The past couple of months have been a bit strange for me and my usually peachy relationship with music. I don’t know why 2008’s been so troublesome, but never have I felt so old and just plain out-of-it as I have this year. I always expected that as I grew older, I’d eventually stop listening to new music and become one of Those People—you know, the ones convinced all the interesting music was made years ago, coincidentally around the time they were in high school or college—but never did I imagine the decline would be so steep or sudden.

It’s in that limbo that I went to Lee’s Palace on Thursday night to catch the Long Blondes, a band whose show last year made me beg for their return. “Couples,” however, is not the immediately satisfying listen that Someone to Drive You Home was, and evidence suggests a lot of people feel the same way I do. So I carried three levels of uncertainty into that concert. Would the new material sound better live? Was my infatuation with the Long Blondes necessarily a short-lived affair? And did any or all of this have anything to do with the fact that me and music appeared to be breaking up with one another?

This probably sounds like way too much introspection for a concert, but then I’ve been trying to figure out the Long Blondes all over again ever since “Couples” came out. First impressions were pretty dismal; aside from “Century,” “Guilt” and “Here Comes the Serious Bit,” there didn’t seem to be anything on the album to convince anyone the Long Blondes were here to stay. But since then, my feelings about the album reached a bizarre equilibrium: there’s still nothing on the new album that satisfies like the old, and yet I can’t quite imagine going back, nor can I get some of these songs out of my head. The chorus to “Erin O’Connor” lingers, even though I can’t bring myself to say I love the song; similarly “Round the Hairpin” and “Too Clever by Half” have gone from dismal failures to stealth favourites in the space of a month. And still I can’t say “Couples” is great; it’s like I can accept the album on an intellectual basis or a subconscious basis, but in the region of my brain that traditionally loves pop music to bits… nothing.

So let’s talk about the show, yeah? It wasn’t so dissimilar from last year’s epic show, but everything else seemed to have changed. The crowd didn’t seem as large or nearly as enthusiastic, for one: at the end of the show it looked seriously like there’d be no encore, so weak was the final applause. Maybe it had something to do with the new songs, only about half of which had the energy of old favourites like “Once and Never Again.” It probably didn’t help that Kate Jackson, the obvious focal point of the band’s stage presence, would occasionally retire to the back of the stage to bang on a snare drum or play keyboards. When Kate disappears from view, you’re left with Dorian, Emma and Reenie up front, and you realize that while the rest of the band may be charmers off stage (Screech and Emma seemed in high spirits after the show at the merch table), on stage they have a more standoff-ish stance. It’s as though they’re content to let Kate be the center of attention.

But they did the same sorts of things last year and everyone ate it up, which leads me to believe the real issue wasn’t so much the show itself as everything else. Standing about a foot away from the stage, and seeing a ragged front row another foot behind me, it almost felt like the rest of the audience had experienced the same musical fatigue I had over the past few months. Maybe the fun people had better things to do on a Thursday night, or maybe I was too busy taking photos half the night to notice (but I put down the camera halfway through the night and noticed no difference!), or maybe I’m just projecting. But last night’s show was not the lethargy antidote I’d hoped it would be, and I can’t even say whether that’s the Long Blondes’ fault, the crowd’s fault, or just my own.

Quick notes:

• “Century” sounds great with a faster tempo, but the laser-blast synths from the middle section were sorely missed. Nevertheless it still remains one of my favourite Long Blondes songs to date.
• “Lust In the Movies” is a great song, but “Swallow Tattoo” and “Separated By Motorways” still wins by a landslide for best. encore. ever.
• I missed most of Hunter Valentine but did catch the Drug Rug set. Their live show turns down the manicured back-country feel of the album and turns up the bluesiness a tad, and the female guitarist doesn’t sound nearly so much like Joanna Newsom in person, so I guess you can add Drug Rug to the list of bands that sound way better live than recorded. Also, BEARDS.