Rilo Kiley played the much maligned Terminal 5 on Monday night. I know a lot of people hate this place. They say the sight lines are bad, and the sound is bad. I've been up front both times I've been there, so I don't know how bad it is in the back, but since it is a huge space with high ceilings, it has the potential for sounding awful.
But the show itself was great. Nik Freitas opened, followed by Thao Nguyen fronting her band, Thao with the Get Down Stay Down. Thao has been getting a lot of hype, but I honestly felt her set was pretty boring, and way too long. She has a cool sound, but every song sounded the same. No dynamics, and her in-between song banter was unintelligible from where I stood.
Rilo Kiley on the other hand was killer. The band sounded realy tight, and they banged through a lot of familiar material, most of it from their last two albums, but they included a couple of real crowd sing-along tunes from the back catalog.
I would go see them again in a heartbeat.
Pics:
More pics from the show over at my Flickr page: here
