Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Dirty Pretty Things @ Bowery Ballroom, NYC [8/15/06]

For better or worse, tonight's Dirty Pretty Things show will forever be known to me as the Beverage Show. Why? Partially because I've never seen a band have so many different beverages on stage at once. Yes, Guided by Voices used to keep a cooler of beer on stage, and a bottle or two of Jack (or was it Jim?). But in the leadup to tonight's set, DPT's road crew put out no less than 21 different drinks. Yes, I counted. First, there were at least 12 bottles of water skattered around the stage (mostly by drummer Gary Powell). Then there were about a half dozen beers. Then, just when it seemed the band was about to come on, one of the stage guys started making mixed drinks for the band at the side of the stage. I believe there were a couple cranberry-vodkas and a few rum and cokes, though I may be wrong on that. As a result, even before the band started, there were more liquids on stage than I've had to drink in the last week.

The second and more important reason that tonight will forever be known as the Beverage Show is the fact that no less than 7 beers were thrown into the crowd or at the band. Most of these were full cups of beer. Now I've been to a crapload of shows where you get drenched in the beer of people around you, but I've never been to a show in NYC where there was this much beer intentionally being thrown around the room. It didn't bother me, but I was pretty surprised security let it go on. Maybe they just wanted to make the band feel like they were home in London. I should've gone a few days without brushing my teeth.

How was the actual show? Damn good, if I say so myself. The band clearly had a great time, and the crowd went absolutely nuts. They played pretty much the entire album, and two Libertines cuts, for a total of about 50-55 minutes. My only wish, aside from the band having a few more songs in its catalog, is that the sound had been a little louder. There was an air of excitement and near-anarchy (flying beers will help that), but it felt like the show just missed out on being great because the music wasn't loud enough to pummel the crowd like it should have. All in all, though, it was a great, fun show that was just one more sign that Carl doesn't need his old partner to bring the rock.

Oh, and despite the broken collarbone, Carl played guitar for one song. You just can't stop this kid.

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