two years ago today i saw architecture in helsinki for the first of what is now three times. they opened for clap your hands say yeah at summerstage, where i have now seen two life-affirming shows. i knew three of their songs at this point, but i had been listening to those three songs for about eight months. they played a lot of stuff that eventually became my favorite album of last year. i waited patiently for these songs until they came to me on places like this eleven months later.
this sounds extremely lame to say but it is immeasurable how much loving and revering this band has changed me as a person, and some days i wonder if i would love music as much as i do were it not for architecture in helsinki. it says a lot about me that i have never questioned my adoration and consuming obsession with a band whose most well-known song is called IT'5. (indeed, the band i have been most devoted to recently centers their most popular song around the lyric "hey hey hey hey!" and i will see them a third time december 3).
i never got a chance to review this concert in a real sense besides talking to my friends about it, but it really is measurable how influential september 28 2006 was in my life. i used to spend at least a half hour every day listening to AIH. i still do the tongue-cluck thing that opens DO THE WHIRLWIND when i get nervous. when people ask me what my favorite band is i just spit AIH right out even though if you looked at my top played list on itunes they are not half as represented as they once were. when i hear new-sounding bits like THIS YOUTUBE CLIP i get irrationally excited. when i see things like their announcing four australian dates at the end of this year i start feeling all US TOUR????!??!?!?! i would see them a thousand more times. this is not a testament to my insanity, it is a testament to the sheer power and exuberance of their live show - and this feeling doesn't come from just me. there is an incomprehensible amount of energy in everything they do. maybe they are summed up best by the title of their DAYTROTTER SESSION.
i guess what you want out of this post is RARITIES (?):
LOVE IS EVIL, SOONER THAN SOON, LIVING WITHOUT YOU, BEEF IN A BOX, FIND YOUR POWER ANIMAL, LOVE IS THE DRUG.
3 comments:
Just one word: Spoon. Just two words: Vampire Weekend. AIH - three words - is way down at #3 in your heart!
dad we talked about this and i find your characterization of my tastes unfair. if you actually read this post in detail you would realize that you are so wrong.
I *did* read it! And, whereas I think AIH really allowed you to "turn a corner" in your music life, you have in fact TURNED THE CORNER! And, stop calling me "Dad" - I'm actually a bald guy from Abilene whose name happens to be "Oliver" and who happens to like Spoon.
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