please let me return to this thread in a few hours saying how it was one of the best shows of the year...

I enjoyed it. Good sound, great songs and voices. Cool owl.

I've never seen a backup singer dominate the banter like that, though. It was weird, but she was charming enough.

Did anyone throw a rock through a window?

I enjoyed it as well, although I thought the sound was a bit muffled --especially at the beginning of the set. Maybe it was just where I was standing (at the back of the sunken "pit" area).

I enjoyed it too, but also thought there were problems with the sound, particularly at the beginning.

I couldn't make out a large portion of the banter, except for the whole Friday/Thursday mixup and the Neko belly button/dolphin blowhole comparison.

i thought the sound for the neko case portion of the evening was about 1000x better than crooked fingers. i felt bad for them. first their van gets towed, then they have to play a set with awful sound.

"deep red bells", "teenage feeling" and "knock loud" were my favorites.

Absolutely great show. The only thing that I could have done without were the films in the background. Did anyone else find them slightly distracting? The owl was pretty cool though - even if it was a jaded hipster owl.

We ended up in the balcony in an attempt to avoid the constant chit-chat of the audience during Crooked Fingers (unfortunately getting Dangerfield levels of respect) and the sound carried really well up there for Neko's set. Nothing was gonna save the CF mix though... Great show though. Glad they came out for the second encore because I would've been more than a little bummed if I hadn't heard "Star Witness".

i love neko and kelly's banter...i think it's kind of adorable.

i am just thankful that neko's vocals were a million times better than when she sang with new pornographers last year at the newport.

agreed about the crooked fingers sound...that was disappointing...

loved the owl set.

had a lovely, lovely time.

teenage feeling makes me swoon.

Dispatch review:

wow. i'm actually kinda glad i didn't go because all i really wanted to see was crooked fingers and if the sound was that bad and the crowd members were being douchebags while they played, i wouldn't have had a very good time.

I always think the sound at the Newport is at best kind of bad, but I sat in the balcony for Crooked Fingers and thought the sound was just fine. For the Newport, I thought it was pretty good. So I don't get the comments. And the people near me at least were as reasonably respectful as one could expect for an opening act.

what a great show. my first time seeing neko and i was not disappointed. anyone know what that 4-string SG lookin thing she was playing was?

also, a well-balanced set of old, new and covers...seeing middle cyclone songs live are way better than listening to the album

can i get a what what?

yeah - pretty much agree with most of what has been said.
- sound wasn't too great during crooked fingers, but i've always thought the sound inside the newport was a little weird.

the second encore from neko was great.
thought it was a pretty great set list.

My problem with Crooked Fingers sound was that Eric's vocals were about 50% the level of everything else, from backing vocals to instruments.... HE sounded like the backing musician.

I am normally not a Newport sound hater, I've come to terms with it and normally like shows there, but their set was terrible only because of the sound...

Neko sounded great though.

reno poster now on sale

http://clintonreno.com/shop/posters/09_04