Every time I go to a concert I leave with questions.    I want to know about the rules of encores.  Have they evolved?  Have bands always been expected to do an encore performance like they do now?   Is it just part of the show, is that part of what we the ticket holder have purchased?   Does the band plan what they will play, and more specifically do they hold out certain songs for the encore, and if so are we the audience under the obligation to “earn” the encore presentation by cheering and clapping until they come back out?  How long should we do that?   Do bands like to use the encore as an opportunity to play some of their more obscure songs because they are just there on their own time, so people can’t really be crabby if they hear things they they are not familiar with?   Are bands sick of it, yet feel like they have to perform one or the audience will be cheesed off?

Is there a science, so to say, about the encore?

Seriously, this is what I am thinking about after a concert?   Well yes actually, amid the whoo-hooing, happy clapping and the general debate with oneself about do I want to spend $ 20-30.00 on concert t-shirts n’stuff.   (At the Mew concert the other night I actually bought a hoodie sweatshirt, which is a first for me because I am pretty cheap.  Its way cute and I basically love it.)   But I want to know if anyone else thinks about this as much as I do.

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Mew played in Seattle a couple days ago and we finally got to see them!  No car crashes this time  (Last month we wanted to see Say Hi and Tac got hit on the freeway that day so we didn’t go).   We totally owe it to Scary Larry who gave us the heads up that Mew would be here.

The show was at Nuemos, which is a medium sized club.  It was so wonderful to be in a venue like that, and not at some huge place with lots of annoying people everywhere.  The audience was great, it was a bunch of Mew fans.   We got there about 15 minutes before they came out, and then the lights dimmed and the band came out and started the night with Into to Palace Players.  Everyone was just dancing and swaying and really happy to be there.

After Palace Players they played a longer cool intro to Special.  I love when bands start songs off different than normal, and everyone is listening and waiting to figure what song it is, and then when they play a recognizable beat everyone starts cheering.   After that I lose track of the order of things.  I’m not good at remembering things like that when I’m so busy having a great time.

New Terrain really stands out in my mind as so awesome!  They amazed me with the amount of work they did on stage to make that song happen.  Several of them were singing different things at the same time, cupping the microphones differently in their hands to change the sounds.  They were intense in the layers they created, and I loved it.

Louise Louisa was phenomenal.   Towards the end of the song Jonas Bjerre’s voice was all that could be heard (or its all I heard) as he sang out soft and at the same time loud in perfect pitch the words:

“I’m in a car, I don’t know where we are headed for. Stay with me, don’t want to be alone.”

It was beautiful.  The light shone on his face as he was singing, and I was pretty much entranced with it all.  It will definitely be a sweet moment to remember in my life.

You know when you hear a band live for the first time, and you get that wonderful fuzzy feeling because you know for a fact that they are as good as they sound from the studio?  I got it.   The show was awesome.  When it ended and then they came out a little later for an encore, I was thrilled and figured we would be lucky to get 1 or 2 more songs.   They came out and started playing Circuitry of the Wolf really loud and hard.  Seriously, WOW!

Then, they went straight into Chinaberry Tree and so on for around 45 minutes.   Tac and I made a list of the songs we are pretty sure they played- just for you Larry.

• Intro to Palace Players
• Special
• Reprise
• Apocalypso
• Sometimes Life Isn’t Easy
• Zookeepers Boy
• Repeater Beater
• Envoy to the Open Fields
• New Terrain
• Beach
• White Lips Kissed
• Louise Louisa
• Am I Wry, No
• 156
• Silas the Magic Car
• Circuitry of the Wolf
• Chinaberry Tree
• Fox cub
• Saviours of Jazz Ballet
• Snow Brigade
• She Spider
• Hawaii

and probably more.

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Tac and I don’t get to as many concerts as we would like. Our children’s main reference in regards to concert attendance is seeing me get really excited because “so and so” is touring, then watching as I try to put together some kind of plan for how we could travel 100’s of miles to see “so and so” while still getting kids to school and husband to work, and then the inevitable pout of despair as I realize its hopeless.

From this they have inferred that it must be pretty fun to see live music, and they would like to see some for themselves. Taking them to a concert would be dangerous, sometimes illegal, the boys would whine and make us miserable, and it would be embarrassing.

I compromised with them by finally telling the boys they were too young; sorry, and promised Emma that if Seve vs. Evan ever came to town I would take her. I knew they would be at an all ages venue, and figured out of all the bands Emma and I both love they would be the safest (clean, fun, all around good time, etc..)

She made her own t-shirt for the night, it was so very cute. It was brown with a green Seve robot and a red Evan robot. We had a really good time, Tac was in Sun Valley so he couldn’t come, and while he asked me nicely to get him a shirt I totally forgot, so once again “sorry honey.”

We stood up front because Emma couldn’t see past all the overly tall teenagers. This was fun, but proved dangerous as said teenagers started a pit right next to us. One of them fell into me, causing me to fall into Emma, shoving her into the speaker. Luckily we had one of our own overly tall teenagers because my “baby brother” Kyle (he’s at least 1/2 foot taller than me) watched over us after that.

Seve and Evan sounded great, pretty much exactly like they do on their cd’s. Seve had a keyboard and a microphone, and Evan had the drums. I hadn’t noticed until then how much drumming there is in their music, Evan was impressive. Seve sang, played and talked to the audience like he does it all the time, but afterwards he told Emma that he had been a little nervous. He was really nice to the youngest member of their audience.

Emma has now been to a concert, her little brothers have Seve vs Evan pins; one on his backpack, the other on his “Wall-E” hat.

Somehow, S vs E fit perfectly in my music puzzle. Shoved in there somewhere between Muse, The Pumpkins, and Mew, underneath AquaLung, Say Hi, and Silversun Pickups is a little indie band from Utah. Honestly, I don’t know how anyone could not like them, especially if you have kids that you want to brainwash into liking cool music…they won’t be able to resist. Play a fun little video game on their site and listen all at once, Seth and I have been playing it lots today.

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