Glad for the Earplugs

Nate and I had 3 days of back-to-back concert fun this past weekend. Thursday was Beirut, Friday was REM with Modest Mouse and The National, and Saturday was M83 with The Berg Sans Nipple (hahaha!). All were very enjoyable (the missing nipple, as well), but I would say my highlight was Beirut--the crowd was fabulous and enthusiastic and the music was definitely strengthened by the live performance. We just wished that the opener, a girl playing a finger piano (kalimba?), had not been so loooooong. Mind you, that was the only instrument she played. Well, that and a kazoo. [bored sigh].
The National wasn't as good live as we had anticipated, boring even. But Modest Mouse was a good time*. Too short, actually, which surprised me. REM put on a really quality show with great stage presence (that's one thing The National was missing) even though they are now, as Nate puts it, the geriatric version. M83 was fun (Thanks for the tip J!), and Vancouver was doing its best to keep it lively. The guys in the band clearly had a good time. The only downer was the 10pm cutoff for the stupid nightclub at Richard's. Way too early. I went to thank the guy in French after the show and his buddy was surprised that "il y a des gens qui parlent français à Vancouver." I think I've done my part. J'en suis une. Et il me faut parler français un peu plus. Je n'utilise jamais, mais en échangeant quelques mots avec le musicien, j'ai rappelé que c'est très amusant et que j'adore la langue française. Parlons!
Si tu ne comprends pas, tant pis, eh?
Pardonne ma grammaire...

* Must be due to Johnny Marr! I didn't know he joined the band until Nate told me a couple of weeks ago. Too bad he didn't do a solo, nor did he join REM onstage. We were really hoping for both, but I guess being the first stop of the tour means we don't get the group collaboration vibe developed from long hours spent together. Bummers.