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Last Thursday, Jorn and I went to see Dungen at the Middle East. It was a good show, and (as always) my falling asleep should not be taken as any sort of reflection on the band.
Doors were at 8pm, and when Jorn and I arrived between 8:30 and 8:45, we were kind of shocked to hear that the first band wasn't going on until 9:30. Weird. It was pretty empty, so we sat at the bar and had a drink and chilled until maybe 9:20, when the first band was getting all set up and we moved up to the area on the far left of the stage next to the ramp. This gave me a chance to sit on the railing, which was the main reason why I stayed awake so long at this show at all.
Anyway, the first band was Nethers, and they went on almost exactly on time (from where we were standing, we could see the red digital clock by the sound guy, which was cool). We didn't know anything about them, but we ended up really liking them a lot. They're from DC. Jorn bought their cd later on.
Here's Nethers. Their singer is a cute girl.
We were pretty into their set. They seemed really excited about touring with Dungen, and during their last song the main guy from Dungen snuck onstage with his violin and played along with them--I say "snuck" because he refused to use a mic on the violin, and several band members didn't even notice he was there for a while. The girl was so into the music, she didn't realize he was there until he finished playing and was leaving the stage! The look on her face was really cute.
Next up was a band called Witch. Jorn informed me that their main guy was the guy from Dinosaur Jr. I had heard of them but this information really didn't mean much to me. They came on out (starting, again, almost right on time at 10:30) and Jorn was surprised to see that the Dino Jr. guy was not the frontman but the drummer. Well, whatever he was then, he's clearly a more than competent drummer nowadays.
Here's Witch. You can see the Dinosaur Jr. guy drumming.
Overall, I wasn't really into this band, though I think Carlos might like them. Listening to them play, I kept thinking, "yellow, yellow, red.. blue, yellow, green-red chord...hold... greengreengreen!" It was like real live Guitar Hero. Actually it was a lot like watching Jorn play the same rock song 10 times in a row. Eventually you just lose interest, so I ended up speculating about the singer instead. First of all, he was significantly younger than the other dudes (as far as I could tell--the guy farthest away from me had a heck of a lot of hair). He had this "I'm a cool tough rock star" look going on, from his tangled long hair to the tips of his probably-cowboy boots, but I couldn't help thinking there was something decidedly fey about him. He has a high, wussy singing voice, and he had a sort of limp-wristed guitar playing style. Even the big tattoo on his bicep, which looked all cool-rock-star from a distance, actually said both "Mom" and "Dad" when you saw it close up. I don't think he was actually gay, just... I don't know, maybe he should be in an emo band instead?
The singer for Witch, and his parental arm tattoo.
I was pleased when Witch finished their set, and all excited to see Dungen. We had a good view of the band getting set up, and I immediately noticed that half the band members are really, really cute boys (I'm quick like that). They started playing a little late, around 11:40, and they were really good. I was hoping they would play some stuff off of Stadvandringar, their album that I'm most familiar with, but halfway through their set Jorn clued me in that that was like three albums ago. Would've been nice to know that several days before the show so I could listen to their newest, but oh well. They were still very Swedish and very cute, except for the guitarist who wasn't very cute at all, poor dear. This is what I think about when I can't sing along because I don't know the songs and all the words are in Swedish anyway (though I would have attempted to sing along in nonsense Swedish if they had played the songs I knew).
My best picture of the band.
Kind of a neat picture.
I thought the bassist, with the crazy curly hair, was the cutest, but this picture didn't turn out very well.
This one isn't too bad.
Around 12:13 or so (remember, I can see the sound guy's digital clock), they started playing a song that was pretty okay, but around 12:30, they were still playing it. I didn't know the song to begin with and I'm not that excited about jam bandy stuff, so I was getting sleepy. I went to the back of the room to sit down on a bench, and I totally dozed off and missed the rest of the set (I couldn't see the stage from where I was sitting), so if you want to hear about the crazy guitar-tossing or the bloody guy, you'll have to read Jorn's post. Jorn woke me up after the show, and I thought about buying a Dungen t-shirt because I do like them a lot and the shirts were cute, but they only had a women's size medium and I am larger than that, and I didn't want a regular t-shirt because I don't like how t-shirts get all snug around my hips these days. I am woman, I demand stretchiness. So I was disappointed they didn't have a women's extra-large. Then we went home.
