I’ve been spoiled.

Last night’s show at Holocene, featuring The Ruby Suns, Le Loup, and Loch Lomond, was good. Not “Bastards of Young” good, but good. So why I have been spoiled? I’ve seen the Arcade Fire live.

First off, The Ruby Suns were excellent, despite main man Ryan McPhun looking like the cold he had was kicking his ass. At one point, during an extended instrumental section, he jumped off the stage and ran to the bathroom only to return with a handful of tissue for some serious nose-blowing action. Despite all that, the band held it down, switching instruments nearly every song, building Panda Bear-esque hippie jams that tended to explode in sun-drenched euphoria once the live drumming kicked in. Again, the way they're able to transcribe their record into a live setting is pretty fantastic.

Now, onto Le Loup. The DC band totes an impressive seven members, at least three of which were completely unnecessary. This is where the Arcade Fire comes in: there's nothing like watching them live and being able to focus your attention on the eighth person in that band and be totally transfixed. Le Loup? Not so much. The main singer (who also held it down on keyboards, guitar, and banjo) was pretty entertaining, but everyone else seemed bored. And, yeah, alright, it would be one thing if the songs they were making needed seven people, but they could have been done just as easily with four, maybe five if the horn parts were absolutely necessary.

Conversely, if you want to talk about having a lot of members and doing it right, Loch Lomond had eight people on stage, all of which managed to add something special to the music. Sure, they had two back up singers, but those singers actually added harmonies (the six Le Loup singers just sang the same parts mostly). Plus, every instrument was fully accounted for, and I didn't find myself looking at someone and trying to pick out just what the hell they were playing.

I feel bad saying it, hence the title of this blog post, but if you're going to make uproarious songs where everyone signs along, you've got to be into it. Otherwise, at least in my book, it's going to fall flat. That's not to say that Le Loup were bad. I liked them live much more than I like the record they put out, and I didn't, you know, leave to go to the bar to grab another drink or anything, which has got to mean something. I wanted to like them, I really did, but it just didn't quite do it for me.