PdP Summer Concert Series, Pt.2: Sloan

Golden Dogs opened; they were really cute and very indie pop in a way that is no longer very fashionable: a four piece with boy-girl vocal harmonies that doesn't deliberately lend itself to dance remixing. They were lovely, and set the very casual tone for the evening.



Sloan, Sloan, Sloan. Or, as the audience says: Slohhhh-ohhhhhn. These guys are really incredibly polished, but can approach a show with a lot of spontaneity. I guess that's where nine full-length albums will get you. I've not yet fallen completely in love with the new album, though, and even less so the second most recent one, so about half the show was sort of eh. The new record was just released June 10, and I had the feeling it was unfamiliar to most of the audience. I was surprised, because when I saw Sloan in 2004, the audience new every word to every song from the album they were promoting (Action Pact) although it had not yet been released stateside.

This did not stop me from buying a t-shirt, or from singing along passionately with "Deeper than Beauty," which is one of my favorite songs. Period.

In the afternoon before the show, I was trying to remember how I started listening to Sloan. I might have heard a song on KOOP, but I think it's more likely I just saw the cover of One Chord to Another at Waterloo and thought it looked cool.

For a very long time, I was the only person I knew who even knew who they were, and even now, I think I'm the only person I know who really, really likes them. I would almost say I love them, meaning the music, because I have no idea which one is which. But the songs are so, so good, and I have a lot of memories associated with them, memories that are just mine, not memories of places or people or events, just of being a certain age and loving a song.