Click on photo for slide show.
It's been a while since the Faint was the hot hipster band of the minute, bringing synth back and paving the way for the Killers and that whole neo-new wave thing. Now, synth-pop has turned into a cliché, and the Killers themselves have become something else altogether (albeit something that sells well). But in the years since its original metamorphosis from more guitar-based indie rock to electro art rock, the Faint has remained consistent. They'll still make you shake your ass.
For a little while on Saturday night, I actually thought it would be the first time I saw the Faint and didn't leave all danced out and sweaty. But a couple songs into the set, just like on the night I discovered the band back in my freshman year of college, those bleeps and boops and sizzle sounds sucked me down from the balcony and set my limbs free on the dance floor.
However, the scene wasn't quite the body crush that I got used to over the years at Omaha's Sokol Auditorium. Noting our ample amount of dancing room, the girl dancing next to me remarked, "It's like I'm dancing to the Faint in my bedroom." She was so right. While we weren't in the front row, we were in front of the soundboard, which isn't that far from the stage at Liberty Hall. And it just seemed odd - if convenient - that we could make a pile of coats and purses in front of us and not worry much about our stuff getting stepped on. In spite of the extra dancing room, though, the show was well attended. It just wasn't packed.
I wonder how much that has to do with Fasciinatiion, the band's latest album. Granted, I've had my press copy since midsummer, so I know it backwards and frontwards. But it came out this fall, and yet it felt like the Faint's lawyer (who was standing near me) and I were the only two singing along on the new tracks that the band played. For me, Fasciinatiion has been a grower. It features more slow songs than previous albums and the songwriting gets awkwardly personal at times. Fortunately, the band played the better half of the album on Saturday, including the stellar "Forever Growing Centipedes," which makes use of a quintessential Faint zipper effect and included a minutes-long succession of squeaks and creaks and other noises live.
At times during the show, there seemed to be more effect on frontman Todd Fink's voice than usual, too. But it didn't detract too much. The lighting, however, must have been problematic for someone. Just before "Get Seduced," he complained - to the audience or the lighting man I wasn't sure - about the overhead stage lights. After that, they weren't used. There was more than enough visual stimuli with the band's own freestanding color-changing light bars and the screen behind them full of silhouettes and black and white imagery appropriate to each song. Examples: crawling things for "Centipedes"; politicians for "Control"; TV reporters for "Get Seduced."
Click on photo for slide show.
At the end of the night, Darren Keen from fellow Nebraska opener The Show is the Rainbow confirmed that he and Fink were both fighting vocal issues related to colds. During his opening set, I only missed a few of Keene's lyrics about whorish mothers and marriage equality. Or maybe I was just enthralled by the videos for each song. Like the Faint, I've been watching the Show is the Rainbow for years - I remember when Keene would just get up with a boombox and sing along to himself karaoke style. Now, he has rather Ssion-like cartoon and live action videos for every song that plays while he sings or crowd surfs (with or without his big belly exposed). Actually, for KC scenesters who haven't had the uncomfortable pleasure of experiencing one of Keen's performances, imagine this: Lethal D from Bacon Shoe joins the Ssion and kicks everyone else out of the band.
Here's another Ssion connection: J. Ashley Miller also played an opening set on Saturday night. I'd never seen one of his solo performances prior to that, and, frankly, I still don't know what to make of it. He was wearing some kind of art school take on an Amish outfit and between songs spouting about energy and a hexagon he'd created in the room. I was clearly not the only person he confused. Both Keene and Fink later somewhat snidely pointed out from stage that what Miller did went over some heads.
Set List
Agenda Suicide
Dropkick the Punks
Take Me to the Hospital
Forever Growing Centipedes
Psycho
In Concert
Posed to Death
Desperate Guys
Get Seduced
The Conductor
Worked Up So Sexual
Machine in the Ghost
Mirror Error
Paranoiattack
I Disappear
Encore
Wet From Birth
The Geeks Were Right
Glass Danse
Photos by Scott Spychalski
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"art school take on an Amish outfit"? Since when did the Amish start using zippers? Or dressing so stylishly? Well..then again I have always respected their sense of fashion and simple ways of life, and premarital sex, but still I expect better from you Jason Harper.
Just because you don't know the language doesn't mean it is gibberish.
Small minds get smaller every day.
Of course it felt rather dickish for both Keene and Fink to say J. Ashley Miller's performance "went over heads." The crowd was like any concert crowd; everyone was there to hear music being performed, not to endure some pretentious new-age lecture for reasons passing understanding.
J. Ashley Miller's hecklers, though rude and immature, were on point.
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