Shed a Shade of Shyness

I almost didn't go to the Idlewild show last night. Franz Ferdinand was also playing at another venue, and I debated for a long time which to attend. Plus, I knew I was going to have a rough day at work today, and the show didn't even start until 9 PM. The option I chose was to take a long nap when I got home from work yesterday, and then head down to see Idlewild. Boy, I'm glad I did.
The venue was a little club in downtown Salt Lake called The Velvet Room. It was small, but there were only about 60 people there, so it didn't really matter. There were two opening acts. The first was a local band called The Washington Generals. They had a female singer and had a nice little rock sound. The second opener was Inara George. Besides having a voice as sweet as candy and being stunningly attractive, she spun some seriously catchy indie-rock tunes. So catchy, in fact, that I was persuaded to pick up her album after the show (which she even signed for me).

Idlewild
Originally uploaded by currtdawg.

Idlewild finally came out and played for just over an hour. They played selections from all four of their albums, which are all pretty different from each other. "Hope Is Important," their first, was kinda like "Bleach"-era Kurt Cobain meets "Pinkerton"-era Rivers Cuomo. Their second album, "100 Broken Windows," was like they added Michael Stipe to the mix. "The Remote Part" and "Warnings/Promises" were both all over the place, but definitely had their merrit.

Idlewild Again
Originally uploaded by currtdawg.

Roddy Woomble had some funny between-song banter, and thanked us all especially for choosing them over their fellow Scotsmen, Franz Ferdinand. Just to make us all feel better, they played a short snippet of "Take Me Out."

Still Idlewild
Originally uploaded by currtdawg.

I was hoping they'd play a little longer, especially from the first two records, but I was still thrilled to get to see them live. As an encore, they performed a cover of The Ramones' "I Wanna Be Sedated." Have I mentioned how much I love live music?

Other than getting to see Idlewild, one of the highlights of the evening was a chance meeting with Jon and Heather Armstrong, the creators of Blurbomat and Dooce, respectively. I've been reading their sites for over two years, now, and it was great to put voices with their words. They were both very nice and not at all freaked out when I approached them. We had a nice conversation about Utah and the military and other random goings-on. I love meeting cool new people.