A little bit before when it came time for the girls to come onstage, the entire audience had their heads craned toward stage right where the Local Natives had emerged an hour or so before, but I was staring off at a gate and happened to notice a golf cart whizzing past at full speed carrying a tall blonde girl in a black crop top and two dark heads behind it. I screamed, startling everyone around me. It’s just hilarious to know that they came to the stage only about 10 minutes before they were set to play.
I’m gonna put this upfront because I know you’re all thirsty bitches, but the first thing that Danielle said to the audience was “bonjour Montreal” in a sultry voice that made everyone in the crowd scream their lungs out. Danielle spoke a little bit of French to the audience and when the videos of that come out I anticipate you’re all going to reblog it with the nastiest tags I have ever seen because it was…pretty sexy I’m not gonna lie
Not half as sexy as Este though, who did THE THIGN with hands in hair and did the XO dance and oh, my god. I do wish she had spoken French though
Alana also tried to speak French, and she said a phrase in French that I did not know because I do not speak French, but the audience knew it and yelled approvingly. She said that people would have to find her later and teach her some French phrases in the crowd and I google translated “I’m thirteen years old you pervert” (because I think that’s the most useful phrase I can teach her in all languages) on my phone but I didn’t run into her, unfortunately
When it was time for them to take stage, everyone was certain they were going to come in from stage right because both Against Me! and the Local Natives had come in that way, and we were all holding our breaths with anticipation as Dash and Tommy got the crowd pumped, and then all of a sudden Alana ran in, her arms raised above her head, grinning widely, from stage right, the exact opposite direction we were expecting, and did a lap around the stage before Este and Danielle walked in in more normal fashions
You could tell Este was gonna have technical troubles from the beginning—CJ and Grahame did the whole tech setup fairly quickly but when the girls had about 2 minutes until they were supposed to take the stage Dan came out and spoke to the audience on Este’s mic for about a minute, looking a bit frustrated and confused about why it wasn’t working. He got it working, but hovered around in front of the barrier for the first couple of songs until Este’s tech just died on her.
Danielle was wearing a shirt that said 1988 on it, indicating to me that she wants us to make fun of her. SHE BRINGS THIS ON HER DAMN SELF
Danielle and Alana both sounded a little sick in their speaking voices. The first time Danielle said anything I almost didn’t recognize her voice, and Alana’s sounded a little gravelly too. Este’s voice was the usual, the sort of high, sweet voice that videos really don’t capture very well.
Y’all know that one picture of Este with her eyes rolling back into her head? That one scary bass face she does that we hadn’t noticed before? She does that a lot, and I think it’s new but I saw it a couple of times while she was playing and I just hadn’t realized that she does it anymore??? But she totally does??
During Oh Well I think the current theory is that Este said something lascivious into Danielle’s ear and she got embarrassed, but I didn’t read that as the case. What I saw what that Este got so close to Danielle while they were doing The Thing that she breathed down her neck, which made Danielle shudder and laugh and back away.
I was waiting for Alana to forget “oh well,” and she did not. Good job dummy, good job not forgetting to say “oh well” for once in your life.
During the part of Oh Well when Este jumps on the amp to get as close to the audience as possible, she looked out at the crowd and surveyed the front row and accidentally made eye contact with Dan, who was staring up at her, and they both just started laughing. I don’t know what, but him just looking up at her made them both laugh really hard as she was trying to look badass and attention-hogging and it was just really nice to see them all try to play badass and look at each other and just lose their shit.
Danielle was smiling for the whole show. It was ridiculous. Everything E and A did, or any fan sign that she saw in the audience she acknowledged and laughed at. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever seen her look so happy in anything. I really do think she’s getting a little bit more extroverted in her performances.
It was a rough show for Este. She wore a crop top that was too loose at the sleeves and (as you’ve seen from the pictures) kept falling off of her right shoulder intermittently every song or so, so she kept having to adjust it, which you could tell was ticking her off about halfway into IICCYM.
Right before Oh Well she went sidestage for a bit to get either Dan or CJ to try to adjust the shirtstrap, which loosened something in her audio setup and caused her to lose her earpiece’s ability to hear the noises the bass was making. Every so often during the middle of the set she’d start tapping her bass insistently and looking back at CJ and Dan, who were working really hard to get it working, but not understanding the bass tapping and trying to fix her monitor. After the third annoyed glance and bass tap they just pulled her over after XO.
SIDEBAR I HAVE BEEN YELLING AT THIS STUPID BAND TO SPEND MONEY ON CLOTHES THAT FIT THEM AND THEY DON’T LISTEN AND DO YOU SEE WHAT HAPPENS???? DO YOU SEE WHAT HAPPENS
Right before Oh Well Danielle paused and listened to the crowd just cheering for her. When the crowd quieted down, Danielle just smiled at everyone, still not playing, and Este started raising her arms to get them to cheer more loudly for Danielle. I really think D’s getting the hang of this audience interaction thing—she seems much more at-ease with getting them revved up and speaking to them and just more comfortable in general.
They took Este’s in-ear monitor during XO, probably one of the least fortunate times for her not to have it because she does lead vocals, so Este performed the whole song completely unable to hear herself and listening more to the audience. She sounded absolutely fucking perfect, but oh, man! Taking her monitor away! Beforehand she added “now I can hear everything you guys are saying” or something like that, but she killed it. Really an amazing musician
I cried during XO. I cried so long and so apparently that Este actually mentioned that there were people getting “emosh” in the crowd and said “it’s okay, I’m down with getting a little emo,” which may mean that I embarrassed myself to a much greater extent than I thought I did.
Right before Forever, as Este was trying to get Danielle talking to the crowd, and Alana but in and immediately just started chattering away, but Danielle spoke for a bit! She actually talked quite a bit that day.
As the girls were trying to introduce The Wire to people, to get the crowd pumped up and yelling “RIGHT” back, Este and Danielle both sang “it felt right, it felt right” acapella to practice with the audience and it was fucking beautiful. They sound so fucking gorgeous a acapella, it was like hearing a little bit of that soundcheck video. Este promptly showed Danielle up like she always does when Danielle tries to get the crowd pumped before The Wire, by getting the crowd to put their arms into it, and I don’t know why she can’t let D have one moment of having the crowd’s full attention without showing her up but I love it so much.
When Alana runs into the crowd during Let Me Go, she’s usually able to jump down into the area before the barricade and then run up to it, but when she reached the edge of the stage she realized that she was actually too small to get down from it safely. A security guard (maybe Dan?) had to grab her and lift her down because she was so little that she couldn’t get down by herself. She then had to be hoisted back up afterwards as the guard was following her around. I touched her. Nbd.
We’ve all heard about Este’s faceplant, but it was truly impressive. Usually she’ll throw her drumsticks directly upwards and then turn on her heel and spin away, but she tried the turn too early and the drumsticks went flying as she fell right to the ground. Danielle did nothing but laugh. I gasped, startling everyone around me, and reached out for her, because that fall looked painful. She even lingered on the floor for half a second before straightening up, making eye contact with Danielle who was still laughing, and trying to look as sexy as possible walking offstage
When Este fell, CJ did come running, so it’s nice to know that SOMEONE did actually try to look her over and survey her person to make sure that she was okay and undamaged. God knows no one else was gonna do it, DANIELLE
Not tryna make this about me, but I said hi to CJ before the show as he was setting up and as he was picking up the set the first thing he did was grab one of Este’s drumsticks, throw it at me, and then point at me to indicate that he had intended for it to go to me. I made a heart at him and he smiled. This is what really noticeably freaking out will get for you, kids! Always cry! And be nice to roadies.
