A Good Time Was Had By All

Although my idea of a good concert usually involves rotund opera singers bracing themselves against the efficacy of their own voices or something having to do with double exposition form, I made a trip Saturday to the hell known as Detroit to see the LA indie band Rilo Kiley.

Washington Canard first pointed them out to me on one of his posts and I've been in awe of Jenny Lewis's voice ever since. Blog may think that they're just a rip of Alanis Morissette and would probably have derided me for going, but I must say that the show was quite excellent.

They mostly performed songs from More Adventurous but also snuck in A Better Daughter/Son and others that I didn't recognize. (Too bad they didn't play Glendora, but I guess that was too long ago.) Lewis's voice was dead on all night and I wasn't even that annoyed by their secondary singer's solo. (For some reason I was reminded of that guy in Roxette. I don't know his name either. Okay, so this is a bit of a stretch.) I also have a much better opinion of More Adventurous. I looked at it as B-/B material earlier this month, but now it's firmly in B+/A- level. Though, honestly, I don't ask much out of my pop music. Good lead voice, a few nice hooks, don't make me listen to the lyrics too much — good deal.

I'm glad that I went with other people, though. I'm usually used to lowering the average age at concert's I go to by 30 years but since there was no age limit, I was surrounded by a bunch of high school kids. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my pitchfork so I didn't have a chance to yell: "Damn kids — get off my lawn!"

Anyway, if Rilo Kiley is coming to a town near you, do go and check them out. I was impressed. And there are a lot worst uses for $12 bucks.