DESCRIPTION:
"Artificial Light" was probably the first Rainer Maria song I ever heard, after some browsing at the All Music Guide led me to download A Better Version of Me, maybe the last great record of the genre that we used to call "emo." I was glad to hear it at this show -- and, indeed, a fairly wide selection of earlier material. They played a couple from Version, a few from Long Knives Drawn and at least two from their late 90s output (no "Planetary," though). The nice surprise was that the crowd of mostly mall-hipster undergrads seemed genuinely into it and knowledgeable about the band. Somebody called out for "Breakfast of Champions" at one point and a number of people were dancing and singing along. These kids are easy to make fun of for the most part, but they know how to be a good audience.