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June 19, 2006

Boy Least Likely To @ Fox Theatre, Boulder, CO 06.06.06

Boulder is a quintessential, pedestrian friendly college town. Colorful shops line the promenade on Pearl St. omitting the intrusion of strip-mall edifices giving the town that special feel that is often lacking in American cities. Street corners settled by assemblages of youths hint of the nearby ivory towers. Locals and proud alumni forever praise their “funky town” and pledge to “keep Boulder weird,” though not directly. Lobbying occurs via psychedelic bumper stickers. Boulder’s brethren can be found keeping it weird in Austin, Charlottesville, and Athens, GA. Did I mention the hippies?

Jof Owen

Peace, love and George Michael

Feeling particularly evil on the day of the beast I chose to balance out the morning puppy killings by driving to Boulder for the twee pop of Boy Least Likely To. Curious to see the live interpretation of music that is full of noisemaking with instruments culled from raids into the wacky music teacher’s stash, and words anchored in an innocent view of the world through childlike imagery, I really didn’t know what to expect. I walked away from the show in a manner that was unsettling – not disappointed, but personally unresolved by the simple fact that five people played the music that I have been enjoying all 2006 without even a guest appearance by cast members from Winnie the Pooh. I equate it to finding out that Santa was not real. Perceptions are a bitch.

Pete Hobbs

The decision to play the Fox theatre after college kids are let out for the summer is a curious one. I wondered how many people in the audience had recently graduated. Wondered if lyrics like “I got nothing to worry about, so I worry about nothing” hit home to the freshly unleashed adults. Wondered how many of them would ever ask “how did I get to be such a mess so soon in my life,” as Jof Owen so sweetly wondered aloud on “I See Spiders When I Close My Eyes.”

At times resembling a special kindergarten music class, the sound is decidedly on the softer side. If English high school is anything like the stereotypical American ones, I surmise that sensitive guys like this got beat up a lot. The new “Oddballs” introduction doesn’t help much, “This is a new song I wrote about people who aren’t very good at sport.” I don’t know, maybe they were the nice, funny guys that everyone liked.

So it goes in the world of the Boy Least Likely To, choosing to translate introspective thoughts into simple stories and pairing them with bells, recorders, banjos, instruments I won’t even try to identify and bubbles!

Oh they covered George Michael too.

//Boy Least Likely To - The Best Party Ever - buy

More pics, and setlist scan after the jump.

Tags: Boy Least Likely To, Boulder, Fox Theatre

Posted by Merry Swankster at June 19, 2006 11:11 AM

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