Doors were at 8pm, and when Jorn and I arrived between 8:30 and 8:45, we were kind of shocked to hear that the first band wasn't going on until 9:30. Weird. It was pretty empty, so we sat at the bar and had a drink and chilled until maybe 9:20, when the first band was getting all set up and we moved up to the area on the far left of the stage next to the ramp. This gave me a chance to sit on the railing, which was the main reason why I stayed awake so long at this show at all.
Anyway, the first band was Nethers, and they went on almost exactly on time (from where we were standing, we could see the red digital clock by the sound guy, which was cool). We didn't know anything about them, but we ended up really liking them a lot. They're from DC. Jorn bought their cd later on.
Here's Nethers. Their singer is a cute girl.
We were pretty into their set. They seemed really excited about touring with Dungen, and during their last song the main guy from Dungen snuck onstage with his violin and played along with them--I say "snuck" because he refused to use a mic on the violin, and several band members didn't even notice he was there for a while. The girl was so into the music, she didn't realize he was there until he finished playing and was leaving the stage! The look on her face was really cute.
Next up was a band called Witch. Jorn informed me that their main guy was the guy from Dinosaur Jr. I had heard of them but this information really didn't mean much to me. They came on out (starting, again, almost right on time at 10:30) and Jorn was surprised to see that the Dino Jr. guy was not the frontman but the drummer. Well, whatever he was then, he's clearly a more than competent drummer nowadays.
Here's Witch. You can see the Dinosaur Jr. guy drumming.
Overall, I wasn't really into this band, though I think Carlos might like them. Listening to them play, I kept thinking, "yellow, yellow, red.. blue, yellow, green-red chord...hold... greengreengreen!" It was like real live Guitar Hero. Actually it was a lot like watching Jorn play the same rock song 10 times in a row. Eventually you just lose interest, so I ended up speculating about the singer instead. First of all, he was significantly younger than the other dudes (as far as I could tell--the guy farthest away from me had a heck of a lot of hair). He had this "I'm a cool tough rock star" look going on, from his tangled long hair to the tips of his probably-cowboy boots, but I couldn't help thinking there was something decidedly fey about him. He has a high, wussy singing voice, and he had a sort of limp-wristed guitar playing style. Even the big tattoo on his bicep, which looked all cool-rock-star from a distance, actually said both "Mom" and "Dad" when you saw it close up. I don't think he was actually gay, just... I don't know, maybe he should be in an emo band instead?
The singer for Witch, and his parental arm tattoo.
I was pleased when Witch finished their set, and all excited to see Dungen. We had a good view of the band getting set up, and I immediately noticed that half the band members are really, really cute boys (I'm quick like that). They started playing a little late, around 11:40, and they were really good. I was hoping they would play some stuff off of Stadvandringar, their album that I'm most familiar with, but halfway through their set Jorn clued me in that that was like three albums ago. Would've been nice to know that several days before the show so I could listen to their newest, but oh well. They were still very Swedish and very cute, except for the guitarist who wasn't very cute at all, poor dear. This is what I think about when I can't sing along because I don't know the songs and all the words are in Swedish anyway (though I would have attempted to sing along in nonsense Swedish if they had played the songs I knew).
My best picture of the band.
Kind of a neat picture.
I thought the bassist, with the crazy curly hair, was the cutest, but this picture didn't turn out very well.
This one isn't too bad.
Around 12:13 or so (remember, I can see the sound guy's digital clock), they started playing a song that was pretty okay, but around 12:30, they were still playing it. I didn't know the song to begin with and I'm not that excited about jam bandy stuff, so I was getting sleepy. I went to the back of the room to sit down on a bench, and I totally dozed off and missed the rest of the set (I couldn't see the stage from where I was sitting), so if you want to hear about the crazy guitar-tossing or the bloody guy, you'll have to read Jorn's post. Jorn woke me up after the show, and I thought about buying a Dungen t-shirt because I do like them a lot and the shirts were cute, but they only had a women's size medium and I am larger than that, and I didn't want a regular t-shirt because I don't like how t-shirts get all snug around my hips these days. I am woman, I demand stretchiness. So I was disappointed they didn't have a women's extra-large. Then we went home.
