how Lo-Fi-Fnk stole my heart

This is something I would have told you about back in March, but I didn't have very good updating habits around then. So I might as well now, eh? Its the story of how Dirk and I met Lo-Fi-Fnk, because it would have been rude not to introduce ourselves after they had just played us an essentially private show.

I've been a little obsessed with Lo-Fi-Fnk since I first heard them a couple years ago. As soon as Mitch told me they would be playing in Vegas on their first American tour, there was no question I would make the trek from the SLC. And thank goodness for Dirk, who is just as devoted. I was slightly wary because the venue seemed to be clueless. But we were there in plenty of time to see like, 6 of the openers, all unremarkable and pretty far removed from the Swedish electro-pop aesthetic. No matter, I was content to sit and watch Leo (the one next to Dirk in the photo) smoke at the bar with his sunglasses on, waiting for their turn. Finally, it was time. As the boys were setting up, what had previously been an almost empty bar had dwindled down even further to a couple randoms drinking, and a few members of other bands still cleaning up. We felt bad that it looked like nobody was there to see them, so we took places on the empty dance floor. No exaggeration--we were THE ONLY people there to see them. Lucky thing my good friend Kristin, serendipitously home in Vegas for Spring Break, joined us and increased the crowd by 50%. (What are Las Vegas dwellers even called--Las Vegans? Vegasites?) August (the one next to me) was wearing the best outfit ever: bunched up purple sweatpants with a metallic gold chain printed around the waist and down the sides, with wifebeater. As they finished setting up their equipment on the small stage, August turned off the light above his keyboards so that everything was dark except for two small spotlights shining from the front of the stage.

What happened next was maybe my weirdest concert moment ever, despite its subtlety. August bent down and rotated one spotlight around to shine on Dirk, then adjusted the second to focus right on me. So now the stage was dark, and the two of us were lit up like monuments. August stood, smiled at us slyly, and left us on display. I laughed back, thinking he would turn those lights back around, but he never did. Here we were, having just driven over 5 hours to see this band who deserved all the hype in the blogiverse, and now we were on stage for them. Looking back, I suppose one of us could have easily turned those spotlights back around. Why didn't we? No, this lighting scheme lasted their entire set and we did dance our hearts out for them. Seeing them play was my fondest wish fulfilled, which is why it was so boggling that there was not even a handful of other excited kids like us there to see them. Eventually another girl showed up and seemed to be really into it, but it turned out she was there because her band was playing next--Lo-Fi-Fnk didn't even get the dignity of being last to play. And just a few days later they'd be blowing up SXSW. The whole thing was a bit of concert Twilight Zone.

Now, I usually don't care to meet celebrities, in fact I don't think I've ever bothered to try to take a picture with one. But these guys are the kinds of people I would actually like to get to know, and I really admire them. And considering we'd all been watching each other for the past hour, we decided to say hi. They were darling and gracious. Leo was horrified we'd driven so far to see a performance that he didn't think was so great. August apologized for being so sweaty. And when asked about the odd choices in opening bands, he said "I was so angry when I found out," in the calmest, accented, tender tone, like you might use when saying "I think I'll have some chocolate milk." I was, of course, too nervous to carry on the conversation too long. Big geek, me.

We were excited to hear a new song that night, which checks Daft Punk, and was captured on video the night before in San Diego:



...and a b-side from the Wake Up single.
mp3: Lo-Fi-Fnk - The Boxer