this past friday marked the long awaited camera obscura show at the crofoot out in pontiac. it seemed like we bought our tickets years ago but the time had arrived at last. i started out the night at redcoat tavern for a delicious burger and somehow was able to get a table and eat in a matter of an hour and a half while some people had been waiting two hours just to be seated, and thanks to beth and jenny learned the importance of adding guacamole to that burger.
i finally arrived a little before 9pm and after a blustery wait in line i was in the door, camera in tow. it was nice to not have to worry about the overbearing camera police that were present the last time i was at a show here. i met up with the crew and we found our spot on the main floor. opening act was papercuts out of san francisco and they were very low key but enjoyable. i guess when my last exposure to live music was deadmau5 less than a week before, my energy expectations were through the roof, so it wasnt really fair, but i did like them. i ventured up to the front for a second to snap a few shots which were way too dark and unsalvagable and i met camera girl who was there with presumably her boyfriend also snapping some shots.
next up was the main event and almost as soon as they began playing, i felt a tap on my shoulder. it was camera girl again and she dragged me with her right up to the front where she and her boyfriend had carved out a spot. after taking whatever i can in the less than ideal lighting (i guess everything will always be less than ideal after the lighting juggernaut that was phish), i went up to the balcony to get what i could get.
camera obscuras performance was great in my opinion. they were a bit more upbeat than the papercuts (thats not a knock on the papercuts, for the record) and had some nice local onstage banter, talking about how they arrived in pontiac earlier and didnt see anyone around, and how they heard that tiki bobs cantina is the place to go if youre looking to get laid. apparently it doesnt take too long for the sometimes seedy bars in pontiac to make their impression on out of towners. tracyanne (who seemed to resemble zooey deschanel more than i remembered) had a few self proclaimed wardrobe malfunctions which she handled with poise and a sense of humor (one captured below — dont get too excited, there were no janet jackson impressions) and they bustled through their set to a gracious crowd. the set ended with perhaps their most energetic songs, “lloyd im ready to be heartbroken” and “french navy” and the crowd responded appropriately. the group thanked us with a three song encore, including their newly released track “the blizzard”.
some salvageable pics are below, and as usual you can check them out in a bit better quality on the dailybeatz flickr page but to be quite honest they look a lot nicer at this smaller size. it does give the pics a more intimate feel though.
and of course, a camera obscura track to whet your appetite. and its none other than one of everyones favorite camera obscura tracks, the aforementioned “lloyd im ready to be heartbroken”. its the first camera obscura track i ever heard and i think it pretty well sums up their sound.
buy this track on itunes
