We drove down on Wednesday and went down to the Mercury Lounge for about 5:15.
When we got there we saw Chris, their guitar tech, just before the cribs walked in. As they walked past we said hi, but kept back. They played I'm a Realist,Moving Pictures, Mens Needs, Our Bovine Public and what we finally figured was 'Be Safe'.
When they stopped, I loudly said 'the new songs are really amazing. I managed to talk to Gary then Ryan talking about the new songs, asking Ryan what he thought of current bands in the UK. He said he didn't really like anything so I specifically asked about the pigeons. I suppose it was telling that he didn't know who I was talking about until I elaborated to The Pigeon Detectives. Ryan just stated it wasn't his kind of music and made a comment about being a punk band. I mentioned the thread on the cribs board and about Franz and Kaiser chiefs and asking his thoughts. while making clear I knew he liked Ricky but what did he think about the music. He says that Kaisers and Franz are open about making commercial music and that was better than bands that thought they were punk rock but hadn't done their time.
All the guys asked if we were going on Thursday as they were hoping to have Lee Ranaldo play Be Safe with them, the only chance they would have for this. They also said the album is going to be a really sweet packaging and the DVD will be ace, telling us to pick it up when we are over in the first week.
Note the guys had asked for hot tea instead of the vodka that Ryan is normally seen drinking.
The gig that night was pretty good, but I must be getting more anti-social as most folks were just bugging.
Support bands were The Jealous Girlfriends, who were OK and White Rabbits. White Rabbits are getting a lot of blog attention. They seem to be trying to be like Cold War Kids but were fun to watch.
The set included Our Bovine Public, I'm A Realist (which is just amazing),Girls Like Mystery, Moving Pictures,Womens Needs and Ancient History both of which I will really need to listen to the recorded version and get more into,Mens Needs as well as the old favorites. Ryan was relatively well behaved didn't seem that drunk, he did do the playing the amp pushing it over and throwing the mike stand around. Chris seemed to appreciate the fact we periodically moved the mike stand back to solid ground.
Great gig, afterwards we went off to what was being touted as a cribs after party but turned out to be the worst scenester party where bribes were required to get through the door, we bailed on that without paying the bribes.
Picture of Gary
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