Quick review: Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti

I experienced a déjà-vu yesterday when the same crowd from that John Maus gig showed up Festsaal to give that same amount of admiration to Ariel Pink, yet again failed to actually celebrate (with) the band. It made me wonder where these people that you never see at gigs suddenly emerge from and seemingly spoil an otherwise amazing show for me.

Bitterness aside, Ariel Pink and his band was in top form and possibly at their best I have seen them to date. The show was well thought out, yet punk, with the entire performance being filmed on a camcorder and projected live on to the backdrop screen. In fact, the first two songs, the band played on stage, while Ariel Pink was only visible in projected from on the screen. And the impact when he then made his entrance for song three! Wow. He actually sang among the crowd most of the time, turning to the band in the same way as the audience. Alt-pop with a great sound in a punk setting for the people. It was grand!

Spot Mr. Pink

They played for almost 1.5 hours and a large array of their material. He gave us all we wanted - now if people would have gone nearly as crazy as they did at Lovelite or Marie-Antoinette, this could have turned into this year's number one party. But somehow, that last spark that makes people lose their minds just didn't ignite. A great shame but, still, another fanstastic show at Festsaal - venue of the year, hands down!