Live support ... The Dirty Projectors
This week I discovered you actually can have too much of a good thing. Admittedly it wasn't the first time I'd come across the idea, but before Battles played the Astoria I'd never realised that the problem applied to bands as well as, say, cake or beer.
Battles' support act was originally supposed to be Liars, but when they got another offer (from some band called Radiohead), Dirty Projectors stepped in to fill their big noisy shoes. Personally I couldn't have been happier: the prospect of a portion of DPs' thumping, noodling math rock and a helping of African guitar-tinged loveliness in one night, for a mere 16 pounds, without having to move any further than to the bar and back sounded like perfection.
So I feel a bit churlish about saying this, but actually it all got to be a little bit much. It wasn't anything to do with the performances. Dirty Projectors' three-part vocal harmonies and interlocking guitar melodies were note-perfect; and Battles were as great as they were the night they confused all those Macy Gray fans on Later. But seeing two bands play such head-twistingly intricate music back to back was a bit like having Heston Blumenthal cook you a three course meal, then, just as you're polishing off the last delicious mouthful of sardine ice-cream, Marco Pierre White turns up with a heaving tray of haute cuisine.
In other words: there's more to creating a great line-up than finding a few bands which Pandora's music genome project would class together, and then sticking them on the same stage. Do that and even the most devoted audience is going to come down with band fatigue. It can happen at festivals as well as gigs, although the problem is a bit less acute, because can at least there you can wander off back to your tent. And it's usually a different variation of the problem from the one I had at the Astoria. I can't imagine anyone who watches the full Friday line-up at Glastonbury's Pyramid stage this year won't succumb to slightly-dull-rock overload within a few hours, but that's about being underwhelmed rather than overwhelmed.
So, the bands played brilliantly. And it was a good night. It just would have been better if it had been split in two. And maybe the fact that the less-than-laidback, but less intricate Liars were originally booked as support suggests the promoters knew it too. Putting together a perfect line up is a subtle art. I'd happily have paid sixteen pounds to see Liars and Battles. And another sixteen to see DPs supported by ... I'm going to say Grizzly Bear, just for argument's sake. But then again, maybe I'm just being a wuss.
