Michelle and Keri, as well as their friend Thales, and I arrived at the Double Door a bit before the show started. It was not crowded at all so we headed to the bar for some drinks for the ladies and had some interesting discussion about people and stuff and things. I don't know, I was drifting... face petting was involved somewhere in there I think. Mostly we were all just very excited for the show.

This was my second show seeing the Eleceted open a sold out show as well as my second sold out Magic Numbers headlining show, so I was excited to see how they would compare to my first experiences.

The Elected were on first. I had recently seen them open for Stars at the Metro, and while I enjoyed the show I wasn't extremely impressed. Blake, the child star turned Rilo Kiley/The Elected rocker, and the rest of the band are promoting their latest CD, "Sun, Sun, Sun," which is the kind of CD that I assume hipsters who have the misfortune of being born in Southern Illinois thrive on. Blake is still sporting his mustache which I am just not okay with. I even noticed a couple of copycat 'staches in the crowd. Now, I'll admit that I often times have questionable fashion sense, but just not the creepy mustache variety.

Blake introduced the LA based band as being from Oslo, Norway. He introduced the catchy "Did Me Good" as "I'm 21, I can finally start dying." The song was way more effective here than its Metro show performance, in which Blake accidentally unplugged the mic during the most dramatic point in the song. He also introduced their first single, "Fireflies in a Steel Mill" with an alternate name... something to the effect of "As long as I get mine, hooray. If you have to die for me to get it, that's okay." The Stars show I saw the Elected open for was their last show with them and they dedicated "Not Going Home" to them, so I was suprised they didn't dedicate it (or any song) to the Magic Numbers, since it was the last date on the Magic Numbers US tour. Overall I think the Elected put on a much better show this time then the Metro show. The set was shorter but tighter and the audience really seemed interested. I'm only a little bummed that I once again didn't get to hear some of my favorite songs from the new album ("Desiree" and "Beautiful Rainbow") or any of the first album, but I assume that is because they didn't have a headlining spot.

The first time I saw the Magic Numbers was at Schubas, my favorite venue. After only the first couple of songs I knew that that venue suited them much better. The Double Door, with it's darkened moody walls and drunken bar crowd just didn't seem like as great of a match for the folky, rocky British brother and sister duo duo (two pairs of brother and sisters). What I can say about the crowd was that they were very keen to sing along and dance and clap, which is kind of a requirement at a Magic Numbers show...they just illicit it. However, a couple of people around me felt that they needed to sing LOUDER than the band, which, you know, they were wrong about that. Oh, and a note to the guy behind me...if you have an extended conversation throughout the entire duration of a song about how much you love that song, and that conversation DROWNS OUT the song, you don't really love it all that much. Finally, many of the people around me found it was the best time to discuss loud mundane things not related to the concert (weddings, etc.) which Keri I believe (or maybe Michelle) made the great point...unless you are marrying someone in the band, shut up. And if you are marrying someone in the band, you should know better.

Despite the uber annoying and over intoxicated crowd, the Magic Numbers were still wonderful. They started with one of my favorite songs, "The Mule" and played most of their debut album along with an amazing selection of new songs which are promised to be on a new album the band announced they hope to be released by the end of the year. I was just excited that they played my favorite song, "Which Way To Happy," which they somehow missed at the Schubas show.

The encore of the show opened with "Wheels on Fire" which the Magic Numbers preluded with the statement "We know this is a bar and a lot of people want to chat and stuff, and we are cool with that, but if anyone knows the words to this and wants to sing that would be great too." Unfortunately that didn't shut people up and I feel like the chatting actually increased. And then genius next to me to the opportunity of their prettiest/most acoustic number of the evening to start bellowing "I love yooooooooou. You're so beautiful. I looooooooove you," causing the group of girls around to giggle obnoxiously and made one girl begin screeching "You're RUINING IT! You're RUUUUUUUUIIIIIINING IT!!!!!!!!" (It was at this point that the guy behind me strapped on a latex glove, bent my personal space bubble over a table and gave it a thoroug exam). The band, who for the most part had looked very happy about the level of crowd participation, exchanged some pretty uneasy looks at how rude people were being. The next song, however, was the upbeat CD opener "Mornings Eleven" and everyone forgot all about everything but dancing around and having a great time. The Elected took the stage again to perform with the Magic Numbers for a great cover of Bob Dylan's "I Shall Be Released" which was far more appropriate and enjoyable than the "Crazy In Love" cover from the Schubas show. Afterwards the Elected left the stage while the Magic Numbers started one last new song, but by the end of the song the Elected had taken the stage again for an outrageous and extended jam session that ended in a drum dismantling frenzy. Just thinking about it makes me happy.

So while the show might not have been as great as their Schubas show, any Magic Numbers show will leave me smiling. That's why the show gets a 4 out of 5, despite the crowd which gets a 1.5 and Blake's mustache which gets a 2.