Wolf Parade @ First Ave., July 18, 2010

The setlist, according to my hazy memory. It gets a little muddled in the middle. But if you break it down, it's surprisingly an even three-way split between Apologies to the Queen Mary, At Mount Zoomer, and Expo 86.

1. You Are A Runner And I Am My Father's Son
2. Palm Road
3. What Did My Lover Say? (It Had To Be This Way)
4. Dear Songs and Daughters of Hungry Ghosts
5. Language City
6. Cloud Shadow on the Mountain
7. Fine Young Cannibals
8. In The Direction of the Moon
9. Ghost Pressure
10. This Heart's On Fire
11. I'll Believe In Anything
12. Pobody's Nerfect
13. California Dreamer

Encore
1. Shine A Light
2. Kissing The Behive

I was afraid that, just after playing Pitchfork, these guys would be exhausted. The opposite seemed the case. Maybe they were energized playing a much smaller venue than the vast wasteland that is Chicago's Union Park.

Anyhow, as I had seen when I first saw Wolf Parade in 2006, these guys sound massive live. I am not a fan of "You Are A Runner And I Am My Father's Son" in any capacity, but they really turned it up to, dare I say, 11, and in the process turned most of the indie kids in the front into a schizoid dance party.

It was also pretty telling of their live style when co-frontman Spencer Krug (see also: Sunset Rubdown, Swan Lake, Frog Eyes, every indie rock back in Montreal, etc.) announced that all the smokers could go outside for about seven minutes while they played "slow songs." They then launched into "Fine Young Cannibals" and "In the Direction of the Moon," both of which, while midtempo, were absolutely gigantic. Same goes for their set proper closer "California Dreamer," which is a bit mellow on the At Mount Zoomer LP but which turned into a total rockout.

Wolf Parade is a lot like The National in that sense. On the record, they're restrained and a bit perfectionistic, and when live, they have these alternate versions of the songs that just explode.

The only substantial disappointment, oddly enough, was encore closer "Kissing the Beehive." (They should've saved the one-two punch of "I'll Believe In Anything" and "This Heart's On Fire" for the encore.) While, fortunately, they left all slow cuts behind, including 2006 closer "Dinner Bells," the extended jam of "Kissing the Beehive" just gets kind of exhausting after a while. The band succeeds so well at three-to-five-minute jams that stretching something past the ten minute mark just makes you realize how deaf you are and how you can't hear what the fuck guitarist/co-frontman Dan Boeckner is actually playing.

Also, "I'll Believe In Anything," far and away the bands best song, just didn't pop on stage as when you're blasting it on your car stereo. Probably since, structurally, it's a weird song, what with the near-atonal synth lines and fairly intricate lyrics without the hooks of Boeckner's usual shout-along choruses.

All in all, I had to update my little Word file of bands I've seen this morning. And under my "Best Shows Ever" list, I added last night's Wolf Parade show just under their 2006 First Ave. appearance.