New Pornographers @ Metro 10/18/07

It's been a while since the entirety of New Pornographers has been present on tour. Neko and Dan Bejar (a.k.a Destroyer) have both been busy with solo projects, and A.C Newman got married, but they were finally all present Thursday night. It was especially nice to have Neko back since she's the glue in the collective.

With their fourth album, "Challengers," the group exudes a more mature sound distracting from their typical power pop sensibilities. They all came out to a white flashing New Pornographers sign onstage and the "A-Team" theme song. None of them dressed up for the occasion. Neko wore cords and a top while the rest wore sneakers and jeans but that's okay, it's not a fashion show. They jump into the rousing "All the Things That Go To Make Heaven and Earth," starting off the set off right. Next, they perform "Use It" from their previous record, "Twin Cinema." "Myriad Harbor" follows with Neko hitting her tambourine, A.C playing guitar, and Bejar all singing. The poppy "All the Old Showstoppers" comes next followed by "Challengers." Then, there's a technical difficulty. A.C's acoustic guitar doesn't want to cooperate. Neko chimes in mentioning something about a "witchy storm outside" and how the electronics have gone haywire. She makes some owl sounds and the group joke they could make a Halloween sounds CD. A.C plays a few chords of the "Munsters" theme song to go along with the joke. After the instruments are tweaked, the group burst into the catchy "The Laws Have Changed" from Electric Version. Their sounds all coalesce together nicely. Bejar sings his solo ballad "The Spirit of Giving" while swiging on some beer. "Mass Romantic" from their titular debut album makes an appearance as does "Adventures in Solitude" from the new one. Neko puts her honey coated vocals to use on the nostalgic "Going Places." They play some more tunes from "Twin Cinema" including "Twin Cinema," "Sing Me Spanish Techno," and "Bleeding Heart Show. People sing along to the "hey, las" ending the show on a dramatic and affable way. For the encore, everyone comes back with Bejar singing "Execution Day" from "Mass Romantic." "From Blown Speakers" follows suite with crowd favorite ,"The Slow Descent Into Alcoholism" ending the night. New Pornographers are a good live band and even better festival band because there's so many of them onstage, but tonight they seemed to have lost their edge a bit. Maybe it's because they're older and have been doing this for a while, but Neko looked really tired and the rest just seemed to be going through the motions and drinking quite a lot. Maybe it was a result of the "witchy storm."

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Setlist:

All the Things that Go to Make Heaven and Earth
Use It
Myriad Harbor
All the Old Showstoppers
Jackie Dressed in Cobras
Challengers
The Laws Have Changed
The Spirit of Giving
My Rights Vs Yours
Mass Romantic
Adventures in Solitude
Testament to Youth in Verse
Twin Cinema
Go Places
Sing Me Spanish Techno
The Bleeding Heart Show

Encore:
Execution Day
From Blown Speakers
The Slow Descent into Alcoholism

Comments

[notabbott]

I got the impression that a lot more was going wrong on stage than just the acoustic guitar. One or two songs later, Newman completely forgot a verse to a song. When the guy came out with the mandolin, it wasn't in anyone's mix, and when they got it switched on, it threw everyone off the tempo of the tune. The drummer looked like he was in physical pain from that one. Just seemed like a nightmare gig all around for the band, but they did their best to fight through it.