vivian girls at neumo’s last night with abe vigoda. more pics in the photoset. [flickr]

When Vivian Girls and Abe Vigoda played last night at Neumo’s, the room was in its infrequent curtain configuration, with the big red velvet dividing the room in half and the mezzanine closed. For all of the buzz of the bands, the more intimate setting was just about right for the modestly sized but highly enthusiastic crowd. Abe Vigoda took requests, chatted with mustachioed guys in the front row, and broke a guitar twenty minutes into their set. They tried to take that as a sign to quit, but were offered a replacement from the headliners and soldiered on for a couple more (after some “Blue Velvet” stalling techniques). Vivian Girls, apparently fresh from filming a video involving pies, turned a couple new songs and less than a half hour of recorded material into a full show through the magic of extended noise jams. These instrumental interludes served as cover for them to take turns fleeing the stage to get drinks to remain in compliance with our antiquated liquor laws. At some point in the show, a guy sneezed and I momentarily felt irrational paranoia. Later, someone appeared out of nowhere with a fancy drink in a martini glass. The band spotted TacocaT and deemed them the greatest band. For their final songs, they did something of a chinese fire drill for last drinks and wound up switching instruments with each other mid-song. In the end, though, it wasn’t the screaming guitars or turned up vocals that induced ear-ringing, it was the high atonal howl of the audience demanding an encore.