My Last Show of the Year: The Faint at Emo’s

I miss the old location on sixth street. I had seen Childish Gambino and She Wants Revenge there, you know all the best Millennial dirt bags musicians. Now, do not get me wrong. Just because I am doing the whole “I was there” thing, that does not mean that I refuse to drive over to the Riverside venue. Like any true Austin transplant, I am pointing out my history with the city in order to give myself an air of credibility.

To add to that, I need to admit that this was not even the first time I have been at the new Emo’s to see the Faint. I picked up a ticket because I like the band, this time I would not be going with coworkers that I would stop keeping in touch with before anyone even quit or moved, and because I needed to get out of the house and dance. I do need to be realistic, if they were still on sixth street I would be bitching about how annoying it is to get to the old venue location and park. Cause you know, I love to complain.

I hate driving, so the same bit applies about getting to Riverside. Since they are no longer downtown they have a dedicated parking lot, but it was getting pretty full because I like to pull up in the middle of the opener’s set. I fear I may be at that age where I want to do shit on my own time, but mainly I need to take some time to build up the courage to step outside my doorstep.

I should have planned better and got there sooner. The opener was killer and the merch booth was long. As I drank my expensive vodka drink, I felt compelled to dance in place while I watched my chances dwindle away at getting one of the Hercules & Love Affair muscle tanks. Due to my no longer young age and destroyed hearing, I held onto hope all the way until the group in front of me was able to ask about it. I then realized the head shaking for the first twenty people was because we were all wondering the same thing. My consumerism was limited to a new The Faint t-shirt, but I could have spent so much more between the two. If only The Faint would just lean into their lyrics and do some type of makeup collab. You know, the take my money meme.

Shirt secured, I made my way to the fringes of a crowd that was feeling it. This may have been one of the rare shows where the people were moving. You could tell from the energy of the crowd that quite a few people understood the glory that is a live performance given by Hercules & Love Affair. I did not know of their brilliance at first, but the next day I made sure to track down their discography on steaming services and have been listening to them since. My understanding is that they started performing in the late 2000s, they have the indie electronic feel that was blowing up around that time. I feel they may be more niche than some of the other electronic acts from the time period though, with their queer positive songs recalling classic house. They played “My Offence”, and their other hits, giving themselves a pathway to shuffle step straight into my heart.

I think that the opener and dance style of the headliner also helped me to feel so at ease during the show (well that and probably the vodka). The crowd demographic was queer, filled with friend groups looking to dance their night away, and hetero couples already paired up cause it was their date night. I did not feel out of place dancing by myself, nor did I feel like I was going to have to skulk away to avoid getting ground up on by someone I did not lust for. So that alone is a success!

What I dug about the old venue location still applies to the new, Emo’s has a way to make it feel intimate while also being hugggggge. Even at an outer edge you can get close to the stage without the claustrophobia of being dead center, giving a good view of the performers on stage. In between my head bops and the lowering of my creaky knees so I could get down, I was able to see that the band was giving their performance of their hits as much as we were giving them in dance moves. Album wise they focused on tracks from Danse Macabre and Wet From Birth, but even when they played an older or newer track that may not have been as popular the crowd did not relent in their dancing devotion.

While I dipped out on the last bit of the encore, I wanted to get home before I started ranting and raving about Waymos and what is happening to this city, I did so ecstatic over the money I had spent and the aching in my body from acting like I could dance the way I used to when listening to The Faint. It was a good night and an amazing show to end my year with.