| The Faint / Les Savy Fav - Denver, Ogden Theatre Saturday 12th April 2003 |
He emerges just before they are ready to kick off, bare-chested, with a towel wrapped around his waist and another wrapped around his head, pretending to clean his teeth and asking for floss – like he’s just got out of bed.
The first number kicks in and within 10 seconds Tim has his foot on my head while I’m taking photos! The audience interaction is the key in this band.
Seth Jabour relentlessly caresses and tortures his guitar, with high-pitched notes, and sometimes sparse plucking – it’s a unique way to play, but this defines the LSV sound, and it sounds great. Harrison Haynes and Syd Butler lay down solid and rhythmic drums and bass respectively.
But it’s Tim that has the spotlight – while the rest of the band play behind him, Tim sings and interacts. Giving the security a headache tonight he’s over the barriers a number of times with the crowd. The funniest moment comes when he rushes backstage and comes back with a mattress – he then makes a draw-bridge between the stage and the crowd, lays on it, and then crowd-surfs up to half way to the back of the venue, all the while laying on the mattress and still singing.
As is usual with a LSV show, a quick look around at the crowd sees everyone smiling – an unusual feat for any band. Tonight they were a little restrained by the size of the venue, as this band are in their element in the smaller intimate ones.
The Faint headline, and play the set with the lights right down, using backlighting from two huge projections. They sound a little like an updated Depeche Mode, all electronics and guitars. Not really my cup of tea to be honest, but what they do is done really well, and they certainly had the audience jumping and shouting, so they must be doing something right.
skippy
