Fun.: July 20, 2013

Concert Details:

Bands: Fun., Tegan and Sara
Location: Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD

Fun. setlist

1. Some Nights (Intro)
2. One Foot
3. Walking the Dog
4. All Alone
5. Why Am I the One
6. At Least I'm Not as Sad (As I Used to Be)
7. All the Pretty Girls
8. It Gets Better
9. Barlights (Rock and Roll Part 2 snippet)
10. Carry On
11. The Gambler
12. You Can't Always Get What You Want (The Rolling Stones Cover)
13. We Are Young
14. Take Your Time (Coming Home)

Encore:

   15. Some Nights

   16. Stars

Tegan & Sara Setlist

1. Drove Me Wild
2. Goodbye, Goodbye
3. I'm Not Your Hero
4. Back In Your Head
5. The Con
6. Where Does the Good Go
7. I Couldn't Be Your Friend
8. I was a Fool
9. Now I'm All Messed Up
10. Living Room
11. Alligator
12. Shock to Your System
13. How Come You Don't Want Me
14. Feel It In My Bones
15. Closer

This is a case of a band that may have gotten a bit bigger than they are ready to deal with.  Don't get me wrong, Fun. put on a great show but they just seemed barely able to deal with the crowd they were handed, a sold out show.  One problem they had, was a disorganization in their setlist, in what I at least felt was a little disjointed such that the show reached a climax in the middle of the show instead of peaking at the end and then leaving on a high note.  In retrospect, for me the highlight and most memorable part of the show was Tegan & Sara.

Tegan & Sara, the identical twin canadian indie pop duo has some of the most fun and exciting stage presence of any band I know of, ripping through their setlist song to song, taking turns taking control of the show with equal skill, both playing multiple instruments.  It turns out I knew more songs going into the show than I expected and thoroughly enjoyed the show and left the show looking forward to going to see them again as soon as possible.

On the show initially being over I felt that Fun. would be a band I would want to go see over and over again, but with time that feeling diminished.  Fun. has a slew of well known songs and put on an pretty decent show and really got the crowd into their show.  At a lot of shows at pavilions, the show could be ruined by rain, but with the simple line "I'm so over the people not getting rained on", the lead singer Nate Ruess was able to put a spell on us so that we didn't even care it was cold and raining with a feeling of April instead of hot and humid as one would want and expect from July.  They moved through their songs with speed and grace but what limited them in their show was the choice of where to put their key songs.  They went out into the encore on a high note with We Are Young followed by a lesser known song and then came in quietly to the encore with Some Nights but while Stars is a good song, it is slow and doesn't have the warm, open crowd feeling of their other songs, so it felt like a diminished finale that they could have avoided with a later placement of their more well known songs to a crowd that was their to hear what they knew of this young band's career.