Guest Post by Dan

Dan was kind enough to add his perspective on Architecutre in Helsinki (editorial asides in parenetheses and italics):

ok. so monday night the i saw the best show of the year besides the time in january when i saw the arcade fire. matthew would disagree (Good, but handily bested by the Arcade Fire, the Decemberists, Caribou, and maybe Death From Above 1979.) but who cares? this is my guest blog spot, not his. so, the band was architecture in helsinki and they played at walter's. their newest album that came out a few months ago is in case we die. hey ward can you post an mp3 on this thing (Here.)? if so, put up tiny paintings. this will not be your favorite song from the album but after you fall in love with "maybe you can owe me", "frenchy, i'm faking", and "wishbone", you will then come to love tiny paintings. you will see it’s the best song on the record and you will want to scream WHITE! WHITE! WHITE! at all times—appropriate or not.

so anyway the show was so good because the album is so good. they have like 8 or 10 people in the band ((I counted eight, but there could have been one hiding.) and on the record they use i think 42 different instruments. i was thinking they were going to have to use samples or something for much of this but to my surprise and delight they played all these weird sounds live. they had blocks and shake-y things and like a clarinet and maybe an oboe. or a piccolo? what does a piccolo look like anyway? hey ward can you post a picture of a piccolo here? (Done.)



i don’t remember the exact setlist but they played all my favorite songs mentioned above. the place was super hot and pretty crowded when we got there. the opening band was playing their last song. some local band who sounded ok. surprisingly many people left after they were done. i was pleased about this as it allowed us to get a bit closer. john and matthew and levi and zana(?) (I don't know either.) and kristin and i were all there. none of them thought it was the best show of the year but they don’t love the album like i do. but seriously this album is great. it’s a grower though. listen 5 times and you will fall in love. i am calling it my number 1 album of the year. i know it’s been a good year and all but that’s the top one for me. it beats out crooked fingers, bright eyes, m ward, low, okkervil river (barely) m.i.a., youth group, magnolia electric co., and many others. this album was not number 1 before the show but after seeing how great they sounded live it made me appreciate the album more. so much so that after the show i went and gave most of the band members a hug. and bought a shirt. they are australian too so they had great accents and were fun to talk too. i was getting drunk so i am sure they thought i was an idiot. but i had such a good time i did not want to go home.

instead we went to cecil's for dollar beers. i sort of lost track of things at this point but i am pretty sure everyone went over there with us. brian and a friend of his showed up after seeing batman part 5 or whatever it’s. and nicholas was there too. all i remember is: matthew left pretty quick (See below.). i shot pool and won two games. kristin gave her number to a lesbian.

this story has a sad ending though. i went home and proceeded to fall down the stairs. i messed myself up so good i had to skip work on tuesday. my ass is way bruised as is my arm. here is a pic of my arm (No ass pic?):



it’s not that good but if you can compare your own arm to the picture you will see that you are not supposed to have a huge black/blue stain in the middle. ok thanks for the guest spot ward. and don't edit my post!!

Thanks Dan!