Nada Surf at the Black Cat

Last night, I dragged Alison to another $10 concert of another band she didn't know (God, I love Alison). As you might have already guessed by the title of this post, the band was Nada Surf and the show was at the Black Cat, one of the coolest music venues in the world. Since I haven't kept up with Nada Surf since their album "High/Low" in 1996, the show wasn't that exciting. Of course, it also might not have been exciting because I'm getting too old for concerts, but I never want to be too old for concerts so I'm just not going to think about that.

Anyway, here's what I want to say about Nada Surf. When the band first got onstage I thought, "My, my. The bassist is kind of cute." I was referring to Daniel Lorca, the bassist/singer/songwriter of Nada Surf. But, as I watched Lorca sing and slink, I decided he was not cute but creepy. He also seemed pretentious and egotistical. Meanwhile, I was having almost completely opposite thoughts about Matthew Caws, the guitarist/singer/songwriter. Caws didn't strike me as pretentious and he was not flaunting his looks, even though he is attractive in a very indie rock kind of way. He even provided the most interesting moments of the night with his between-song banter. For the majority of the show, I wondered how these two seemingly different people could co-exist in the same band. If I were Caws, I would be on the verge, or perhaps past the verge, of throttling Lorca.

After the concert, I shared my thoughts with Alison and she emphatically agreed. Like the good little researcher I am, I googled the band the second I got home. It turns out that Lorca and Caws met in high school and have been playing together ever since! I'm not sure how many years it's been since then but I know it's at least eight thanks to their website. How did they manage to stay together that long??? People will never cease to amaze me.

Nada Surf: Ira Elliot, Caws, Lorca