WHY? and mount eerie

more pictures: http://flickr.com/photos/tags/lastfm%3Aevent%3D687654/interesting/

Florida was lucky enough to be graced by the presence of WHY? and Mount Eerie the other night. Both bands played to a small crowd at the White Room in Miami beginning with a short set by Phil Elverum , also known as Mount Eerie. Unfortunately, his quiet, guitar only music was slightly under appreciated as there was talking during his entire set. At one point someone shouted "will everyone please shut the fuck up?!" to which Phil responded "'well.... I mean, you can put it that way I guess." That seemed to quiet the crowd down a little as he continued to play his few songs, ending with a pleasant sing along.

Phil

WHY? then took the stage, opening their 14-song set with 'song of the sad assassin.' Most of their songs were from their most recent record, "Alopecia," which is a melancholy mix of hip hop and rock unconfined to one genre. They played favorites from their previous CD "Elephant Eyelash" as well, such as 'rubber traits' and 'yo yo bye bye.' However each of WHY?'s songs was infinitely better live than on their albums. Both of the Wolf brothers, Yoni and Josiah played drums, an aspect somewhat lost on CD. Also, The White Room is such a small venue that the intimate setting only enhanced Yoni's dark lyrics. That being said, most of the crowd sang along to one of their most popular songs 'these few presidents,' chanting the chorus of "even though I haven't seen you in years, yours is a funeral I'd fly to from anywhere."

Yoni

Josiah

While listening to WHY? on CD can be a bit depressing at times, their live show was full of such energy and exuberance that it was easy to forget most of their songs were about death and a bad break up. And although the song material is usually pretty rough (suicide, stalkers etc.) the band members were all polite and seemed appreciative of the fans. I spoke to them after the show and Yoni definitely did not seem as depressed as he does in his lyrics. Hilights included 'the vowels pt. 2' and their last song 'by torpedo or crohn's.' The band debated on whether or not to do an encore (the bassist semi-passed out on the stage and they couldn't play 'sanddollars' because he forgot how to play it) and finally decided on 'fatalist palmistry.' This tune got the rest of the remaining crowd dancing as it was probably the only upbeat song off of Alopecia.