X / Skybombers
March 18, 2008
Vogue
Indianapolis, IN

I was initially going to skip seeing X in favor of staying in Bloomington for some local bands. I don’t know why–not too many bigger bands come this close to my adopted hometown (seems they generally choose Chicago, about a four hour drive)–and tickets were about half of what they cost when I passed on seeing them several years ago in New York.

It didn’t take much to convince me–a friend yelled at me, insulted my musical taste and offered me a ride. I think I saw at least 15 B-town folks at the show, so this was definitely an event (I even got to stand next to the singer of Sloppy Seconds for most of the show).

Touring for their 31st anniversary and making their way north after this year’s South by Southwest, X was on fire for over an hour. They opened with “The Once Over Twice” and barely took a break between songs. They played a good overview of their career (even “White Girl”, my current favorite) and played two encores.

I was thinking a perfect set closer would be “The World’s a Mess” but they didn’t play it; I shouldn’t nitpick. I had been warned ahead of time, but Billy Zoom’s fixed smile while he made eye contact with certain people in the crowd was still creepy.

I didn’t like the opening act, the Skybombers, so much. Average rock band from Australia. Not bad songs, the crowd was pretty into them, but they came off as trying too hard with all their effort to get the crowd to sing along and clap after every song.