The Faint / The Pragmatic / The Show Is the Rainbow - Live 2008.12.12 The Pageant, St. Louis, Missouri

I know, I know, I just saw and reviewed the Faint in Columbia. And it's also true that every single one of my friends that had wanted to go with me to see them in St. Louis dropped out, but still. How can you pass up $20 tickets for a great band on a boring Friday night when you're trying to avoid the reality of a massive amount of homework? So, yeah, now the Faint are not only the only large-scale band I've seen twice, but they're also the only band I've seen three times.

Artist: The Faint
Venue: The Pageant
Location: St. Louis, Missouri
Date: 12 December 2008
Opening Acts: The Pragmatic; The Show Is the Rainbow

Setlist:
01. Agenda Suicide
02. Drop Kick the Punks
03. Take Me to the Hospital
04. Forever Growing Centipedes
05. Psycho
06. In Concert
07. Posed to Death
08. Desperate Guys
09. Get Seduced
10. The Conductor
11. Worked Up So Sexual
12. Machine in the Ghost
13. Mirror Error
14. Paranoiattack
15. I Disappear

Encore:
16. Birth
17. The Geeks Were Right
18. Glass Danse

So whatever, I went alone, just like I did to the Columbia show. This time, though, instead of sitting in the balcony, I decided to hit the pit and dance for once. I made the decision to attend roughly fifteen minutes before the show began, which is also the approximate amount of time it takes me to drive from my apartment to the Pageant. Again, whatever.

The first opening act was The Pragmatic, a local quintet (whose Myspace claims they have a second hometown in Porto, Portugal) that does pretty great nearly-pure synthpop. I say "nearly" because they use a live drummer, but I actually generally prefer that anyway. The other four members all danced around their keyboards and synthesizers, with a lead singer that looks, sounds, and acts eerily like one of my friends who had to work during the concert and therefore couldn't attend. He mostly just sang and only did a little bit of keyboard work, but their only female member contributed the occasional vocal part, too. I have to admit, I think I missed the first few minutes of their set, but from what I did hear, I like them. They might not be absolute standouts, but they had some good hooks and rhythms and all that. I'm currently downloading their latest digital single from their website. Free music rocks.

The second opener was The Show Is the Rainbow, again on tour with the Faint. Frontman/only member Darren was just as wild and active as when I saw him last, but this time he didn't have a drummer and he had a larger venue to run around, which he made full use of. Even if I think he's immature in his lyrical topicality, I love his self-deprecating but simultaneously self-aggrandizing sense of humor and attitude, and his energy is just so intense. Every song finds him running around stage, and usually he ended up jumping into the crowd and then either dancing with audience members, running around the bar, or climbing on top of tables. It was great. He ran past me several times, so I gave him a solid high-five. So much energy.

Finally, after at least a half-hour of waiting after The Show Is the Rainbow left, the Faint hit the stage. And then.... they played the exact same setlist as when I saw them two months ago in a city just two hours away from this venue. On one level, it doesn't matter, but on another... it was pretty much a nearly identical concert; a total repeat. The same songs rocked just as hard and got the same crowd response. (To be specific, the songs that rocked and got the best response were just about all the songs they played off of Black-Wave Arcade and Danse Macabre, specifically "In Concert", "The Conductor", and "Glass Danse". "Take Me to the Hospital" was again fairly unexpected (relatively speaking) and fairly cool.) They played the same video projections and said just about as little as they did at the Columbia show.

The mix was a bit weak because the extreme lows were too loud and the normal bass guitar range was too quiet, as were the guitars during most songs. It's a shame, considering that I like their guitar and bass parts just as much as their synth parts. At a couple different points, though, we were treated to little noise solos by Todd on his special sampler/synth thing. I'm pretty sure he did one between "The Conductor" and "Worked Up So Sexual" at the Columbia show, too, but this time he did one as an introduction to "Mirror Error", too. Also unique to this performance was Todd's mic failing during the last verse of "Birth". His voice went unheard until he grabbed Jacob's mic halfway through "The Geeks Were Right". After that song, they spent a few minutes sorting out the issue, and during that, Dapose did a nice sampler/synth solo of his own.

Other than that... I don't know what else to say. The show was 90% the same as the Columbia show, so read my review of that night if you want more details about their general live performance. It was fun, but it was kind of a drag to realize a few songs in that they were using the same setlist. I was expecting some different songs or a longer setlist or just something different, but alas, only the first opening act was different.

Scores:
If I don't take into account the fact that the show was basically identical to when I saw them two months ago: B+
If I do: D+
[Retrospective Score for The Pragmatic: B

Retrospective Score for The Show Is the Rainbow: C+]

Final Comments:
Honestly, I was disappointed that I didn't get almost anything new. At the same time, though, if I hadn't been to the previous show, I probably would have thought this one was as good as that one, because, by and large, it was. However, I do have to say, I just listened to The Pragmatic's "Circles" single, and although it is good, I like Haii Usagi's album better.

Why couldn't the Faint have pulled a total surprise akin to covering the Talking Heads' "Psycho Killer" like they did when I saw them in 2004?

The Faint / Haii Usagi / The Show Is the Rainbow - Live 2008.10.19 The Blue Note, Columbia, Missouri

The first band I ever saw in concert was the Faint. I saw them in Lawrence, Kansas during their last tour four years ago. Beep Beep opened (and TV on the Radio played on every other night of the tour) and I remember really digging the show. Well, opportunity came knocking and I just saw them a second time. I bought my ticket for their show in Columbia before they announced shows in either of my hometowns (Kansas City and St. Louis), but now they have scheduled gigs in both places in December. Regardless, I got to see a pretty special night in Columbia (and I might see them yet again).

