New Model Army

Did anyone catch New Model Army at the Black Cat last night? What an awesome show!

And so many goths I thought it was Dollhouse night!

I was there – the girl in the brown shirt in the front dancing like an idiot the whole time.

God, that was an awesome show. What I really liked about it was that everyone around me seemed to really be enjoying themselves, even the band. That's something that I don't usually see around here; maybe I'm just going to the wrong shows, or maybe NMA's fans are just an excellent little cult, but it was still a hell of a lot of fun.

Oh, and whoever the guy in the orange shirt was? The fact that you were the only person dancing during that horrible opening set made my week. Thanks. :)

hmmm… I'm not sure if I saw you. I was the tall, handsome dark haired guy tapping my foot and drinking a Guiness.

I know this is intangible, but the big thing that struck me about NMA is they were passionate and seemed to really mean it. I can't how many bands I've seen that are overwrought and loud and go through all the motions, but at the end just leave me feeling, "so what?" With these guys it seemed to come from the heart.

That's why I like them so much. You can even hear it on their studio work – Sullivan's got a certain genuine-ness that's lacking nowadays. It's hard to describe but I think he's struck the perfect balance, too, between the private and the political. Meh, I'm just thrilled because I didn't think I'd ever have a chance to see 'em live, I would have been happy even if they'd been old and decrepit.

I'm ashamed to admit I was not familiar with them before last night. I mainly went for lack of anything better to do, and I was blown away.

You should check out some of their albums. My favorites are Vengeance and Thunder & Consolation – as for individual songs, there are way too many to list. At the moment my favorites are 125 MPH, Green & Grey, and Lurhstaap. And don't feel ashamed; at least you weren't one of the fuckheads downstairs whining about refunds. I honestly wanted to yell at them that they didn't even deserve to be there. Sigh.

thank you, I was about to ask which albums to check out first! :)

Why did they want refunds?

Originally posted by dyssocial:
You should check out some of their albums. My favorites are Vengeance and Thunder & Consolation – as for individual songs, there are way too many to list. At the moment my favorites are 125 MPH, Green & Grey, and Lurhstaap. And don't feel ashamed; at least you weren't one of the fuckheads downstairs whining about refunds. I honestly wanted to yell at them that they didn't even deserve to be there. Sigh.

The original opening band that was supposed to play cancelled. I don't even know who they were – they weren't why I was there. But I was waiting in the cafe for doors, and there must have been at least twenty people on cell phones calling Ticketmaster and then bitching at the ticketsellers themselves. Kind of pathetic really.

they sound like a bunch of fuckweeds!

It really boggles my mind that there isn't a fuller fan base out there for New Model Army. I think they are one of the best bands out there. Justin Sullivan maintains one of the most grueling tour schedules around while continuing a voluminous output of, in my opinion, some damn fine songs. Last night was a great culmination of this "New Model Army reintroduction" to the US, finally getting a 5 piece electric group over here to kick out selections spanning NMA's career with at least two songs I never heard before (Anybody get a set list?). "Purity" last night was the standout for me…"Green and Grey" might have been if I didn't have a couple of morons yammering on behind me.
And when did the Pharma-Hippies get turned on to NMA? Those three dudes were wack!

yeah, they looked and acted like they thought they were at a Phish show…

I'm not really sure why they aren't more well-known, but I honestly think Justin Sullivan is one of the best contemporary songwriters around.

I thought it was hilarious how enthusiastic a response 51st State got – I know it's about Britain, but the fact that we're DC made it funnier. I was glad to hear some stuff off of Impurity, though – Get Me Out's also one of my favorites. As for the setlist … god, I wish I could remember all of the stuff they played. I know one of the songs I didn't recognize was a new one that'll be on an upcoming album, and one of the others that's less well known was off of (I think) their b-sides album, Lost Songs. I think it was Brother, but I'm not sure. That was the one that started off with that weird sort of Middle Eastern feel to it.

Pharma-hippies? I must've missed that. Not terribly disappointed, though.

Oh, and I have a setlist:

01. Orange Tree Roads
02. Believe It
03. Over The Wire
04. Wonderful Way To Go
05. Stupid Questions
06. Liberal Education
07. Island
08. 51st State
09. Here Comes The War
10. Green & Grey
11. Ocean Rising
12. Brother
13. No Rest
14. Purity
15. Get Me Out

ENCORE
16. Family
17. Fate
18. I Love The World

Originally posted by Doctor Doom:
hmmm… I'm not sure if I saw you. I was the tall, handsome dark haired guy tapping my foot and drinking a Guiness.

Hey, I think I saw you. I was the very well endowed guy one urinal over from you.