So, after listening to their new album 1100 times in the last week or so - I finally got to go and sing along with ARS tonight at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. This was show #16 for me. It was a bit transcendent, personally. I know it’s silly to say, but I was really moved by this show. I am moved by every one of their shows, but this was better than most. They were tight. I will admit they are sometimes a little sloppy when they play. It doesn’t really impede any enjoyment for the audience, and they have always ever been much more about atmosphere and building a mood on stage that permeates the audience, than about technically perfect execution. It has never been a draw back for me personally, but I have friends who break down shows note by note and assess the moment of impact as a hobby - so I certainly understand the impetus to deride a band for not executing. But this show was different. They were on. They play a lot of 3 note chord scale progressions. They intertwine these like arppegiators for this layered effect that fills out their signature sound of vintage melancholy and recent nostalgia. I obviously am a sucker for this approach as I have seen them far too often, and will be seeing them yet again in a month. The new album sounds so good live. Shadows and I think my personal pick, Knight of Wands were amazing. And they have retained some of my favourites from the past as well like Lark and Stay Golden. Immersed as I was in the music, it took me a bit to realize I was surrounded by beautiful girls who were singing along all around me. I was singing too of course; it’s just something I do at shows I am passionate about. I know it’s not helping the band or the people around me, but whatever, I do what I do at shows. Anyways, I found it very pleasantly amazing to see so many women around me really into the music and knowing every song. I am personally tired of men. White men and their guitars and wailing synths and penchant for war get boring and predictable very quickly. But women fascinate me because they don’t think like I do or write songs like I do or pee like me.

Au Revoir Simone fascinates me for these reasons, but also because they are doing exactly what I would have like to have done when I was a yougin’: write songs on vintage keys and sing them around the world to adoring fans. But the thought that really gets me is the one that has happened to me and every other music fan out there, “…the show that changed your life”. OMD opening up for Powerstation at the Richfield Coliseum in 1985, Bryan Ferry at Public Hall in downtown Cleveland in 1986. Depeche Mode at Blossom Music Center in 1986. Bomb the Bass playing his 1st gig at the Wag Club in London in 1988. Listening to Riyurichi Sakamoto DJ at Heaven in London an 1989. My 1st Kraftwerk show in NYC at the New York Ballroom in 2000. The list is really long… any ways, I know that when ARS are playing Helsinki or Italy or The Grog Shop in Cleveland, that there is some 16 year old girl in the 4th row who isn’t ever going to be the same. And that is pretty powerful and rather amazing.