Dan Bejar's voice is so unique and such a pleasure to hear. Remarkably, it sounds live exactly like it does on his Destroyer albums. When Destroyer played last night, I was so happy, so surprised to see what Dan Bejar looks like, and all the more happy that he was this dumpy, short guy with unkempt hair, and such a genius. He did not play one song from Your Blues, and so I didn't recognize one of the songs he played, but they all made me so happy and unlike most other live performers, you can make out just about every word Bejar is singing, so it was okay.

During the downtime between these two sets, they were playing background music, Bee Gees, Arcade Fire, and things. Ethan asked, "Do you know what would make me so happy right now?" And I said a big, comfortable couch, and he agreed, but said he was also wishing that they would play a Stevie Nicks song in that mix of songs. We talked about which Nicks song we would really like to hear and then moved on to other topics, boys or something.

New Pornographers came on afterward sans Bejar and blasted through "Twin Cinema" as their opening song. Bejar didn't come out till the third song, which I can't even remember and left the stage right after. Maybe "Jackie, Dressed in Cobras"? About every three or four songs, they would call out for Dan and he would take his time making his way back to the stage, drunker and drunker each time with a new beer in his hand. I wanted him to stay on stage because Carl Newman's vocals sounded so pop compared to Bejar's. Neko Case's vocals, not surprisingly, were totally awesome and she was wearing this really big yellow dress and I commented to Ethan when they first came on stage how there was his Stevie Nicks, in that dress. And even though Newman's voice sort of annoyed me, he, along with the rest of the band is such a pleasure to watch, that there is all this noise going on, so many musicians and yet, it still sounds so good. Also, Newman was wearing a Mates of State t-shirt, which I thought cute. Midway through their set, they played, "The Laws Have Changed," and my night could have ended happy right there, hearing my favorite song of theirs done so well.

I am not sure what it is in their music that makes it so good - I don't think it is possible to dissect the elements and try to examine your pleasure - it just doesn't work - there is just something about it, hearing those songs that makes me smile ear to ear and want to bob my head and try to make my physical expressions somehow mirror the mental pleasure that this sound gives me. They played two encores because everyone else there felt the same way about this band, and I felt really old because so many of these people seemed so young, eighteen, if even, and the music was so good, so incredibly good, and during that second encore, the drummer proudly said that he had made Neko's dress and this led to lots of stage banter about the dress before the drummer said it made her look like Stevie Nicks. I hit Ethan on the arm, and then someone in the band started jokingly playing the opening chords of Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams." Some people in the audience, including Ethan and I, screamed so insanely excited hoping that the joke would turn into a cover and the band all started to improvise their way through the song and Neko, a little reluctantly started to sing the song, and even though she messed up a couple of the lyrics, it was so insanely thrilling to hear after Ethan and I had just been talking about wanting to hear some Stevie Nicks. It was amazing to hear New Pornographers playing Fleetwood Mac! That was the new highlight of my evening, after the band already giving me so many. So generous, those folks.

After the show, I went and met Ben and Solomon on the street who were both silly drunk and irrate and Ben was beating this sorry excuse for an umbrella even further up. I went to Nowhere with them and soon the rest of their posse arrived (Sasha, Christy, Amy, Steph, ?) and I had a few beers and talked to various people, still totally high off the show I had just seen. The train for some reason waited half an hour or so in the 1st Avenue stop before leaving, so slowly and then again stopping at Beford for a long time, at which point, tired of this insanely long trip home, I got off there and walked through the rain, this never ending rain, of which today is the seventh straight day supposedly. It is going to be such a joyous sight when these clouds break and I see the sky again. I cannot wait. Supposedly this may happen briefly Saturday afternoon.

And oh yeah, in an hour, I have to be at work. This is my first time doing actual work in probably five, maybe six months.