Blow your mongrel mind

I don’t watch Letterman often these days–Stewart and Colbert typically fill my late-night TV needs. However, one night last fall I noticed Dave introducing his musical guest as i was flipping through the channels. I’m glad I stopped, because I witnessed the best musical performance I’ve ever seen on television.

I’d been looking forward to seeing TV on the Radio ever since, and they finally came back to the T-dot on on Sunday night.  The Kool Haus was full, shoulder-to-shoulder, from the stage all the way back to the bars.

That said, while the place was packed, it was a typical Toronto crowd–i.e. sedate.  Lethargic even.  I wanted to run around shaking people and scream “WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!!!! ROCK THE FUCK OUT ALREADY!!!”.  I swear to god, venues need to pump some kind of aerosol amphetamine into the air to get a Toronto crowd going.

Breaking into “Wolf Like Me” seemed to wake most of the crowd up.  I hesitate to call TVotR a one-song band, because they’re not; Return to Cookie Mountain was one of my favorite albums of 2006, but I think the crowd would have been perfectly happy to hear that one song a dozen times.

Also, one tip for TVotR: everybody was heading for the doors by 11:15.  What is that about?  Ashlee Simpson gets off the stage at 11:15.  Kelly Clarkson gets off the stage at 11:15.  Disney-On-Frickin’-Ice gets off at 11:15.  A proper rock band shouldn’t go ON stage until 11:15.  Seriously, think of your image.  Maybe part of the problem was the crowd didn’t have time to get a proper RTFO-buzz on.

Final verdict:  fantastic live band, incredible energy, but I can’t help but feel if I had seen this show somewhere else it would have been better.