Polyphonic Spree in Lawrence

The Polyphonic Spree, what more needs to be said. Last Saturday they more than lived up to their reputation of being one of the best live bands of any genre on the planet in this day in age. The spree preformed a riveting two hour set to a completely engaged and energetic crowd, despite the fact that Lawrence’s Grenada Theatre was only about three quarters full.
Due to the fact that this was a a stop on the co-headling Person to Person tour, the crowd was somewhat split between fans of two widely different musical acts. Rooney was the band whose fate landed them a spot co-headlining with the Spree. Tim Delaughter and co are a had enough act to open for, much less share the top of a bill with, and so it is no surprise that Rooney was little more than a disspointment. There teen friendly pop rock did not seem to mesh at all with the Spree’s style and therefor seperated the crowd into two clicks, both their for completely different things. Despite sharing the top of the bill with the 24 peice Dallas, Texas orchestra, Rooney’s time slot was only a mere hour and seemed to have little build up. To sum it up, its never a good sign when your stage crew is wearing self promoting t shirts with cut off sleeves.
Finally, after much hype, anticipation, and a slew of entertaining music videos presented by Videology, The Polyphonic Spree took the stage. Their entrance was marked by a cloud of smoke slowly crawling its way out from behind the giant red banner covering the front of the stage. As the tune of Together We’re Heavy began to play, Tim Delaughter slowly began cutting through the banner, and emerged through heartshaped cutout before finishing the banner of to unveil his orchestra, laced from head to toe in their knew military style fragile army garb.
The Polyphonic Spree played roughly 2 hours of tunes that hailed from all the 3 albums and their Wait EP, despite being anchored by tracks of their newest masterpiece The Fragile Army. The Granada had given the Spree a set time of 10:30-12:00, but that didn’t stop the members of the Fragile Army from keeping the show going for 2 jaw dropping hours. Their set was marked by plenty of crecindos, confetti guns, sun talk, and even a drumoff. About an hour and 15 minutes into the preformance, the Spree announced that all good things must come to an end and they would be forced to leave the stage. It was at this point that they played a mastered rendition of their song The Championship and proceded to one by one leave the stage, until all that remained was the harpist, and croud singing “All in good time, Raise our voices” in perfect harmony.
A few moments later, from the back of the theater, the collective emerged into the croud, making their way back to the stage in their vintage robes that had at one point come to define them. The Polyphonic Spree’s roughly 45 minute encore was defined by the 10 minute track “When a Fool Becomes a King” and an energizing, somehow uplifting preformace of Nirvana’s “Lithium” that even would have had the late Kurt Cobain cracking a bit of smile. The Spree, as always, put on one hell of a show. Not a single person left without feeling thoroughly joyous and with a positive outlook on what lies ahead in life.

Setlist:
Ribbon/ Opener
Running Away
Hanging Around
Get up and Go
Sun
Light to follow
Hold Me Now
Guaranted Nightlite
Justify
Mental (or Soldier)
Fragile Army
We Crawl
Championship
**********
TWH
Lithium
King
Light & Day/ Sunmachine
If you are truly lucky, you will have a chance to catch the Spree at any or all of the following tour dates:

Oct 22 2007 8:00P
The Gothic Theatre Denver, Colorado
Oct 24 2007 8:00P
The Big Easy Boise, Idaho
Oct 25 2007 8:00P
Showbox Seattle, Washington
Oct 26 2007 8:00P
Roseland Portland, Oregon
Oct 27 2007 8:00P
McDonald Theatre Eugene, Oregon
Oct 30 2007 8:00P
Grove Anaheim, California
Oct 31 2007 8:00P
The Fillmore San Francisco, California
Nov 1 2007 8:00P
Belly Up San Diego, California
Nov 2 2007 8:00P
Fonda Los Angeles, California
Nov 3 2007 8:00P
Rialto Theatre Tucson, Arizona
Nov 6 2007 8:00P
House of Blues Dallas, Texas
Nov 7 2007 8:00P
Emos Austin, Texas
Nov 8 2007 8:00P
Verizon Theatre Houston, Texas
Nov 10 2007 8:00P
The Telleyran Music Festival Jacksonville, Florida
Nov 11 2007 8:00P
State Theatre St. Petersburg, Florida
Nov 13 2007 8:45P
Cat’s Cradle Carrboro, North Carolina
Nov 14 2007 7:30P
The Trocadero Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Nov 15 2007 7:30P
Rex Theater Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Nov 16 2007 7:30P
Terminal 5 New York, New York
Nov 17 2007 8:00P
Ramshead Live Baltimore, Maryland