Bimbo's 365 Club
April 13, 2003
Review by Jake Thomas
A damn fine night of music at Bimbo's from both Aereogramme and the Delgados. It's been ages since I've seen anyone here, and I always forget what a nice place it is to see bands; nice, big stage with the drums on a riser, swank décor, decent sound, and it's usually never tough to find parking. Too bad they rarely have anything I like to see there. Aereogramme was the opener, and the reason I came to the show in the first place. Aside from some technical difficulties with their laptop, everything was spot on. When the show first started there was hardly anyone there, but as it progressed many more showed up, for which I was glad. I hate it when touring bands have to play to empty rooms, and it's even worse when they're as good as these guys are. They seemed to focus pretty heavily on their new material during the first part of the show, which all sounded great and reinforced to me my need to procure this album post haste. About halfway through they moved on to some older songs from their debut album 'A Story in White' which pleased me to no end; they even played my 2 favorite songs from the album, and this made me happy indeed. I'm guessing that the songs where the singer is screaming might have put off some of the contingent there for the sweet melodies of the Delgados, but I saw it as a perfect blend of coarse and smooth, two textures that might be quite different but are equally good and useful in the world.
It should also be noted that every member of Aereogramme had beards. I wonder if there is some informal connection between the Central Valley and Scotland that I don't know about.
There was no facial hair on any of the nine faces that made up the Delgados this evening, but there were plenty of smiles. They seemed like a pretty happy bunch, especially the bassist - he was smiling for pretty much the entire duration of the show. At one point during the set, he bashfully dedicated a song to a girl in the audience that he described as 'lovely' and the whole audience went 'aww' collectively. The band was comprised of the normal drums/bass/guitars stuff, but also included a keyboardist, two violins, cello, and flute, which is quite a crew of people to be hauling around all the way from Scotland. The music was truly beautiful, I'm really at a loss to come up with a better descriptor than that. Even though I barely know any of their songs, and hadn't planned on staying for the whole show, it was such a grand experience that I couldn't bring myself to leave. At one point, someone yelled out to the singer "Emma, tell us what it feels like to write such beautiful songs?" which seemed to really catch her off guard; her response was to ask the guy "what does it feel like to be such a good dancer?" as the guy had been quite lively the whole way through. Then, according to Daz who was up in front of her, a few light tears flowed down her cheeks. When they finished their set and everyone was clapping and hooting and carrying on, as the band walked off the stage the bassist had everyone be quiet so that he could tell the crowd "I will remember this show until the day that I die!" which sounded even more impressive in the Scottish accent he was wielding. After a few moments of applause, the band came back out and played a couple of encore songs, one of which was a cover of Electric Light Orchestra's 'Mr. Blue Sky', a damn fine song if there ever was one. It was one of those great moments where you tell yourself you're going to buy the original of that song whenever you figure out who it is, until your brain comes out of a fog and you realize not only who it is but that you already own it. Needless to say, as soon as I got home I listened to the song. I may not have considered myself a fan of the Delgados before this night, but I definitely am now.
Delgados
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Check out our previous Aereogramme experience:
Photos: July 24th, 2002 @ Bottom of the Hill
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