I Can Feel Like This At Home

The Long Blondes @ the Bowery Ballroom 5/16/2008
Here Comes The Serious Bit / Weekend Without Make-Up / Autonomy Boy / Round The Hairpin / Erin O’Connor / Separated By Motorways / I Liked The Boys / Century / Too Clever By Half / You Could Have Both / The Couples / Once and Never Again / Guilt / I’m Going To Hell / Giddy Stratospheres // Lust in the Movies

This was a fine show, but the dynamic in the room was very strange. As can be expected, there were a lot of pretty, stylish young women, but the front of the room was dominated by weird guys with cameras, which resulted in small pockets of dancing people scattered around the floor of the venue. The creepiest of the camera men by far was a pair of chubby, balding middle aged men in raincoats standing in the middle of the second row who obsessively filmed Kate Jackson from start to finish, and never seemed to even glance at the other members of the band. This is odd because there are two other attractive women in the Long Blondes — but then, they weren’t wearing tiny denim short shorts, and Ms. Jackson was.

A thing that I’d never seen at a rock show before: Halfway through the set, Dorian Cox ate a banana, and then threw the peel out into the audience.

The Long Blondes “The Couples” – The character in “The Couples” has had it. She’s been coming to this same old bar, playing the game, but she always loses. The only men who seem interested have already paired off, and she can’t rationalize being the other woman — or at least, not anymore. It’s not clear whether or not she actually wants to be half of a couple, but she’s certainly fed up with not having the option, and even more annoyed when more fortunate people condescend to know she feels. It’s all set-up for one of the best choruses of the year: “These people have the nerve to tell me that they’re lonely…you’re not lonely; I am, baby.” Jackson sounds a little bit exasperated, but mostly resigned, particularly when the chorus gives way to a disheartened sigh, or a breakdown in which she imagines her isolation on a cosmic scale. (Click here to buy it from Rough Trade/Beggars Group.)

Tom Scharpling & Jon Wurster “The Story Weaver” – I’m a sucker for the Best Show skits that go off on odd tangents, and grow creepier with each new casual revelation. In this bit from last week, Tom talks to a co-worker from Consolidated Cardboard who turns out to be a pathological liar without any ability to craft believable lies. Every time Tom challenges one of his ridiculous claims, Wurster’s character pushes his story in a weirder direction rather than admit that he was not being honest. (Click here for the Best Show on WFMU website.)