Junior Boys

I just got back from the Junior Boys concert in Chicago. It's 4 AM so I'll put some stuff down then edit it later today, since I can do that with the ol' blogosphere, or whatever.
The set:
1. Count Souvenirs
2. The Equalizer
3. Teach Me How to Fight
4. Like a Child
5. Birthday
6. Double Shadow
7. So This is Goodbye
8. In the Morning
9. More Than Real
Encore:
10. Under the Sun

I'm 100% sure these are the songs they played, but the order of 7 through 9 is somewhat hazy, since these were kept by memory.

Suprises: guitar and bass, drums on top of drum machine, no "FM," Junior Boys didn't have that pre-recorded feel, many songs from Last Exit (3, 5, 9, and 10), layout of the Empty Bottle, great concert shirts but no buttons (what can i say? I like concert buttons). Updates soon to come.

Update: For rather obnoxious circumstances, I had to go to this one on my own, a cause for heightened senses, greater awareness, and more adrenaline walking back to my car after the show. When I arrived it was halfway through San Serac, who surrounded himself with various keyboards and devices. Some of his voice modulation effects were very pleasing as well is his fast paced rush of other computer sounds. The Empty Bottle's setup is a bit strange. There are a couple rooms tucked away with with old arcade machines and sofas and such. The main room is a long rectangle with the stage at one corner and a bar along one side, and on other side near the stage is this raised area a little higher than the stage where you can view the show. That is where I was. The stage isn't connected to any door, so San Serac bumped into me at one point while removing his equipment from the stage.

I was only expecting two people from Junior Boys, each on a keyboard. Not so. They had a drummer, Jeremy Greenspan played guitar and bass, and Matt Didemus had one large keyboard, a smaller keyboard controller, and an Apple laptop. I know LCD Soundsystem is fond of drums on drum machine, but I can't say there is much of that on Junior Boys' albums. However, it added quite a bit to "Teach Me How to Fight." Didemus was so freaking smooth. He would play a few notes on one keyboard, nonchalantly hit a few keys on the other, amble over to his laptop and adjust a few parameters, all while taking a few draws off his cigarette. All the electronic shows I've been to have been pre-recorded and put on a rail, and sometimes that left no time for the band to talk to the audience. The Junior Boys, however, could start and stop their songs at will, so though certain parts are prerecorded, it didn't feel abrupt or forced in any way. The only song they played I didn't like was "Double Shadow." But let me explain, this song is nearly perfect on the album. This is all the more reason to change the pace and timing of it extensively during a show, which they did. This was the last show of their tour, though they will be playing at the Pitchfork Music Festival in July I believe. They ended with "Under the Sun," which they really rocked out at the end. I thought this was appropriate for the coming Summer season.

Photo courtesy of Radio Free Chicago. This is from last Fall, but it gives the right impression of Didemus.