Colin Meloy @ The Rio Theatre

I had no idea what to expect with this show. I'd heard his live album over at Tex's one afternoon but that particular day I was more interested in combining Tecate and Orange Juice and calling it a meximosa*. I have tendency to get a bit nervous about shows that are just dude and guitar as well. Sometimes they can be ruling but sometimes I find myself looking at the time and a bit bored..

At this point let me back up and say that opening act Laura Gibson was awesome. Beautifully simple songs with the most heartfelt and sweet stage banter of all time. Serena claimed that she would be assigned the job of penning the soundtrack of her life. Check out her song called "Hands in Pockets" which you can get on the daytrotter website here.

Now back to Colin. He was completely brilliant. His music and shows always make wish that I was more well read, had a subscription to the Utne Reader** and had my own woodblock greeting card company running out of my garage. Basically I want to be smarter and more creative because he seems to do all that and makes it look so damn easy.

Musically he played just want I wanted to hear.. a bit of everything! "California One/Youth And Beauty Brigade", "The Sporting Life", "Shankill Butchers", a song about a bike that I should probably know, Sam Cooke's "Cupid".. the hits kept coming! All this and he seemed pretty spun out due to sleep deprivation. He took time to introduce the objects that he had on stage with him like a crystal (pictured), CD-R and I believe a half package of M&Ms all of which had names. He also told a story of running into Johnny Marr buying 2 grey throw pillows at Ikea.

The only thing that wasn't rad (and was more comical than bad) was the people who would try to clap/snap along in time.. word of advice if you want to be 'that dude***' who gets the whole crowd a clappin', make sure you know how to keep a beat. Nothing is shittier than listening to music you like while sitting near someone who is clapping away to seemingly another song. But you know what made up for the bad clapping? The dude wearing pacman parachute pants and an unbuttoned olive drab army shirt who just wanted to dance. Don't go changing bro!


* turns out I didn't invent that
** i don't know what the Utne Reader is all about but it seems like something that smart people read
*** btw that dude always sucks