stereolab

Stereolab rocked my world! I don't typically go to shows because I'm not crazy about dancing, crowds, noise, smoke, or staying up late. (although the Cradle is now smoke-free, as I was thrilled to discover last night.) But I'll make an exception for a band I really love, like Stereolab. The show was great! They played all the songs I love from their new album Margerine Eclipse, plus some good ones from earlier albums.

I had been wondering how they were going to handle the vocals, since they haven't replaced Mary Hansen; Laetitia Sadier did both lead and backup vocals on the new album. Well they handled it by just dropping the backup vocals. Some of the songs sounded kind of weird without harmonies, kind of "ok, here's the place where Mary would be singing 'la li loo,'" but there was just nothing. But I guess it was less weird than a new singer would have been.

Turned out yesterday was their drummer's birthday, because near the end of the show they brought out a cake and Laetitia sang "Happy Birthday" to him. It was really sweet.

I wasn't going to buy a shirt because I don't wear men's Ts anymore, but they had girl shirts! I got one in the new Margerine Eclipse logo, and Georg got the Sound Dust skull logo. There seemed to be a consesus that the skull design is cooler, but I actually prefer the new design.