The Bravery at the Paradise Rock Club, 2/18

It had been over a month since I'd been to a show, and yeah, I missed it. So we went to the loveably grungy Paradise Rock Club to see The Bravery -- me, Philip, and his friend Duncan, also British. Flanked by British lads, I was in good spirits.

We arrived a tad late and missed about half of the opening set by Your Vegas, but from what we heard they had potential. However, they were overshadowed by the rocking Switches. This British quintet had a great sound -- a kind of classic rock throwback thing, with four-part harmony, loud guitars, infectious energy, and awesome hair. Unfortunately, their lyrics were,in Philip's words, "insipid." Their formula for a song seems to be choose a two- or three-word phrase for the title ("No Hero," "Every Second Counts," "Lovin' It"), and then repeat it as many times as possible within the chorus. Once the crowd had figured out this formula, it got old quickly. They were clearly talented musicians with skills and commanding stage presence, however, so I think they could be quite big if they learned how to diversify their song structure. They've only got a couple of EPs out so far, so they've got time. Good stuff.

Waiting for The Bravery was the usual trial of patience, and we fell back into our pattern of making hypocritically snide remarks about the crowd. In this case, it was the most "mainstream" looking crowd I'd been in for some time. (To counterbalance the general lack of self-conscious hipness, I suppose, we had to encounter the single ugliest couple I have ever seen in my life. I shall not even describe the horror, lest it be read by said couple. This is the internet after all. We actually didn't see them until midway through the set, when they pushed their way from the bar up to the front for "An Honest Mistake." Goodness, I've said too much.) At an ideal Bravery concert, people would jump around. Their new-wave influenced, synthesizer-infused pop-rock about as close to dance music as legit guitar rock gets. And some of the people filling the Paradise that night were unhip enough, or tipsy enough, to do that.

The Bravery came onstage with "Split Me Wide Open," which, though a great song, was somewhat disappointing live. Perhaps it was a poor choice of starters. Singer Sam Endicott sounded strained, sounding like a pale echo of a young Robert Smith, to whom he is sometimes compared. However, he sounded much more confident on "No Brakes," and that confidence lasted through the solid set, which was more or less split between 2005's self-titled debut and this year's The Sun and the Moon. Before playing "This Is Not the End," he announced they would soon release a new album, entitled The Moon, made of of alternate versions of all the songs from The Sun and the Moon. I'd still rather have an album of new compositions, but the "Moon" versions of familiar tracks they performed were interesting, especially the sped-up takes of Sun's two slow songs. "Tragedy Bound," the sparsest, bleakest song The Bravery has recorded, benefited from an injection of tempo, while "The Ocean," which is beautifully wistful and dreamy on record, became a more generic Bravery filer track when backed up by a disco drumbeat. It was decidedly refreshing to hear the variation, which, after all, is part of why we go to shows.

Sam Endicott has a long face that makes him look a bit like a cross between a more outgoing Conor Oberst and a less intimidating Trent Reznor. He's passionate and dynamic on stage, all angular motion. Emo-haired guitarist Michael Zakarin also loved the crowd, pacing the edge of the barrier and bringing out the fangirls in all of us. The shy guy and unsung hero was clearly keyboardist John Conway, who, with bassist Mike Hindert, contributed backing vocals in places I hadn't realized existed. The band made it clear that they were rockers, relying only minimally on synth power and more on the charisma and musical muscle of the Endicott-Zakarin combo. Drummer Anthony Burulchich's killer solo almost consciously spat in the face of drum machines everywhere.

The poppy "Public Service Announcement" was a highlight, as were the three biggest hits: "Believe," "Time Won't Let Me Go," and "An Honest Mistake." The last, saved til late in the evening, was the crowd's obvious sentimental favorite and brought the place as close to a dance floor as it could get. They also played an old song called "The Dandy Rock," which Ellicott assured us had never been recorded. Featuring Zakarin on vocals, who was hard to hear, it was forgettable but a welcome surprise.

When they left the stage, I was hoping for "Fearless" and "Bad Sun" as encores. While I didn't get the latter, I did get the former, as well as the single "Unconditional," for which Endicott pulled out all the stops. "I just want I just want love," he wailed, and we shook our heads because it was so obvious that we loved him.

Setlist (well out of order):

Split Me Wide Open
No Brakes
This is Not the End (Moon version)
Public Service Anouncement
Tyrant
The Dandy Rock
Believe
Every Word From Your Mouth Is a Knife in My Ear
Time Won't Let Me Go
An Honest Mistake
Tragedy Bound (Moon version)
Swollen Summer

Encore:
Fearless
The Ocean (Moon version)
Unconditional

LOLPROFS

There are problems in this paper with organization, word choice, and referencing. What you are trying to do in this paper is not adequately presented in the introduction, points are not well made nor evaluated adequately in the body, and use of evidence is not critical. this is very much an undergraduate level paper and lacks the acuity expected in a graduate student effort. B+

Oh, Richard Meadow. But I thought the undergrads were smarter than the grad students. So, aren't you...sort of... complimenting me?

Everyone loves my hair, and so do I. It's darkened a little into a rich almost wine-colored red. It should last for about a month.

My classes this semester are pretty interesting. I'm taking a lecture course on the decipherment of ancient writing systems, which is pretty easy, fun, and well-taught. My adviser is teaching a soil chemistry course where we go out into the forest where an old tannery sued to be and test the ground for chemicals to see if it's safe for future excavation. That should be fun. Then of course there is my lab project. I got my bone samples approved for lab today, and on Monday I'm going to saw them up and get ready to play scientist. XD Finally, I have to take the Method and Theory seminar which is required for my program. It's kind of fun because the prof is hilarious and everyone's in it together, but it is an inordinate amount of reading and meets from six to nine pm each Wednesday. D: I also just don't like to study theory, because it makes me feel like archaeology is futile and useless and impossible and irrelevant. So I went to bed last night full of doubts again about my motivation. It only got worse today when the librarian made me feel like an idiot (turns out he's like that to everyone) . Then I walked in on Tina and Karola, the fouth- and fifth-years in my lab, sitting around complaining about how our adviser never gives helpful feedback on our paper drafts and how unproductive they feel. I just...ugh. I was excited to be here again, but now I'm not so sure. And Tina later tried to comfort me, telling me not to freak out, and that the best thing for me to do now (totally counter to our adviser's advice) would be to take Chemistry classes if I really want to study residue analysis. She regrets not having a strong enough background in genetics for her work on ancient DNA, but if she wanted to take courses she would have to start from the beginning. She ALSO said it would be very math-intensive as well, which I had no idea. Math?? Oh hell no. Why does nobody tell me these things??? I don't even think I want to do residue analysis anymore if that's the case. This doesn't mean I have to drop out of the program; I could always just shift back over to standard field archaeology, iconography, and theory, but it scares and disappoints me, especially since I don't think I have what it takes to do those things either.

I am excited about living with Emma though, and possibly in a 4-bedroom with Philip and Matt. I'm definitely going to finish next year and get the Masters, and if I want to get a different kind of job then, at least I'll already have a place to live in Boston, and I can go right then from Harvard. It will be much easier to transition. For now, I just have to remember not too stress out by looking too far ahead. I'm being paid to do this after all, so I should at least play the game.

LOLDEMS

Oh yes. It's legit.

Henna for the win.