We wish for night time, a darkening screen/ Open the heart, just a machine (Handsome Furs, Revisited)
“Hi, I’m Dan,” Dan Boeckner said as he walked towards me. I had just spent an hour listening to him play at Brillobox in Pittsburgh.
It was only a week earlier that I first learned that Handsome Furs would be playing nearby. What timing! I was in and so was my roommate Joro. We arrived at the bar around 9:30, the posted start time of the show. To our dismay, the opening band didn’t begin to play until an hour later; we knew we were in for a late night. The Cinnamon Band opened and were a pretty good band, but their two groupies distracted from their performance. Their biggest fans were ended up being Dan and Alexei who came out to listen towards the end of their set.
When it was Handsome Furs time to play, the young couple walked on stage and set down their two drinks they had been nursing throughout the opening band. Alexei took off her blazer which exposed her backless ruffled halter and neon green bra paired with backwards boxer shorts worn at her natural waist. They proceeded to set up and get ready to play before going back to the bar and returning with two additional drinks each.
The duo opened with Legal Tender, and as their music started so did THX 1138, George Lucas’s first movie. Apparently Boeckner saw the projector and screen in the room and checked out the movie selection and picked picked the movie that night. Perry admit that Pittsburgh was the best looking crowd she had seen, I like to think this was because Joro and I were in her direct line of sight. As they played, Perry bounced to every beat of every song on one or both legs, often while bouncing on one leg she would lift the other up behind her until she was nearly horizontal with one leg supporting her weight. Her smiles and energy were akin to a kindergarten teacher, but her movement and hooded outfit made me think of a sprite in a Mid Summer Night’s Dream of some sort.
They played most of the songs from their new album and a few from Plague Park including Hearts of Iron and Handsome Furs Hate This City. The only thing more entertaining than seeing Boeckner stand on the toes of his skinny black jean/ black boot combo as he passionately sang the choruses of songs like Evangeline and I’m Confused, was the interplay between Boeckner and Perry when they were so obviously feeding off of each other’s energy. Their last song was Radio Kalininrad, which left me with the lingering lyrics in my head all the next day, “I know you love me baby/ I know the heart is just a little too dry.” Epic.
The bar slowly cleared out after they finished their set, at which point we went downstairs to gank the Handsome Furs poster off the wall. We returned to the loft where the show had taken place and hoped that the band had reemerged from the back-room where they retreated after they had finished. They hadn’t.
It was already almost 1 am so I resigned to leave without talking to them. As we slowly meandered towards the door from the far side of the room we made a stop off at the merchandise table. I asked a lumberjack looking man with a near-shoulder length brown hair and a large beard in a fuzzy red flannel shirt if they enjoyed coming out to talk to fans or if they usually avoided it. I mostly was thinking about the fanboy who was standing next to us during the show (who was now perched aside the door where they would possibly emerge) and how I probably wouldn’t want to talk to him either. We chatted for a few moments before Joro and I continued to near the door. At that time Dan came out! I was intimidated and wanted to talk to him, but before I had too long to get nervous I saw the lumberjack merch guy standing up to say something to him, and not only that, but they were talking about me! As they continued to look in my direction, I sheepishly waved and smiled. Then Dan came over and talked to me. (Lizzie: one, fan boy waiting to talk to him: zero).
We talked briefly about the show and I told him that I admired his music and knew a bit about the last album because of my review I had written for my Digital Citizen class. He then asked about the class and my assignment, incredulous as to the fact that reviewing his album was my homework. We chatted for a moment about Europe as well and he even said he knew of Banska Bystrica the city I’ll be living in Slovakia. In the end he wished me good luck in my future, told me to visit Belgrade, and was a very friendly individual.
