Like a Cast Shadow

The Faint

This weekend I was graced with the opportunity to see an amazing group that caught my fancy a little under a year ago. This group, as you have already guessed, is The Faint. They are an indie-techno group (not sure how to really describe them) out of Omaha, NE, signed to Saddle Creek Records. Their mix of indie-house-pop is as catchy as it is racy, mixing social commentary and sexual innuendo with catchy beats and rhythms that, if you play it loud enough, will seep into you and course through your veins like alcohol and extacy.
The show was amazing, opening with Saddle Creek newcomers Beep Beep. This group has an interesting, somewhat comical stage presence full of eclectic sound, awkward movements, crooning and screaming. They played a good set.
Next on the roster was TV on the Radio, a group currently signed to Touch and Go Records. I felt their set worked as a medium between the rock of Beep Beep and the heavy incessant rhythm of The Faint. They mixed hip-hop influenced percussion with Hendrix influenced riffs that made for a very different and very pleasing experience. One song, the percssion was actually beatboxed by the only white member of the quartet. To say the least, their untraditional style gave their music a character that even some of the better music that has come out of the indie scene still lacks. I recommend checking them out.
Then on to The Faint. Thier performance was as good, if not better, than my expectations. What made it beautiful, though, was the cooperation of the crowd. By that time in the night we all were ready and waiting to let it all out, and let it all out we did. It wasn't like other shows where the kids in the front are getting rowdy, the kids in the back are just standing around, and there's that couple in the middle of it all (you know the one) where the boyfriend is violently shoving people off because his girl is complaining that her feet are getting stepped on. Everyone was getting into it; dancing, flailing, a little bit of moshing, crowd surfing--the works. By the last song everyone was so exhausted and overheated that it was all we could do to sway back and forth and rely on the people on chemicals to keep up the feeling. By that point I was so dehydrated I thought I was going to faint, myself. (Pun intended). Before the show my friend Eric and I shared a bottle of Chianti and a cigar so we were moderately buzzed. But when you're that warm and that violent and that close to people for that long, the chemical buzz becomes a natural buzz and thats more real and intense than anything. Needless to say it takes it's toll and can easily make a sane person pay $2 for WATER at a GAS STATION. It's something I'm not proud of, but I will be honest and say I can't regret it. Water is a beautiful thing.
Anyways, the show was killer (modestly speaking) and the drive back to eugene was even more life-threatening. The fog was so thick on I-5 it was as if I was driving through an ocean with no fish or fauna. And it was so dark. I can tell you, it is a very eerie thing when air casts a shadow. Peaceful, but eerie.
So, all in all the weekend was a good one. Something to embrace and relish until the memory is gone and only the ticket stub or the bruise or the empty bottle is left to remind you. A few days in the few I may have left before I get drafted that give life a meaning, well, a meaning without purpose. I am content for now.

Check out The Faint and Beep Beep.
Check out TV on the Radio.