Last Friday night, Menomena played their first ever show in Santa Barbara. The show was full of energy, some from the band, a lot from the crowd. Perhaps this is because the audience was unusually young (18+ show). The Velvet Jones had designated a "no alcohol" area immediately in front of the stage for underage fans. Since I wanted to be up close, I ditched my beer and hung out with the kiddos, who actually started a mosh pit at one point. I guess Menomena songs have more energy (especially in Danny Seim's heavy and precise drumming) than evident from the album. Despite this, Menomena did little to feed the youthful energy. They appeared grateful for the audiences enthusiasm, but their performance was rather introspective. I presume this is at least partially because they are playing difficult parts and multiple instruments in each song. Impressive to watch if somewhat lacking in band/audience interaction mid-song.
Menomena opened the show with The Pelican, and followed it up with many songs from their newest (2 year old) album Friend and Foe. Among my favorites were "Muscle'n Flo" and "Boyscout'n", live performance of which caused me to realize that I greatly prefer Justin Harris' (guitar, bass, saxaphone) lead vocals. Both Seim and Brent Knopf (guitar, keys, glockenspiel) have nice voices, but they're not nearly so distinctive. A number of other songs, namely "Wet and Rusting" and "Wierd", grabbed me for the first time due to the band's live performance. It's amazing how much little gestures from the band accent certain instrument parts or notes that can get buried in the mix. Towards the end of the set, the band played a mixture of old/new songs (I'm not familiar enough with the first two albums to tell the difference).
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