Band of Horses w/ Chad VanGaalen @ Metro

Chad VanGaalen is certainly a weird dude. He was alotted 45 minutes, but chose to play only 20. He did play my favorite song of his, Echo Train, but I believe that was the only one from Infiniheart. He seemed extremely nervous and self-conscious as he began, but still, 20 minutes is weak. We were wondering if he realized how short his set was. Too bad as I thought he was just picking up.

That left the crowd pretty flat for Band of Horses. We had to wait about 40 minutes for them to take the stage at their appointed time. No idea why they couldn't come on early, but it's one of those mysteries.

Ben Bridwell's scruffy beard and crooked grin compliment his manic jitters and force a resemblance of some kind of muppet on ecstacy. They opened with "Funeral", much to the crowd's appreciation (I wouldn't say delight as they had all been lulled to sleep by Chad's early exit). They then went into "Wicked Gil" and things got snappy immediately. Everyone was into the show from this point on. Bridwell is kind of nuts the way he jitters and flashes his grin during the songs, but it comes across as endearing rather than immature or wild. There was less banter with the crowd than at Pitchfork, but perhaps that was because the crowd was subdued. In the middle of their main set, they played a couple of new ones and another new one towards the end that was way upbeat and totally great. Covers during the set included "Darlin' Darlin'" by David Allen Coe and a slowed-down bluesy version of Showdown by ELO (weird witout the strings, but they pulled it off really well). "Great Salt Lake" appeared late in the set and was more rawkin' than on the album (they opened with a more straightforward version of this at Pitchfork). The main set closed with "I Go to the Barn Because I like The".

Encore kicked off with "Monsters", which is such a super encore track. Then they played a cover which Kyle said very much resembled a Radiohead song, but I'm not sure which one. None of the five of us could place the song they played.

All in all, great show. They claimed to be playing "every song they know how to play," but Chris and I were both disappointed that there was no St. Augustine. It was worth staying up late on a Tuesday for this one!