pow! Everything drops out except for a few sections of instrument and Damon just yowls. You think that's it, you think that's the high point, but the song continues until, out of nowhere there's a crash and the song breaks into a wall of noise. That's a peak to be envied.
"Tender" and "Out of Time" where the happy singalong moments of the evening. As were "Song 2" (Ah woo, hoo!) and "Girls and Boys." They blasted though "We've Got a File On You" and "Crazy Beat." But, seriously, after hearing "Crazy Beat" at the same time as "Song 2," "Crazy Beat" just does not compare.
It appeared that they took requests at one or possibly two points in the evening, but you can never tell just how staged that is or isn't. They did run into some sound and/or computer problems at one point and, while Damon could have talked at the audience a little more during the awkward pause to distract them, he was still rather apologetic about it happening and eventually they worked it out.
It was a great crowd. Lots of energy, everyone really into the show and engaged. And in the, My, How Time's Change category, damn. I completely forgot about the new smoking ban. In fact, I didn't even notice the lack of smoke until, just as Blur was starting, a little tiny plume of smoke came up from the crowd and one second later event security is leaping into the crowd and the smoke is gone. Then, for the encore, the band comes back out and Damon's got a cigarette on him. He gets to the front of the stage, he looks to the side, and instantly someone's talking to him, he drops the cigarette and looks rather sheepish for a moment or two.
Poor little rockstars, no cigarettes for you in Boston. They played a long encore though, I think he forgave us.
