music madness: finally the faint

While I've been a fan of The Faint for years, I've never had the chance to see them live. The last time (or perhaps two) they've been in Milwaukee it's been at The Rave, where, after my horrific Shins experience a couple of years ago, I've vowed never to step foot in again unless they resurrect John Lennon and George Harrison from the dead for a Beatles reunion.

Thanks to a kindly Twitter benefactor I got free tickets for last night's show at the much more palatable Turner Hall Ballroom. Unfortunately my concert buddy and then concert buddy #2, both had stuff come up (illness, family, etc.), so I ended up flying solo. I did take the extra tickt and gave it to a random group of people trying to figure out their ticket situation. Happy holidays! This was not a show I was going to miss, but I timed heading down to miss the openers. I caught the second act's closing (I wasn't really sure what was going on there) and sipped on my cup of ice while waiting for the main attraction.

I'd heard before that The Faint put on a good show and I wasn't disappointed. I'm not a raving fan, but I did know several of the songs in the set. They opened with "Agenda Suicide" from Danse Macabre and the main set also included the recognizable "Posed to Death" and "I Disappear" (which had some funky strobe light timed so it looked like the singer actually was disappearing -- hey, it's nice to see special effects at an indie show). Although alone, I couldn't help but dance (not as much as I'd have liked, but it was a school night). The closing song of the encore was the infectious "Glass Danse" and I did let go during that one. Of course, that apparently was cue to the other solo chick (I think) near me to come over and slur "we should like get everyone around here to dance." Yeah, maybe I'd do that if I also reeked of Malibu and/or Peach Schnapps. Thank goodness for the universal sign for "WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU, THERE'S A BAND ON STAGE," to get out of that one.

All in all a solid show and it filled my concert drought as of late. Unlike Yeasayer, The Faint interacted with the audience, although not saying much they definitely danced and sang at us, instead of to each other. Tim over at Fan-Belt Milwaukee has an interesting perspective on this aspect of the show.

Being December 15th, it looks like I'm not going to make it to anymore shows this year, so watch for my "Best of 2008" list coming soon. Still working on those albums too...