What else is there to say about the Old 97's? They're talented, fun rockers, and Rhett Miller is adorable. Thursday night's holiday show at La Zona Rosa was packed, mostly with college kids home for the break. We got there well after the opening act out of Dallas, Shibboleth, had begun. Thank goodness. Their all-instrumental electronic jam-band pop-rock sounded like what would happen if Death Cab for Cutie and Phish had an illegitimate child that spent the rest of its life wondering who its daddy was. It was painful, although I do appreciate the fact that they have a song entitled "A Bicycle Built for Two Mormons." We headed outside to wait them out and were quite amused with watching the security guys enforce the city's new 15-feet-from-the-door smoking ban. LZR actually drew a line on the pavement on their patio and they spend a lot of time herding the smokers behind it. And they say cheap entertainment is hard to find.The Old 97's played at about 10:15 and it was their usual fast-paced, fun set with all their hits. Really, there's not much to talk about in the show itself; if you've seen them, you know, and if you haven't, you should. Rhett Miller came out alone for the first encore and played two songs off his upcoming solo release, The Believer. The first was his new version of "Question" -- in French. I don't know. It was sweet and all, I guess, and he said the album version is backed by strings, but the francais didn't fit the meter, and I swear he said "poulet" (which means "chicken") instead of "en feu" ("on fire") in the first verse. After that he played a song that I think is called "Firefly" or "Fireflies." On the album, it's a duet with Rachael Yamagata, but he sang both parts for us, changing directions to indicate the male/female parts. The song was fine, although I have to say that you should never, ever begin a love song with the words "You look like my mother..."
Anyway, the band came out and they played a bunch more songs, left the stage, came back for another encore, and closed the evening with "Time Bomb." So we all left happy. I couldn't have asked for a better last show of 2005.
