Andrews review of New Pornographers concert

On the 9th I joined our new flatmate, Chris, and a couple of soon to be Framestore cohorts and went to see the New Pornographers play down the street at Koko.
Now, first off, I'm not a big fan of going to concerts. Indeed, while I love sitting out in a field enjoying band after band entertain me while I hang out in the sun/shade with friends, drinking whatever beverage suited my fancy at the time, I have never really fully appreciated live indoor music unless I'm dancing. And to prevent this review getting sidetracked and devolving into a drawn-out wet towel of a diatribe on the deficiencies of music concerts in general, let me say simply: It's on a rare occasion that I exit a concert venue not thinking my time and money would have been better spent just buying the album.
Then why even go, I hear you ask. Well, Chris arrived a couple of months before and, with the eager excitement that only his unique brand of boyish charm could produce, rattled of all these great shows we could go see. This sort of enthusiastic proclamation always gives rise to a feeling of guilty inadequacy that my lifestyle seems so comparatively slothful and uninspired and makes me chasten myself for not taking advantage of being in London, a city that on any given week dishes up a multitude of entertainment options that would never be on offer back in Vancouver. So, being humbled and wanting to redeem myself for my social inaction I accepted his invite to join him. Of course, the fact that I am a big fan of the Pornos and the venue was a mere 3 minute walk from our place helped seal the deal. (I told him, however, exactly where he could push his precious Tragically Hip tickets)
So although they had already won me over years before with thier music, the Pornos had my prejudices against live shows to overcome.
Did they? Well, the were pretty good. I liked the vibe they gave off and they did Canada proud by laying out a ballsy set that re-awakened a crowd that had been effectivey lulled into a semi-intoxicated indifference by the half-hearted efforts of the Phil Collins wannabe of an opening act. Most importantly though, and this is something I think every band should do in concert: they changed up the songs a bit so that they weren't just carbon copy versions of the ones you know from the albums. All in all a good effort from the visitors. Down side? As always: the sound quality. But hey, what can you do?
And it only took us 3 songs to recognize them as the group at the table next to us at the pizza place we ate at before the show.