My decision to see The Fiery Furnaces at Northsix this past Friday evening was last-minute. I’d been waiting to see if any of my friends were going to show interest in attending with me and then suddenly it was sold out! And then I desperately wanted to go. Pam drove all the way up from Delaware to “ride the Blueberry Boat” with me and thanks to a lawyer-type Brooklynite with an extra pair of tickets, we were in the door and among the likes of famous indie rock types to see Eleanor and her brother Matt kick out the jams to a psyched and supportive hometown crowd.

We missed the opening bands for the chance to mix with the hipsters on Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg and check out a Polish-American diner. Good chicken soup. At Northsix, the front entrance was jammed with people trying to fight their way onto the guestlist, but we eventually found our way through the crowd and even managed to snag a pair of beers on our way to the front. We got fairly close, though we ended up right in front of the speakers. I’d seen a sign by the bar advertising earplugs with an illustration of a bleeding ear, and eventually came to understand the deeper meaning of said message. Ouch. But it wasn’t loud beyond belief, which was a welcome change from most shows these days; just pretty loud. And noisy and raucous and fun and schizophrenic, as The Fiery Furnaces always are.