Chazography

On Friday, I was running late to the concert due to a meeting I had immediately before the concert was slated to begin. Consequently, the opening band went on at 7:00 PM, but I arrived at Cameron Indoor stadium around 7:25 PM. I fully expected everyone to have already made it inside Cameron Indoor Satidum (given that the doors opened at 5:30 PM), but I could not have been more wrong. As it turns out, everyone decided to arrive at the same time, and I ended up waiting in line for a good thirty-five minutes before making it inside. Fortunately, I only missed the opening band and Franz Ferdinand was just going on as I made it inside.

I must say that Cameron is not the best venue for a rock concert. The reverberation time of the room is quite high, and it resulted in the music having a rather “muddy” sound, but despite this drawback, it was still fun to see and hear Franz Ferdinand live. While I do enjoy their, I cannot say that I’m an avid fan, and I’m not I’m incredibly familiar with their repertoire of music. So while others were singing and jamming along, I found myself just standing and listening as most songs for what felt like the first time. Fortunately, I could see the band most of the time so I could enjoy their theatrics, but I do feel it is important that I emphasize I could see them most of the time. The individual in front of me looked as though he had a giant bird’s nest resting atop his head, but after closer inspection, I realized that it was really just his head of hair. As if his hair wasn’t enough, he felt the constant need to place his hands upon his head so that his arms completely obstructed my view of the stage. I found this rather strange, and I can only assume that he suffers from a severe case of sweaty arm pits and was just trying to air them out.

Towards the end of the performance by Franz Ferdinand, my bird nested nemesis decided to move from his seat and into the isle allowing me an unobstructed view of the stage for a rather incredible drum finale. For this finale theatrical peformance, three members of the band came together at once to play the drums; one played the snare. Another played the cymbal and the ride, and the actual drummer played everything else. It was most certainly one of the highlights of their performance.

After Franz Ferdinand left the stage, it was Death Cab for Cutie’s turn to rock out for the Cameron Indoor crowd. However, for their first few songs the sound was absolutely terrible; the individual monitoring the sound was either deaf or completely incompetent because he insisted upon ramping up the bass and completely ignoring the high end of the spectrum. Those familiar with Death Cab for Cutie know that their music is typically characterized by less thumping bass and takes place mostly in the middle to high registers. They did eventually straighten it out, but there were a number of people that left the concert early most likely due to the incompetence of the sound technician. Given that Death Cab for Cutie is a more mellow band, it was cool to see the students in Cameron bust out what can be termed the 21st century equivalent to the lighter at a rock concert… the cell phone. For a few songs, the glow of cell phones swayed back and forth in unison as most everyone with cell phones imitated the “old school” use of lighters. It was quite a site.

All in all, the concert was a rather enjoyable experience, and for many (myself included), it will be one of their last visits to Cameron Indoor Stadium.