If there is one word to describe the Vines concert last Saturday at the Pageant, it would be “short.” The opening act, The Music, came on stage at around 8 p.m., and The Vines staggered off stage only an hour and 45-minutes later. The Better Business Bureau got a lot of calls that night for consumer fraud, I’m sure.
The Music actually had an excuse for their abbreviated 25-minute opening set. Guitarist Adam Nutter was back home in England to attend the funeral of a relative, leaving the rest of the band to abandon its usually high-energy show for an acoustic set. Surprisingly, songs like “Middle of Nowhere” and “John” were able to get the conspicuously younger crowd to bob their heads. The highlight of the set came at the end with their song “The One.” As the song progressed, the band slowly became more animated and powerful. In the end, pieces of drum sticks were flying all over the stage and singer Robert Harvey almost destroyed the sound system with his wailing. As they left the stage, it was apparent that the crowd wanted more.
After a short intermission, The Vines strutted onstage to play their opening number “Highly Evolved.” It was soon after this moment that singer Craig Nicholls lost all sense of reality.
During their second song, “Autumn Shade,” Nicholls began wandering around the stage, taunting the crowd and tossing his guitar around. Between songs, he would utter indecipherable phrases–whether because of his Australian accent or the copious amounts of drugs he took before the show, we’ll never know–into the mic and offer cigarettes to the young kids standing at the front of the stage.
This wasn’t entirely surprising to the audience; Nicholls is well known for his “interesting” stage presence. Besides, the kids at the show were driven by their parents from the counties for only one thing: to rock out. And rock out they did.
A mosh pit was quickly formed at the front of the stage during “Outtathaway!” leaving some on the ground and others shoved to the back of the crowd. Not wanting to be outdone, Nicholls upped his insanity one more notch by throwing an unopened soda can within inches of the drummer’s head.
Usually a fan favorite, the band’s cover of Outkast’s “Ms. Jackson” soon became a drawn-out mess, with Nicholls walking around smoking cigarettes while the rest of the band tried to keep some semblance of the song going. This continued on into “Mary Jane,” which ended with a 3-minute feedback solo.
I didn’t know what was more amazing, Nicholls wildly erratic actions, or the complete apathy of the rest of the band. It became all too evident that this sort of thing is fast becoming the norm rather than the exception.
After a short intermission to set up all the equipment Nicholls had knocked over in his wandering onstage, group got the crowd back into action with a double sot of “In the Jungle” and their hit single “Get Free.”
The mosh pit commenced once again, becoming uglier and uglier as the band played on. It came to a head with the band’s new song, “F— the World.” The front crowd undulated up and down as Nicholls swung his guitar around his neck and yelped into the microphone.
Unfortunately, Nicholls’ actions went too far as he broke most of the cymbals of the drum kit, forcing both the song and the set to end prematurely. It looked as though the rest of the band was just as happy to get off the stage.
Still shocked from the abrupt ending, the crowd quietly staggered out into the streets, wondering what they were going to do with all the time they had on their hands.
