As part of Celebrate Brooklyn, The New Pornographers and assorted
other Canadian bands performed last night in Prospect Park. The
Canadian aspect of the program was in honor of Canada Day - July 1,
and this week, there are a whole host of activities leading up to
Canada Day including a number of Canadian bands and musicians
performing.

I got there early and got good seats (well, would have been were it
not for all the people standing in the aisle, but even then it just
meant I had to stand for a while and I saw just fine).

The first band was The Sadies and they are from Toronto. They played
"Spaghetti (South) Western" style music. Reminded me of something I'd
hear in Tucson, mixed with some of Sun Record's back catalog. It was
kinda cool, even if wasn't exactly up my alley. I could still
appreciate it, I guess. And they played a lot of songs about creeks! 
And they made funny faces while singing. :) The highlight of their set
was when Jon Specer (formerly of the Blues Explosion) and Matt
Verta-Ray, both of whom are the band Heavy Trash. They did some good
old fashioned rockabilly for the last couple of songs. That was really
cool.

The next band was Montreal's Stars. Mellow and melodic. The name Stars
seems to fit them. I liked the trumpet and melodica for a couple of
songs. Nice male/female vocals pairing. While I wasn't immediately
blown away by them, I do think this is a band I could get into if I
wanted to. They seemed to have a number of fans in the audience.

Then, on to the main performers of the night - The New Pornographers!
They make you want to jump up and down and clap and crank up the
volume. I love them, and aparently, so do over 7000 other New Yorkers.

The place was PACKED. Totally full, I kid you not. I know it had to
have been at least 7000 because I'm sure it was filled and the place
fits 7000+. I also think that people hung around for the show without
actually going into the venue since it was in the park and pretty
open, much more so than Summerstage in Central Park. Before the show,
many of the people from the back started moving forward in the aisles,
so much so that I had to stand to see, even very close to the front.
And most of the people in the audience were young, really young, which
impressed me, surprised me, and made me a little jealous. It impressed
me because AWESOME, hopefully these kids will grow up and help change
the face of popular music, make it more diverse instead of formulaic;
it impressed me because how cool is it that there are all these 17
year olds who know could music. It surprised me because I wasn't like
that when I was that age, and neither were any of my friends. I mean,
we listened to good music, hell, I was all into Ben Folds Five at that
age, but these guys seemed way more into it than I think I would have
been. But then again, I lived in Tucson where tours came by once every
3 months, and even then, it was likely in Phoenix, and even more
likely, it was 21+. Here there are more options for teens. And of
course, it made me jealous because a) I wish I had the opportunity to
be like that when I was 17 and b) I only fell in love with the New
Pornographers 3 months ago. I wish it would have been 5 years ago when
they first came out.

Anyway, the show. They played a mix of stuff off Mass Romantic,
Electric Version (my favorite), and the soon to be released Twin
Cinema. The new stuff is just as infectious, bouncy, and hand clappy
as the rest, so I'm sure I'll love the album.

Durring "Mass Romantic" the crowd rushed the stage and climbed over
the barrier for the "Friends of Celebrate Brooklyn" reserved seating!
Then during "The Body Says No" they started stage diving and crowd
surfing! One kid did a stage dive and was DENIED. Aparently, it was
like the parting of the Red Sea and no one caught him. Haha! A bunch
of kids also ran on stage. After that song, the MC talked to the band
and AC Newman had to tell people not to jump on top of the women and
children because it isn't a very Canadian thing to do. Haha! AC Newman
was actually very funny and witty up there. During "Star Buddies" the
kids in the front were yelling shit that no one could understand and
AC Newman made a crack at them how no one can understand what they are
saying.

They did not play "Chump Change" which was a terrible terrible
disappointment to me. I really, REALLY love that song and was so so so
sad not to see it live. But they did play the rest of my favorites, so
I guess that is something. I think the band may have had to cut it
short, so I'm going to assume that they would have played it had they
been able to play for their full set. Maybe one of the other bands
went long or the set up inbetween acts didn't go as smoothly as they
planned.

Ok, setlist ("" means I don't know the exact title, * means new song):

"real people"
*Graceland
*Music
From Blown Speakers
*Bleeding Hearts Show
Jackie
Mass Romantic
The Electric Version
Testiment to You in Verse
*Star Buddies
"Cindy"
The Body Says No
Twin Cinema
"Not Believe Them"
All For Swinging You Around
"Salvation Central"
Letter From An Occupant 

Apologies if I got any song titles wrong or if I messed up on
something being new or not.

They have more tour dates coming up, so check them out if they are
playing your neck of the woods:

09.23.05 Commodore Ballroom Vancouver Br 
09.29.05 Henry Fonda Music Box Theatre - Fonda Theater Los Angeles CA 
10.07.05 Southgate House Newport KY 
10.08.05 Club Soda Kalamazoo MI 
10.11.05 The Roxy Boston MA 
10.20.05 Metro - Smart Bar Chicago IL 

Stacy