Turned Green and Nearly Fainted

That's what happened to my buddy the night we went to see The Faint.

August 15th, 2005

It started with a few pints and a hot grill with ham at La Buvette, then a pit stop at my apartment before heading down to Sokol. It was very hot. I was very hot to see the show, since I was on the ticket possessing side of a sold out night and after seeing them open for Bright Eyes at the Mid-America show, I was pretty sure they were going to become my favorite Omaha band.

I'll use my friend's comments to describe Ladyfinger, "I should just go home and listen to Black Flag." I told him to go then, but I was only halfway into Ladyfinger because as I said, it was hot, and I was feeling like I needed lots of beverage and the show was taking a back seat to me cooling down and getting accustomed to the evening. My buddy was feeling the heat too, and went off to grab some water. I run into him moments after the set and he's looking okay, a little sweaty, but not too bad. Then he sortof crumples over and we grab him and walk him over to the wall. He comes back about halfway, so he's more or less standing, but he's pretty pale, and he can't see. We find a place to sit for a bit, his eyesight returns and at this point we realize the middle act, Orenda Fink (she used to be half of Azure Ray) has come on and is playing "Do You Realize??"

Sorry Orenda, but we spent the majority of your set sitting in the gym and you were too quiet to hear where we were sitting. I'll see you again I'm sure, but my boy really needed the break. He bounced back after modifying the blood pressure with a trusty red bull.

The Faint.

Now THIS is a real rock show.

Multi-media extraordinaire with a deafening, vibrating soundsystem to pump the sweaty crowd full of jam. My general gripe about crowds in Omaha: gawkishness. Not tonight. Tonight is Dance Party Faintastic. Synthy wobbling nod fodder for the folks who can't get anything else moving. The visuals were tightly matched, constantly changing and hi-fi. Not only was the soundsystem more than sufficiently watted, the 4/4 kick literally hit you with wave after tangible soundwave, it was crisply balanced, so that I could hear the lyrics, most of the time. But everybody here has seen The Faint at some point or another, so I guess I should just drop it. Go see 'em if you haven't. If you like electro, find a disk, and even if you don't end up liking it, go see 'em live if you get the chance. The ladies seem to love 'em, and they have a bunch of songs about sex. Personally, they upstaged Bright Eyes, but maybe that's because they followed Mars Black.

I did brave the 140 degree sauna upstairs to snap a couple of photos of the setup, but they'll probably be crapola because of all the humidity rising up off the crowd. You'll see them here if they ain't.