Our trip to New Orleans was only five days, but it spanned so much awesomeness that I’ll break this into a couple posts.
Wednesday was our travel day. The nice thing about New Orleans is that it feels pretty distant, but isn’t terrible tough to get to. Some friends were even driving down, but at 12+ hours we were gladly flying. Airline checked bags fees aside, the flights were uneventful and we were in the Big Easy by mid-afternoon.
Our hotel was right in the French Quarter, less then half a block off Bourbon Street. Shortly after checking in we ran into Brian and Amanda (the bride and groom to be) and we opted for an early happy hour at the bar right next to our hotel, The Old Absinthe House. Bourbon street is really interesting. Besides all the cheesy bars selling tropical drinks by the yard and all the houses of ill repute (er, Gentlemen clubs) there are also some very historic bars and some very exclusive restaurants. There’s no such thing as a good end or bad of Bourbon Street – like gumbo it’s all mixed up from door to door. The Old Absinthe House is a dusty old corner bar, but has stood there since 1807. Faded pictures on the wall showed that the bar hadn’t changed much through the last two centuries. We relaxed into the NOLA scene with a couple rounds.
Then it was time to head to House of Blues, for some much needed food and a concert later in the evening. The HOB was only about five blocks away and there was no wait for a table. D and I torn into some of the best skillet cornbread we’ve ever had before moving onto yummy Cajun entrees.
Making our way into their music hall I didn’t know how large of a venue to expect. I’ve always heard of big acts playing at various HOBs, but never seen a show at one. Luckily it turned out to be a pretty small room with elevated sides and a cool wrap around balcony. As a restaurant patron we got in sooner than most and snagged a great elevated spot at house left. The opening band was Brahms, a sort of dark-wave three piece from NYC. They did a pretty decent set, and I dug their all electronic setup, but they seem a bit out of their element playing to the sizable HOB crowd. Next up was the Canadian indie band Tokyo Police Club. They brought more energy to the stage and helped amp things up for the main act. I’m a fan of their singles, but their other tunes seem to lack a few hooks, and their style works best with a good hook.
By the time Passion Pit took the stage the house was packed. They are still touring off their first full album, Manners, from 2009 so the setlist was as predicted, except for the awesome encore cover of the Cranberries’ “Dreams”. Hardly any other male singer could attempt the soaring vocals in that song, but it was right up the alley of Michael Angelakos. You can tell they’d been touring behind that material for a solid year, everything was well-paced and effortless. I’ve been enjoying that album since it came out and it was great to see it live after skipping their set at Lollapalooza last summer. All in all, a super fun show and a great finish for our first night in the Big Easy.
