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Slim's June 7, 2003 Review by Jake Thomas Show length time can be a tricky thing; some bands play too long, others not long enough. And who decides what the correct time length someone should play is anyways? I suppose it's up to the individual show attendee to decide. For me, it's always seemed like a bell curve; the greatness of the show increases and increases, but eventually you hit a point where it's just the right amount, and if you go past it you've played too long. Enon played too long for me. The length of time I can enjoy a band is sometimes pretty short anyways (I've been accused of having musical ADD before), and this especially holds true for bands whose music I don't really know going in. Plus I almost always prescribe to the 'leave them wanting more' school of thought. I liked Enon, they sounded great, the male singer had some great dance moves, and the female singer had a cute voice (actually, everything about her was cute and she was smiling the entire time, which shouldn't be odd but doesn't seem to happen as much as you might think it would it seems to me). I've seen them before and been meaning to pick up their records for a while, but somehow always get sidetracked at the music store. I was really enjoying their set for probably the first three-fourths of the show, but at some point I hit a wall and just wanted the Dismemberment Plan to take the stage. The Dismemberment Plan also played too long, but I'm willing to cut them just a little more slack since it is supposedly their final tour before breaking up. Still, a 2 hour show is a long one for any band, regardless of the circumstances. And you can't really complain anyways when the final band goes long, cause you can just leave à not an option for a lengthy opening act. They sounded great, and played every song I wanted to hear. The band took requests for almost the entire night, and they might have actually played every song they've put out, they were up there for so long (including plenty of their older songs that run a little too close to white boy funk for my tastes; It's ok in small doses, but too much of it is definitely not one of my favorite things). They played almost all of 'Emergency & I', which I consider to be one of my favorite records of the late nineties. Especially great was 'Gyroscope' which my friend requested for me and 'You Are Invited'. As usual, when they played 'The Ice of Boston' tons of people jumped up on stage and danced and it was a rollicking good time for all. The entire band really seemed to be enjoying themselves the entire show, maybe just living it up because they know it isn't going to last much longer. It was sad in some ways that this was their last show, but they had a pretty good run at it. And who knows what will rise from the ashesðpossibly something better, possibly something worse, but sometimes the anticipation is the best part. --- Read our previous Dismemberment Plan review: November 3, 2002 @ Great American Music Hall ©2003 playinginfog.com |