Not So Silent Night

Six bands, one stage, a million teeny boppers, some wasted wankers and a handful of horny bastards filled the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium for Live 105’s Not So Silent Night concert on Friday evening.

Having missed Birdmonster, the winners of Café Du Nord’s Battle of the Bands, Autolux and Coheed & Cambria, I was just in time to see Hot Hot Heat perform. The Victoria, B.C. band’s lead singer, Steve Bays, donned a fro to rival that of American Idol’s Justin Guarini’s, his vocal deliverance however, definitely surpassed Guarini’s. I’m not a fan of Hot Hot Heat but if I was 12-years-old or really, really drunk, I’m sure I’d like them then. They have catchy pop songs with a good beat. As couples vertically humped eachother I wanted to blindfold all the little kiddies in the audience, even if most of them were on E and could have cared less if their friends’ parents were partaking in X-rated action. When the band’s current hit “Goodnight Goodnight” came on, crowd surfers surfaced and it was like one big orgy fest.

Indie darlings Death Cab for Cutie mellowed out the audience with their opener “The New Year” from Transatlanticism. I know I should love them since it seems like anyone who’s into indie music loves them, but, well, I don’t. I think they’re…Okay. They have pretty good lyrics and they’re musically interesting but it’s lead singer Ben Gibbard’s voice…that's a bit too whiny for me, especially on “Soul Meets Body” off of Plans. Gibbard sounds a lot better as the front man for The Postal Service. If I had wanted to listen to whining, I could have simply plucked one of the kids from the crowd and demanded that they sing for me. They also played “Title and Registration,” “The Sound of Settling” and something from their CD We Have the Facts and We’re Voting Yes, I can’t remember what though. Sorry. Nevertheless, they do seem like very nice fellows, so I give them kudos for potentially being unpretentious musicians with big hearts and little egos.

Finally, who I really went to the show to see (I’m going to change tenses now so I can re-live the moment). I missed The White Stripes at The Greek in Berkley and I wasn’t about to miss them again. You pasty, dirty, white people from Detroit really know how to rock! Meg starts banging on the drums as if she’s trying to beat demons out of them and Jack accompanies her with a vicious rendition of “Blue Orchid” from Get Behind Me Satan. L. and I are near the front and there’s pushing and shoving and dancing and it’s great. Then not so great. We elbow our way to the side where there’s more room for breathing and dancing. “You Put Her in Your Pocket” and “Doorbell” fill in the middle. The crowd is in a fucking frenzy and they end with the killer song that catapulted them into rock heaven, “Seven Nation Army.”

Lose the teeny boppers, cut out half the bands, have The White Stripes play for more than an hour and you’d have yourself one kick-ass concert.