The New Pornographers and Tokyo Police Club
Monday, October 18 at The National
Monday night’s show at the National started promptly at 8:00, and by the end of the night, the New Pornographers and Tokyo Police Club had delivered a solid three hours of all that rocks, Canadian-style.
“The New Pornographers are paying us tonight on a commission basis, based on how well we warm up the crowd,” said front man and bassist Dave Monks. “So feel free to bust a move.”
And with that, Tokyo Police Club began their set of earnest, polite rock ‘n roll. Driven by hard, fast guitars that like to stop as suddenly as they start; fun synthesizer parts; and an awkward, endearing stage presence, this band from Toronto won over the crowd easily. If the line for the merch table during the intermission was any indication, Tokyo Police Club earned their commission from the show’s headliners.
After the opening act had put all their tambourines away (and there were plenty to spare), and the crowd had settled back into the packed venue, wearing their brand new t-shirts, The New Pornographers took their places on the stage, and began a set of songs spanning their five-album career. Monday night’s show was the Canadian band’s first time back to Richmond in two years, and the turnout revealed that the city hadn’t forgotten them.
The affectionate crowd was looking for a great show, and The New Pornographers delivered, with light, easy banter to fill the gaps between songs. In fact, you almost wished there’d be more of a space from one to the next. Neko Case—-vocalist and breakout solo star, who’s arguably become bigger than the band she helped create—-is foul-mouthed and hilarious. She and the rest of the band had an easy, entertaining rapport that by turns included badmouthing Hollywood remakes of old classics (Monday night featured The Bad News Bears), calls for make-out sessions, and for the assassination of Secondhand Lions star Haley Joel Osment. The band possessed a casual energy that comes from knowing their material, their instruments, and each other backwards and forwards. The end result of that level of general mastery is a show that sounds like a pitch-perfect recreation of the band’s studio work. And this might have been the problem.
Most of the fun of a show is the interaction between the band and the audience, and that intimacy that develops between the groups, and the shock that comes when the latter realizes the former is actually just a bunch of people on a stage. While the banter and the easy energy of the New Pornographers was entertaining and fun, their performance left something to be desired... because it left nothing to be desired. Every song was a little too perfect, a little too practiced, and a little too similar to what you would find on any of their albums. At the end of the night, it was all just kind of bland--but in a forgivable sort of way. After all, it’s hard to knock a band for being too good at what they do, especially when they can be so charming about it all.
After they’d finished their set, and the floors of the National were shaking under the crowd’s cries for more, the New Pornographers emerged from behind the curtain to play again.
“Oh my god, it’s gonna be the greatest encore of all time,” said Neko Case, as the crowd laughed and cheered.
Then the band started the song, and offstage, it sounded like somebody just pressed “play.”