Architecture in Helsinki, Still Flyin’ @ Cafe du Nord 5/25/05

Still Flyin’, the opening band, was still rehearsing when we got there (around 8:40) and there was a curtain drawn with a rope over it. A bunch of people tried to look through, and you could easily hear them through it. When they finished, some DJs from AIH were spinning some weird music. Seemed like mostly hip hop or something. The opening band was called Still Flyin’ and for some reason I thought the word Owls was in their name. Maybe because AIH has a song called “The Owls Go” and I associate it with flying. Anyways, Still Flyin’ were a really amusing ska, reggae-ish band with nearly 20 band members (4 female backup singers, some dancers, a vibraphone player named Gabe who came late, a tromboner, etc.) They were actually very fun and funny.

Architecture in Helsinki were actually even more fun and probably even funnier! They’re an Australian band who make a lot of interesting noises with their mouths along with lots of hand claps and switching on many different instruments. And all 8 of them seem to sing at some point in their songs. It’s absoluting amazing because they seem to have so much fun while they do it. Some other highlights: a 45 second countdown to one of their band member’s birthdays, a conga line through the audience (the whole band, while the instruments are still making noise on stage), and totally dead on cover of “Love is the Drug.” Oh yeah, and the stage was covered in vine-y looking streamers with a colorful pinata in the back. They mentioned something about having trouble getting their leaves through customs. I’m guessing British Sea Power probably has the same problem.

After most of the audience had left the club, me and my brother stuck around to take some pictures and get some autographs. The first member we tracked down was a tall guy with a long beard and long hair (dreadlocks, I believe). He actually had to put down the two beers he was carrying to sign my brother’s sketch book. Next was the lead male singer, who was a lot taller in person than he looked on stage. He had a funny gap-toothed smile. Then we went to the merch table where two of the girls were selling CDs and T-shirts. We had them sign the book and take some pictures too. I wrote on the mailing list sign up that I thought they were all so cute! Then, we saw the girl who had the birthday and played a small tuba (which looked a lot like a baritone horn) sitting with the tall bearded guy. We had her sign the book and took more pictures with them.

The members of Architecture in Helsinki that we met were really nice and friendly. They all introduced themselves and shook our hands and even suggested we go see them in Eugene, Oregon tomorrow night! They played at Hotel Utah last night too, but I think I kind of forgot about that. It would’ve been nice to see them play twice, but probably not too necessary. We bought the new album “In Case We Die” (since we’d downloaded their last album “Fingers Crossed”). It’s very good, I think “The Cemetery” is my favorite track.