Artist: The Faint
Venue: The Blue Note
Location: Columbia, Missouri
Date: 19 October 2008
Opening Acts: Haii Usagi; The Show Is the Rainbow

Setlist:
01. Agenda Suicide
02. Drop Kick the Punks
03. Take Me to the Hospital
04. Forever Growing Centipedes
05. Psycho
06. In Concert
07. Posed to Death
08. Desperate Guys
09. Get Seduced
10. The Conductor
11. Worked Up So Sexual
12. Machine in the Ghost
13. Mirror Error
14. Paranoiattack
15. I Disappear

Encore:
16. Birth
17. The Geeks Were Right
18. Glass Danse

The first opening act was Haii Usagi, a local Columbia duo that played a half-hour set of electronic music. It reminded me of Air's Moon Safari minus some of the layers, but a bit rockier and harder, with more active drums. One guy just played keyboards and used a laptop to add some samples in; the other guy faced him and sat on a drumset that had a keyboard where the tom-toms should have been. He usually just drummed, but on several songs he played some keyboard bits, sometimes using one hand to drum and one to hit the keys. I thought they totally rocked; I bought their handmade album after the show for just five dollars. You can't argue with that – and the album is great. Look them up on Myspace or something.

The next opener was The Show Is the Rainbow, a self-proclaimed one-man-show from Nebraska (although a friend played drums). The music was mostly pre-recorded, played off of a laptop, but the main guy did play a few guitar lines. He mostly just sang and danced around. He was incredibly energetic and active, jumping in the audience on almost every song and even crowd-surfing a couple times. Each song also had a video accompaniment, which were usually fairly lo-fi animations that sort of went along with his lyrical content. The mix wasn't very good, so I wasn't all that impressed with the actual tunes, but the energy kept it interesting and made for an exhilarating performance. After the show, he gave me a sampler from his record label with a few of his songs on it, and with the advantage of the studio, his songs sound much better. He's pretty cool. If you're already on Myspace checking out Haii Usagi, check out The Show Is the Rainbow, too.

After The Show Is the Rainbow's 40-minute set and then a half-hour wait or so, the Faint hit the stage at about 10:00. Lead singer Todd Fink came out in a scientist's white lab coat and goggles. The band immediately rushed into "Agenda Suicide" from Danse Macabre (2001), with a projector playing the music video in the background. The band appeared quite into their performance; they all danced in their little areas, with synthesist Jacob Thiele bending around especially much while still hitting his keyboard notes. Todd occasionally also played on a little synthesizer, and either he or Jacob ran the samples that they couldn't replicate otherwise. I prefer when bands do everything they can to keep things live, but they did a good job not relying on samples too much.

I was impressed with the amount of parts that they did on guitars. Dapose handled most of the guitar and Joel Peterson the bass, but on several songs, mostly the new ones, they switched instruments. On "Machine in the Ghost" Dapose added extra synth parts and Joel did guitar, and on "The Geeks Were Right" both played guitar. Clark Baechle handled the live drums well, covering even the parts that on record must be electronic. During the whole show, the projector was on, but it mostly kept to abstract two-tone images, often of the band members.

Generally speaking, I was really pleased with their setlist, especially "Take Me to the Hospital", which was only released on a compilation from their former label, Saddle Creek. The song is great but something of a rarity; I was hoping they'd play it at the last show of theirs I caught, so I consider myself lucky that they did it this time. "In Concert" (from 1999's Black-Wave Arcade) was a special treat, and "Worked Up So Sexual" (from the same album) and "I Disappear" (the single from 2004's Wet from Birth) elicited a huge crowd response. "The Conductor" was a particularly energetic and riveting performance with some awesome guitar work from Dapose. They did a good job of picking the best of their back catalog and playing the better half of their new album, Fasciinatiion (2008). I would have liked to hear "A Battle Hymn for Children" off the new album or maybe "Call Call" or "Let the Poison Spill from Your Throat" from the older ones, but what they did do was excellent.

They didn't experiment with their sound much, but some of the synth tones were different than on record. The guitar and bass parts were great; I was impressed by several of them, particularly the metallic-sounding rhythm guitar in the bridges of "Forever Growing Centipedes". Several songs featured Dapose or Jacob on processed, robotic backing vocals (like for the "like a cast shadow" line in "Agenda Suicide"). Todd used the processed mic for the verses of "The Conductor" and "Mirror Error".

The mix was good and the audience was really enjoying the show. The venue seats over 800, and although it wasn't sold out, it was nearly full. The floor was filled with people moving to the beat, and even on the balcony people were dancing to the music. It was a fun night.

After about an hour, the band left the stage, but they quickly returned for a short encore. "Birth" was particularly rocking, but "Glass Danse" was even better and the audience loved it. Todd thanked us, and Joel told us to vote for Obama before everyone left the stage.

The Faint rock. Go see them and dance your head off – and enjoy the opening acts, too.

Score: A-
[Retrospective Score for Haii Usagi: A+

Retrospective Score for The Show Is the Rainbow: B-]

Guest Review at Film Walrus: The Faint - "Agenda Suicide" Video

I know I've been quite inactive over the past few months, which is quite a shame. Schoolwork has been heavy, but I only have three weeks left in the semester, at which point I'll have a more relaxed summer to return to writing reviews (even though I'll be in Germany for most of it).

In the meantime, my brother offered me the opportunity to review a music video for his animated shorts series on his film review blog. I reviewed The Faint's "Agenda Suicide" video (from 2002). Here's the link:

http://filmwalrus.blogspot.com/2008/04/poor-little-animated-shorts-guest.html

Thanks again to the Film Walrus for the opportunity.