The New Pornographers – Boulder Theater, Boulder, CO, 24/09/07

In support of their sublime new album, Challengers, the New Pornographers recently embarked on a fall tour that will be taking them to various North American locations. I was lucky enough to catch them about a week and a half into the tour, with both Neko Case and Dan Bejar in tow. While the band is stellar on their recordings, I couldn’t help but wonder if their live show would be as cohesive, especially as Neko and Dan don’t normally tour with the band.

I’m thrilled to report that those New Pornographers wasted no time in answering the question as to whether or not they’d be able to recreate the tightness of their albums onstage. The band was cohesive as could be, opening the show with “All The Things That Go To Make Heaven And Earth”, and tearing through most of the material on Challengers as well as a number of songs from their previous albums. While often considered to be a supergroup, there was enough unspoken communication between all band members to show that this is something beyond a mere supergroup, this is a group of friends who have loads of fun playing together.

Neko Case, as always, left me completely in awe of her perfect voice, especially when she took the lead in “Go Places”; she can bang away on a tambourine with the best of them, too. Dan Bejar made a handful of seemingly random appearances, usually with a beer in hand. He obviously sang on all of “his” songs, though he did play guitar on a couple numbers as well. Easily the highlight of the set was “Adventures In Solitude”, which was – according to Carl Newman – the first time they played the thing live. Other high points included “Myriad Harbour”, “Twin Cinema”, “The Bleeding Heart Show”, and show closer “Letter From An Occupant”.

The most entertaining non-musical happening of the evening was the extremely inebriated fan who, apparently bored with heckling the band, decided to hop on stage and attempt to crowd surf. Sadly for him his aspirations turned into a belly flop onto the floor, at which time he disappeared into the crowd, returning a few songs later with a bloody tissue in hand. After some more heckling (the guy really wanted to hear “Three Or Four”) he jumped on the stage again, but was spared another crash to the ground when Neko grabbed his arm and escorted him from the stage.

So, two very satisfied thumbs up for my first New Pornographers show, though the inclusion of both Neko and Dan has likely spoiled me for life. The band is coming back through town in a month or so, I can only hope again with the full lineup.

Links
The New Pornographers [official site] [myspace] [challengers review]