Bell X1 @ The Mod Club: I'm Not Over You, Can I Can Get Back Under You?

The stamp on my hand reads "Chillax!", which is a direct result of me having been at the "Virgin Mobile" Mod Club to see Bell X1 (with Duke Special).
I don't mind the Mod Club as a venue. The acoustics are pretty good, and the staff is generally pretty decent. Until about five minutes before doors, the "queue" consisted of me and three other women, and the bouncer was having a nice chat with us. I do mind seated shows. It just throws the atmosphere off. Paul Noonan even commented that it had a "town hall" feel to it. It was worse as the evening grew later and the crowd around the edges grew drunker and louder. Paul again commented on this, asking if the people at the back were "still with us". They weren't.
I was already upset at the lack of interest in Bell X1. My boyfriend had ended up having to work, and I was literally unable to give his ticket away. I give so many fucks about this band, and they get a mediocre turn out and a shitty crowd. Fuck you, Toronto, fuck you.
Having said that, the band itself was great.
But I get ahead of myself.
Duke Special opened. I love Duke Special. I think he is clinically incapable of doing things with anything but intense passion, but he has just a charming touch of awkward nervousness when he chats with the crowd between songs. He put out a loud, enthusiastic, rousing set, complete with two audience sing-alongs.

Duke Special @ the Mod Club 29/09/12

Then it was our favourite Irish boys. I swooned a little when they came out, I think. Even with the personal drama surrounding my attendance, I was desperately looking forward to this show.

Bell X1 @ the Mod Club 29/09/12

They opened with Bad Skin Day, which wasn't an opener that I was expecting, but it was surprisingly effective.

It feels like we're always waiting  

It feels like we're never leading

 I neglected to write down the setlist, and no one has posted it on setlist.fm, so I'll just go through highlights.  

There is, in almost every show I pay proper money to see, a point where I lose my shit. Last night, that point was during Velcro. 

Now we're clacking at computers,
In the sickly light they throw.
All jonesing for wi-fi,
So we can steal more tv shows.
Watching a 6 year old on YouTube,
Playing drums to Billie Jean.
Now this is the stuff that binds us,
This and all those dairy creams.

For most other people, that point was during Flame, with the corresponding hand-clapping: 

I wanna be near you and blink in your light  

And toast marshmallows on a cold dark night

  

Or during Rocky Took A Lover: 

He said 'The sun gives life, and it takes it away
But like all the greats, it'll burn out someday'
She said 'I don't mind, I don't want to get bored
I don't want to end up beached on this shore
I want to be that star' 

And then I'll shine for you. Then I'll burn for you.
Then I can shine for you. That's what I'll do  

I cried at one point. I wasn't expecting them to play Built To Last because they hadn't in Philadelphia, which was the only setlist I'd seen posted from this tour, and it really threw me. 

We're made like the past

We were built to last

We're made like the past

We were built to last

Nighttime is the wrong time

To be with the thoughts you fear

They drag their nails

And rattle their chains

David Geraghty @ the Mod Club 29/09/12

My emotions were not prepared for that, and they definitely were not ready for David Geraghty, who sings lead on the track, to mess up and have to restart halfway through. That track, hands down, made the night for me, but I would have been sad (knowing, as I did, that they played it in Philadelphia) if they hadn't played I'll See Your Heart and I'll Raise You Mine, which they did as their closer/first encore. 

Yea, they keep swapping shoulders
I think there's something going on
"Will you be my sweet pea?
Will you be the card up my sleeve?"
says one to the other
and this time they hold their gaze
for too long

 

God, I love this band, I love their sweet, soothing music, and I love their more dance-y hand-clapping songs, and I just fucking love this band. The problem is, though, as I discussed with an Irish friend who has seen them many times, they are very much a band who feeds off of the energy of the crowd, and the energy last night was ATROCIOUS. Apart from a few die-hards like myself, the viewers ranged from disinterested to loudly drunk. The band, especially Dominic, looked legitimately sad over this, and it was hard to feel like they, or anyone there, were really having a good time. The band still played well; they are great musicians, but the energy just wasn't there, and that was honestly kind of distressing to me given my ridiculous love for the band. I'll see them next time they're in town, but I'll go in with, well, the expectation of seeing a great band perform a set that's much less stellar than what I know they're capable of. 

It pains me to write this review.