Seems like Nick Zimmer shares his viewpoint (rant) of the recent Yeah Yeah Yeahs shows in a blog entry over at Jane Magazine.
http://www.janemag.com/yournews/blogs/guest/nick_zinner/index.html
An excerpt from the blog:
MAXWELL’S: “Showtime. We’re escorted through the crowd, and of course, when we hit the stage, everything is fine. duh. why do i do this to myself? Its a rough, sloppy, and aggressive show, and people are screaming, jumping, dancing, sweating. We try playing an acoustic version of “maps,” which we haven’t practiced, and i butcher it trying to remember my parts on the spot, but the sentiment is there for us on stage, and seemingly strong in the crowd too. We close with “tick”, run downstairs and collapse in a giddy exhaustion. Being a rock band, we spend the rest of the evening doing mountains of drugs and passing groupies around. ”
BOWERY BALLROOM: “At Bowery, its a little tense in the crowd and in the air, but we’re not nearly as nervous as last night, because we are already sore and bruised. We rock onstage, but unfortunately the crowd is stiff as nails, with heavy-duty lead in their shoes. The Bloggers in the front row keep their arms crossed for the whole show even though we are playing our bleeding hearts out, and sweating gallons. We’re trying out mostly new material for the very first time which could explain the collective reservation, but both the Maxwells Show and a few older songs disprove this theory.”
And yea, being a New Yorker I must admit New York crowds can be tough to play to, but when the show rocks or sucks, the crowd will let the band know it. I’ve seen huge crowds fall silent to bands like Explosions in the Sky, cry to Ryuichi Sakamoto, and go completely apeshit for Wolf Parade. But the audience reaction to a show like this is truly bewildering.
And reading some of the comments flying around, I must agree that I get annoyed by all the increased cameras and “bloggers,” me being one of them. But I make it a point to not interfere with the people behind me, just take a few shots during the middle of the show and I’m done. Moreover, my pics from this particular show came out so crappy ‘cuz I was too busy jumping up and down and flailing my arms in total excitment.
The ModernAge has a good insight on this as well.