My girl is a huge APC fan, she hated the album. We went to see them live and I've never seen a band with more contempt for its fans. The merch prices were outrageous, to start. The band plays such that they're in silhouette. Crowd interaction? Or even acknowledgment? None. Zip. You couldn't bring a phone in; if you did people with night vision goggles found you and literally threw you out of the show. Watching that happen was more fun that the show itself, I guess. I'm baffled this band has fans.
My perspective on those points:
She might be a huge fan of APC, but if she actually
hates the album, then I wouldn't award her the prize for the biggest APC fan. ;)
Is it a bit different from the other albums? Yes. But isn't each of their albums pretty different from the other ones? I mean, you have one full album of cover songs, and you have songs on Thirteen Steps like The Nurse Who Loved Me who is nowhere near a fit on Mer De Nomns, without being bad. If she's one of those who will always define a band/artist by their debut album, then Maynard will continue to dissappoint her. But I hope she can give the album another shot, because it's one that grows as you continue to listen to it.
As for being a band with contempt for the fans, that's so far far from my experience in Denmark. Only seen them that one time this tour (so far), but I didn't see any contempt for the fans.
They started at the expected time
They played a long show
The show was very well produced and well performed. Sound was great, the band felt energetic, the sound was good, the lightning and the graphics was fantastic and varied. And the audience gave the new songs fantastic receptions, and it was well deserved.
As for crowd interaction, was it less then some others band? Sure. But I was at Guns N' Roses this summer, and they said nothing to the audience, despite the show being 3½ hour long. Here we got a band introduction from Maynard, where he highlighed other bands where the members performed, an explanation about the thought behind the album, before The Contrarian, and some banter about phones when he waved the photo prohibation during the last song. He quickly disappeared when they were finished, but all other members stayed for a long time, thanking the audience. And Matt McJunkins and Billy Howerdel constantly moved around on scene, interacting and showing themselves.
Expensive merc? Where I was, it was cheaper from what I'm used to at sports events. The scarf I bought was 5€ cheaper then the scarf I bought a couple of months ago at a football game. Don't buy that much merc at music events, so I can't really compare to others, but the prices wasn't off putting for me.
Not trying to invalidate your opinions, but this is a reply to you being baffled as to why this band has fans. I had an absolutely great evening watching them.
I'd be bummed if they didn't play Feathers live. Seeing them live is still high on my to do list.
Yeah I really would have wanted Feathers as well, and By and Down. But Delicious was an amazing end to the gig, so I was still happy about the selection of songs.
When I first gave it a listen, I thought it was alright, but that the songs lacked the hooks of their older stuff. Then I saw them live recently and the new material blew me away. In fact, when they played some of the older songs, it felt like everything shifted down a gear, and that the old songs lacked the layered complexity of their new material.
This was my experience as well. And without saying that the old songs were badly performed or anything. Hollow, Weak and Powerless and Judith were all played with great intensity.
