Skinny Pants and All
By Matt Baker October 6, 2009
This past weekend I had the fortune of going to an Elliott Brood concert (for those who are unfamiliar, that is a band name, not a dude). Now if you have read any of my blogs before, you may be under the impression that I am about to start bitching and moaning. In any other blog you would probably be correct, but this concert was great. However, these kinds of concerts tend to attract a certain demographic – namely indie kids. While standing amidst the sea of faded t-shirts and thick rectangular glasses Eva and I noticed another common feature which led Eva to coin the evening “The Skinny Pants Convention”. I forgot my rectangular (albeit thin) glasses at home and, I must say, it was pretty awkward. After two hours of waiting the opening band finally started. And guess what they were wearing? Skinny pants!
In the last 15 years or so a musical genre has arisen called Alternacountry, epitomized by bands such as Wilco and Cowboy Junkies, and combining elements of country with indie aesthetics. Elliott Brood has been known to refer to their music as “death country”, but really, it is just a subgenre of Alternacountry. But I don’t think that name really captures the essence of the scene. I like to call it Skinny Pants Country. Eva rebutted this by saying that cowboys wear skinny pants too, but their pants are really just tight, not skinny.
The Wooden Skies played a great opening set, especially according to the dude in front of me. I don’t know how it happens, but at every concert I go to I always end up next to the guy that doesn’t understand personal space (ok, there will be some obligatory bitching here). It is not like this was a punk concert where people are jumping around. It was the opening act of an indie concert – if people are bobbing their heads you’ve got them worked up. But this guy found it necessary to play air guitar (seriously?) six inches in front of me.
By the time Elliott Brood took to the stage the crowd had gotten pretty pumped up and the dancin’ fool upped his game from air guitar to solo hoedown. At this point it was just dangerous to be near him. Eva had to get her elbows out a few times.
Rarely have a seen a band so adept at working the crowd as Elliott Brood. The took audience interaction to a whole new level when they busted out a bag of cookie sheets and wooden spoons to pass around the crowd. From that point on we knew they were done with the slow songs and the dancin’ fool graduated to Saturday Night Fever. I damn near lost an eye. I never really understood why they called themselves death country until I saw them in concert. Their recordings seem somewhat mellow and acoustic and they did only play acoustic guitars and banjos, however they cranked the distortion to a ridiculous level and rocked the fuck out.
Anyhoo, we survived the night with only minor damage to our personal bubbles and eardrums. Check out the video I found on youtube to get an idea of the concert.