Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin @ Biltmore -- 11/12/10

It was a full night in the city, with Brasstronaut and Hollerado also playing shows, but both of those bands I had seen earlier this year, so I went with Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin. That, and they would be the least likely to be back soon.

The Lonely Forest, from Anacortes, Washington, opened the night, with a fair amount of super-fans in the crowd. They had a pretty good sound, but nothing that really set them apart. "Turn Off This Song And Go Outside" was a standout of the set, but a lot of their songs sounded kind of similar, and had the same structure. Still, I wouldn't mind catching them again. They said it was only their second time in Vancouver, but hopefully they'll be back, since they're just over the border.

It had been a couple years since I saw Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, so I was a bit anxious. They hit the stage with the best prop ever, a life size cardboard cutout of Han Solo, and their incredible energy and stage presence had the crowd dancing and clapping along to their pitch perfect indie pop. I was a bit sad they didn't play "All Hail Dracula!", my favourite from their new album, Let It Sway, but the subtle energy of "Anna Lee" -- always feeling like it's just about to burst -- and "Pangea", which features some of my favourite lyrics: "pangea, we used to be together, why'd we have to drift apart?" both made up for it. They played a good mix of older and new, and at one point the drummer, guitarist and bassist did a little switcheroo and changed roles for the rest of the set. While they were not overly talkative for the most part, they still had some good stage banter & antics; dedicating a song to the lights on the mountains they thought were UFO's and player guitar around the Han Solo cutout for the first song of the encore. They put on a hell of a fun show, and I just hope it isn't another two years before I get to see them again.