The Hush Sound "Sweet Tangerine" (20.4 MB) from Like Vines Orpheum Stagedoor Madison, WI August 25, 2007

In this year's recently released Isthmus Annual Manual, the Barrymore Theatre was voted Madison's best music venue. When I saw the results, it was a little bit like watching George Bush win in 2004. Had these people ever been to a rock show there? I wondered. Anyone with working ears should've been able to tell that, if you want a larger venue, the Orpheum is where it's at, including the Stagedoor. And then this show happened.

Apart from the generally bad mix (which was tweaked during the show into various different-sounding bad mixes), the Hush Sound lost power twice during this song, their second of the set. Amazingly, they plowed right through -- it turns out something like this had happened to them before -- literally without missing a beat. When the power came up, they came out of their vamp and dove right back into the song. Opening with this and "Don't Wake Me Up," my two favorite songs of theirs, it was an exciting way to start the show.