Presidents of the USA, 18 Apr, Paradiso

What a fucking insane show. It started with the massively long line we encountered upon arriving at Paradiso. Because there was a Rufus Wainwright show right before the Presidents, that audience had to be cleared out before the next one could enter. So basically an entire crowd was out on the sidewalk. We arrived at 11:15 (show was meant to start at 11:30. Yeah. I know.) and the line was back almost to the doors of De Balie. We were in line for half an hour. We had just enough time to get in and pick a spot to stand in when the band came out. Paradiso was absolutely packed and they gave the band a big cheer. All three of the guys were dressed in short-sleeved business shirts and ties. They started with a song from their new album, which a fair amount of the crowd seemed to know, but when they played Kitty after that, the crowd went nuts. When they played Lump a few songs later, it was absolute mayhem as I watched the front half of the crowd condense together and commence manic moshing. The band alternated a bit between new songs and the well-known songs from their first album, seeming totally happy to play the songs that the crowd would know better. Well, they just seemed happy in general, they haven't changed (though the other guitarist is a different guy now), bouncing around the stage and just generally having a blast. And the crowd had a blast with them. The whole front of the audience was moshing and a lot of the rest of the crowd was pogoing and putting their arms in the air and such. After one person started the trend, there was an almost constant stream of stage divers, fer chrissakes, who were actually carried by the audience instead of being allowed to fall into a hole at the front. One guy made it as far back in the crowd as we were. It was insane. It was so 1995. It was like the anti-Doug Fir. Maybe it was because most of the people were younger, I dunno. I just didn't expect all that energy and excitement at a late show on a Monday.

And the band rocked. Jason Finn is a funny little guy. He alternately reminded me of Jack Black and Vincent D'Onofrio as the alien in Men in Black cuz he'd be drumming with his neck all crinked up against his shoulder. They played quite a few covers, including one medley of a bunch of random stuff that included Wonderwall, I Wanna Be Sedated, The Spice Girls and ended with Video Killed the Radio Star. They later played Shout and got the entire floor crowd to squat down during the part where they say "Get a little bit softer now, get a little bit softer now..." Unfortunately at first this group at the front couldn't squat down because they were still holding up a girl who had jumped into the audience, hehe. Chris Ballew asked them to put her down so they could squat with the rest of us, then she seemed to hurt herself, so he asked her a ton of times if she was ok: "Are you sure? Really? That looked like it hurt. You're ok though?" hehe. Peaches was interrupted by a stage diver who would just not leave, so the band asked if he'd like to sit and make himself comfortable. They told stories and jokes and had a great time. It was just an awesome show, they don't make 'em like that often. Fortunately there was a live webcast which will be archived soon, so it'll be interesting to see if the energy shows through there.