Thursday, April 17, 2008

nada surf live at the troc

Nada Surf. They hit it big in the mid 90's with the single "Popular" from High/Low and then essentially faded from the mainstream. Luckily for them. People think they're one hit wonders and those people are wrong. They continue to put out quality albums that are for them and their fans and not the executives at a record company. In fact, they felt so strongly about their second album The Proximity Effect that they ended up breaking their contract with the company they were with and then fought a protracted court battle to win the right to release it in the United States. Over the years they have become a quiet favorite of mine.

Small venues are my favorite places to see bands. They're more intimate, obviously, and the band often interacts with the crowd much more. For bands with small followings, the people at the show are often passionate fans that really groove with the music. It all just lends itself to a better performance. Nada Surf was no exception. The crowd was singing along, people were dancing to the tunes and the band, especially Matthew Caws and to a lesser extent Daniel Lorca, was talking to the crowd. Caws called out some kids that were on the balcony at the front and said it was great that they were at the show. He told the guy with them that he was a great dad for bringing them to a rock show.

They played a lot of music from their new album, Lucky, in the beginning of the show. The new album sounds great and I plan on buying it...from a record store at the plea of Caws. Their newer music is a little less hard and heavy. My thought is that they're mellowing out a bit as the get older. This is fine, good bands change as they grow as musicians. The effect was that the first two-thirds of the concert was a little less "rock" and a little more "roll." They played some really great songs, including the haunting "See These Bones" and my favorite "Weightless" from Lucky.

They came back for the encore - I use this term lightly...it was more of a shortened second set - and proclaimed that they had 25 minutes left to play and they had 4 songs left they had planned to play, which wouldn't take 25 minutes. The crowd shouted out some requests and "Hyperspace" (which could/should have been the single the record company was looking for from The Proximity Effect)was added to the set list. Caws said it had been a while since they played it, so we'd have to see how it went. Well, they rocked it and I think Caws and Lorca had the best time with that song in the entire concert. The encore had a different tone to it, they played all older songs and they really turned the intensity up. The concert would have been great if they hadn't, but it was incredible because they did. I left the Troc pumped and wishing they would have played for another hour.

After waiting so long to see them for the first time, I can't wait until they come around again.

nada surf silhouette rednada surfcaws silhouettecaws rocking

1 comment:

Brain said...

One of the best bands ever! I loved that show in Philly and it was probably one of the best shows I have ever been to. Cheers! Brain

http://slipperybrainmusic.blogspot.com/