One of the Best?

UPDATED: Check out this link for an even better
description of the night's events.

On Thursday night we went to the Nokia Theatre in Times Square to see an awesome indie-rock pairing - The New Pornographers and Belle and Sebastian.

First of all, the venue - all that is wrong with corporate sponsorship. Glass encased Nokia phones along the wall when you first enter and nothing but Heineken bottles behind the bar. Thankfully, they had other beers there too, however. The main space was good though with an open floor for the young ones and stadium-style seating in the back for us old folk.

The New Pornographers' set was strong - starting things off with "Twin Cinema", "Use It" and "The Laws Have Changed." There was little banter but the band was pleasant, in good spirits, and peformed really well (they're such affable Canadians). They ended the set with "Sing Me Spanish Techno".

Lead singer Carl Newman then says "One of the great things about being in a band is that you get to play with your heroes." He then introduced a band "from Germany" called Matter of Trust whom they supposedly "met in Switzerland". No one in the crowd knew who the hell they were but they went into a hilarious rendition of Billy Joel's "Matter of Trust" - peppered with comedic moments. Were they improv comedians? Real musicians? Both? I did a little digging - looks like it's a bunch of real musicians who do this as a joke. Got this from the Yo La Tengo website:

What's a celebration of Jewish songwriters without Billy Joel? It's an ugly job, but somebody's got to do it. Riding to the rescue all the way from "Germany" came A Matter of Trust: Todd Barry on drums, Jon Glaser on bass, Tom Shilue on backup vocals, James on guitar, and Jon Benjamin on lead vocals.

Next up was Belle and Sebastian, whom I haven't really listened to since The Boy with the Arab Strap. They were really good and reignited my interest in them. They started off with "Stars of Track and Field" and did a number of songs from their expansive repertoire. Stuart is a good frontman and who doesn't like the Scottish accent? Other highlights include "The Fox in the Snow", "Your Cover's Blown", and "I'm a Cuckoo". It was definitely one of the best all around shows I have been to.