Best and worst of times

I saw Rilo Kiley at the Greek last night. Wow. The show ravished me. It was amazing. Acoustically this was BY FAR the best show of the five of theirs that I've seen. And the performances were outstanding. But nevertheless it felt weird.

I felt very sad during many songs. There has been buzz going around the Net that this could be the LAST Rilo Kiley show. Honestly, I don't believe that at all. I think that there will be a large gap (three years) before the next record as the band members work on side projects/solo careers and let RK-specific juices recharge and bubble.

Evidence: Blake Sennett's band The Elected is working on a new album, Jenny is done recording her second solo album, Pierre just released one and even Jason is off playing in Conor Oberst's Mystic Valley Band this summer. In interviews they've said that Under The Blacklight took a while because they weren't going to release a record until they had what they considered a damn good record. I would pray that they continue to hold themselves to that standard (whether UTB meets it in fans' eyes is another argument. In the end I give it a B).

But during the show, the emotionality of music outweighed my logic. Jenny seemed super emotional. During "I Never" she stared right at Blake when she sang "and been ungrateful for what I had" and when she sings "I never loved somebody else the way that I loved you" it was like rip-your-heart-out sad. After finishing that lyric she was playing the keyboards and then she bent over so none of us could see her face. She stayed bent at the waist for about 10 seconds. I honestly wondered whether she was crying.

During "The Absence of God" Jenny Lewis just poured her heart into "And Blake I'll teach you how to swim, if you turn the bad in me into good again." It was like literally breaking my heart practically. Was she apologizing for her solo experiments? Fights?

And when they played "Pictures of Success" she changed the lyric from "we have never been back there since then" to "we will never be back here again."

Of course this could be RK having some fun with us, knowing that the fans who read the boards obsess over the rumors of breakups and hiatuses (which honestly is all I really think is coming up). And during many points in the show she and each member of the band seemed really happy. But this was also the least chatty with the audience and each other that I've ever seen them--and this was my fifth show of theirs.

Jenny also left the stage first during the encore, a full few minutes before the guys. And just before she left she said "Nice knowing ya."

I never been so emotionally moved by a show, granted much of that could have been me reading into the situation things that weren't there, but still.

But if that's ultimately how they go out (and I don't expect it to be so) then damn, that was the most emotional concert I've ever been to.