Dirty Girls and Pretty Boys... Dirty Pretty Things at the Music Box August 8, 2006

Ok. So I've come to realize that I'm not "with-it" as far as the MTV/KROQ crowd goes. I don’t have cable and I'm okay with this. But I wish I had known just how popular Dirty Pretty Things are (I would have at least learned a couple of their songs and not dwelt on the fact that I’m still sore the Libertines are no longer with us). Perhaps it would have prepared me for the crowd at the Music Box tonight which included the typical “young kids who scored some E dancers”… who are entertaining to watch, but if you come in contact with them you feel like you need a shower.

In my usual fashion I missed most of the first act, Scissors For Lefty, but the last songs made me bob a little to the music. OH, and they had keyboards, to which my friend replied he looked happy to be playing, like really happy; beaming even. I caught “Ghetto Ways” and “Momma Your Boys Will Find A Home” both surprised me by how good they were. Upbeat, dance-y tunes that combined electronic beats and wailing, staccato rock vocals. Nice.

Watching the lead singer make bird calls and strut around Jagger-like made their live act fun to watch too. However, upon listening to their recorded tracks, it does feel too “put together”… maybe they should have kept the bird calls. They’re coming back to Safari Sam’s in September and are worth checking out if you’re a hipster and want to go dance in hipster fashion.

This was the opening night of the Dirty Pretty Things’ US tour. They had just finished up their overseas (well, it overseas for me) tour where lead singer Carl Barat broke something (collarbone, or wrist.. I swear he said wrist on stage) and in true Brit boy fashion came on stage with his arm in a Union Jack sling complete with cigarette dangling from his limp hand. But injuries aside, DPTs managed to hype the crowd up to almost chaos levels and Carl even tried to play a slow bit of guitar during the encore… Awww, it’s nice to see the effort!

Now, I will reiterate the fact that this was the first time I was listening to most of this music and I can barely remember set lists when I DO know the band… but from what I can remember as my friend shouted titles out to me (so that I wasn’t completely in the dark) they played their super hit Bang Bang You’re Dead, Blood Thirsty Bastards, Dead Wood, Gin and Milk, Gentry Cove and their absolutely last song of the encore was You Fucking Love It. And no, definitively not in this order.

I was not expecting such a hyped up crowd. EVERYONE was dancing, even the old guys who looked like if they shook their head any harder their toupee was going go flying.. or their teeth. And so many punching fists in the air. I couldn’t help but shake a little… I DID have a beer I was hanging on to. Also unexpected was the volume of underwear being thrown on stage… Damn. Seriously.