Metallungies at Princeton/CSS, Chicago, 5.21.11.
ML Note: We’ve invited Meg, a friend of ML to liven things up around these parts. ML has always dabbled in stuff that isn’t just the rappity raps and Meg will lead the charge in getting ML readers hip to all sorts of new things. Be on the lookout for her proper introduction tomorrow. Lastly, don’t confuse Meg with MegH, who turned out to be ML’s own Detox of sorts after such a buzzworthy entrance.
Two weekends ago at The Metro in Chicago, Princeton served as the calm between two explosive acts and thank god someone had the foresight to set it up that way. DAAN, the first opening act, was a barrage of over the top homoerotic theatrics that didn’t help their music in the least. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for theatrics, but I found it physically impossible to give the music its fair share of attention when I had a gyrating crotch (covered in god knows what) 3 inches from my face. It was simply performance art gone horribly wrong.
When Princeton finally took to the stage the whole audience seemed to breathe a sigh of relief; normal boys doing normal things with instruments. They started off their set with two groove-inducing numbers that got the entire crowd dancing. It was great to see how their sound has evolved since the release of Cocoon of Love. They’ve moved from following in the footsteps of Vampire Weekend and Ra Ra Riot and are blazing a trail of their own. This clearly seemed like a conscious move for them when a girl in the crowd kept screaming “PLAY SHOUT IT OUT!!” (the quintessential crowd pleaser from Cocoon of Love) and frontman Jesse just jokingly replied with “you’re not invited to any more shows”. Princeton played their entire set with humble earnestness that made you feel like you were watching your close friends play. They have something special and I would be surprised if they didn’t blow up even more in the indie scene in the months to come. Hopefully with their next album Princeton can finally make the jump from opener to headliner. They obviously have a fan base and they aren’t lacking in talent so I find it confusing that even now, two years after Cocoon of Love was released, they’re still an opening band.
Although I think Princeton would serve well as a headliner, they did a fantastic job setting the stage for CSS. CSS proved to be a completely energetic show where I found it hard not to dance while trying to photograph the band. They played crowd favorites from their last album, Donkey, and also a few tracks from their upcoming album La Liberacion. Judging by the teaser they gave the crowd of the album dropping in August it’s going to be just as good if not better than Donkey. Lovefoxxx (is that not the coolest stage name?) had people losing themselves in dance in the crowd and it was clear that everyone in the venue only had eyes for her. She sat on my shoulders for a hot second, I’ve never felt so privileged to literally act as a piece of furniture. They closed out their set with a three song encore consisting of two older songs and one brand new which they engineered well and served as the perfect ending to the night.
Photos after the jump.
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