Sunday, September 30, 2007

“I was your silver lining, but now I'm gold…”

So the weekend of Sept. 14-16th Anna came to visit. She had a speaking engagement in the ‘burbs on the 17th, and came earlier to spend some time with me. Hooray! I had a great time showing her around my new city and it was fabulous to have a buddy to go exploring some new places with me.

One thing that brought me back to the good ‘ole days of DC was going to a show with Anna on the 15th , and it was fun to go see an act that we had seen together a few years back, but when they were the opening act for Coldplay. We went to the Riviera Theatre (The Riv) to see LA based band Rilo Kiley.

This was my first time at The Riv so I didn’t know what it would be like on the inside. I pass it and the Aragon on my morning commute on the El. Anna and I took our time in getting there, and by the time we did the place was packed. It had two different levels on the floor and then a balcony area. We decided to stand in the second tier of the floor space. We had gotten there right before the opening act, Jonathan Rice, but had missed the opening-opening act, Grand Ole Party. Oh well. C’est la vie.

By the time Jonathan had taken the stage many of us had grown restless. I was having a hard time seeing the stage. I knew that this was not going to be a good night for me to see the stage. At least the tall guy in front of us allowed us to stand in front of him. The first time I had seen Jonathan was when he was on tour with Jenny during her solo thing. I gave some background about him in my Oct. 17, 2006 entry. Most of the songs he played came off of his new album Further North including “We’re All Stuck Out in the Desert” and the standout track “End of the Affair,” a duet with Jenny.

After Jonathan’s set, Anna and I stood around patiently and chatted with the nice guy who allowed us to stand in front of him. However, it did no good. As soon as Rilo Kiley took the stage everyone in front of me seemed to get in my line of vision. As the show progressed I got to see glimpses of everyone in the band. And Jenny was in a sequined top/dress thing so you couldn’t miss her.

They put on a great show, full of energy and the crowd was really into it. They were fans and you could tell that they didn’t first hear of Rilo Kiley off of the Grey’s Anatomy soundtrack. The majority of the set list came from their new album, Under the Blacklight: “Close Call,” “The Moneymaker,” “Breakin’ Up,” “Dreamworld,” “Smoke Detector,” “15,” “Silver Lining,” and “Give a Little Love” (the first song of the encore). They also played favorites from More Adventurous: “It’s a Hit” (opening song), “Portions for Foxes,” “Ripcord,” “I Never,” and “Does He Love You?” (second song of the encore). They even played some older songs “Wires and Waves” from Take Offs and Landings, and “Paint’s Peeling,” “Spectacular Views,” and “With Arms Outstretched” from Execution of All Things. At one point they were also nice to cover Jenny’s song “Rise Up with Fists!!!” and Blake’s other band The Elected’s “Greetings in Braille.”
I had a great time at this show, even though I couldn’t see a lot of it. It was nice spending time with Anna, and sharing this show with her. Rilo Kiley is a fun act and worth going to see. So go.

xoxo,
Stefania

“The Moneymaker”


“Silver Lining”

Comments: Post a Comment



<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?