FM 94/9 2009 Holiday Hootenanny
KBZT had a fantastic track record this year as far as their three big shows - Indie Jam (Black Keys, YYY, Metric), Anniversary Show (Black Joe Lewis, Cage The Elephant) and last night’s Holiday Hootenanny (affectionately called “The Hoot") at RIMAC. Even the rain didn’t keep the fans away from arriving early. I arrived relatively early - caught most of White Rabbits who sounded great but I was saving all my love for the next two bands.
Manchester Orchestra came out with the intensity I have come to expect from them. Their set was short and typical of what I have been seeing them play as openers. They started of with “Pride” and ripped through “I’ve Got Friends”, “Shake It Out”, “My Friend Marcus”, “Everything to Nothing” and “The River”. You expect to get “I’ve Got Friends” and their new single “Shake It Out” but I think I scared the people around me when I reverted to fangirl and freaked out at the opening notes of “Shake It Out”. A bit of a bummer to not get anything from their amazing debut album, but with 30 minutes I was happy with their set.
Phoenix was up next and we stayed on the floor for the madness. From the opener of “Lisztomania” to the set ending “1901”, the crowd was fully into what Phoenix was bringing. Thomas Mars, their lead singer (Sofia Coppola’s Baby Daddy or SCBD to me all night since his name was escaping me) really felt the love from the crowd and spent the majority of the night leaning way into the crowd or jumping off the stage to sing amongst the peeps. AWESOME. We were in the middle of some super enthusiastic fans who were singing and dancing along - I loved being surrounded by people who are as into a show as I am and my fellow fans on the floor did not disappoint.
The rest of the night seemed anti-climactic after Phoenix - we spent our time seated during the entire Vampire Weekend set. I dunno, I like Vampire Weekend but I don’t know why everyone is so crazy about them. Really. And Spoon...well, let’s just say I needed a drink at that point but we did stick around long enough to hear my favorite song from them “The Way We Get By”, a classic from Kill The Moonlight.
But yeah, it really was a great show all around. Cheers to FM 94/9 for a great lineup. (P.S. the Beer-nasium was cool but it needed to be bigger!)
Phoenix - Lisztomania
