Show Review: Neil Halstead @ The Pike Room 3/20/09

My girlfriend and I went to see Neil Halstead a few days ago. Detour has posted my concise show review. I always have a hard time at shows that are all quiet and where half the people sit down. You’d think that a crowd of people being quiet and sitting down would be nonthreatening, and I am guessing the majority of people there are. But I’m always afraid of the “hush patrol:” those people who are so dead set on making sure that the rest of the audience is as mutely rapt as they are, that they can’t possibly be enjoying themselves since the whole show they’re darting mean looks around the room and hushing people who dare make a sound. I don’t at all condone people talking really loud and interrupting quiet shows, but we’re not at the movies. So lighten up. If we were at the movies, you could either shoot me in the arm, or roll up the top of your popcorn bag and beat me in the face with it (as I once saw a woman do to a man after she stood up mid-movie and yelled “Tell your kids to shut the fuck up!!” This was at a showing of the Jim Carrey masterpiece How the Grinch Stole Christmas). Thankfully, there were no real "hush patrol" members to be seen at Neil Halstead and nobody was shot or pummelled with popcorn.