I Got Wet with Andrew W.K., Pt. 1

March 3, 2012
The Venue 
Vancouver, British Columbia

Andrew W.K.'s breakthrough album I Get Wet turned ten years old, this past November, and to celebrate, he kicked off his first ever global tour two nights ago right here in Vancouver.

Opening for Andrew W.K. was beloved music guru and local scenester Nardwuar the Human Serviette's garage-punk band the Evaporators. Nardwuar is good friends with Andrew, having interviewed Andrew several times, performed with him several times, released a split EP with him and cut a track with him before, so it was really no surprise that the Evaporators opened the show. They were everything I expected of Nardwuar's quirky (understated) personality and more: random costume changes including a sparkly helmet with the Canadian flag on it: check. At least temporary shirtlessness and off-putting amounts of body hair on a less-than-centre-fold physique: check.

Costume-changes and partial nudity weren't the biggest highlights of the Evaporators, though - not by a long-shot. The audience hoisted both Nardwuar and his keyboard into the air during "Your Instrument Does Not Affect Me" while he played it in an outstretched Superman position. He even straddled his keyboard for a while as the audience kept them suspended in the air, and the more fanatic audience members risked generous amounts of Nardwuar's-ass-in-their-faces in order to rabidly mash the keys from below.

Other highlights included the Evaporators having covered 60s German garage rock band the Monk's "Higgle-Dy Piggle-Dy" and something I've never seen at a show before: Nardwuar ran through the crowd during a super-extended version of "I Don't Need My Friends To Tell Me Who My Friends Are," getting - sometimes imploring with his hands clasped - everyone in the audience to crouch down on the floor and not continuing until everyone was crouching. Meanwhile, the lights had been brought down; the band was revving the riff until the band and everyone else in the place jumped up all at once and moshed while shouting the chorus, lights now blinding: "I DON'T NEED MY FRIENDS TO TELL ME WHO MY FRIENDS ARE!!! I DON'T NEED MY FRIENDS - ..." and then back down on the floor ... We did this a few times before the band kicked it into overdrive for one final climactic blowout.

As fun as that little crowd-control experiment was, the best parts of the Evaporators' set were undoubtedly 1) when I got kicked in the face by Nardwuar while he was crowd-surfing, and I ended up picking a few hairs from his gorilla-boots out of my mouth and 2) when Nardwuar gave me the list. Onto my wall it goes, along with my little treasures from Male Bonding and Broken Social Scene.

Short and sweet, the Evaporators were, but they were only a small taste of the mayhem to come.