The XX at the nTelos Wireless Pavilion

On September 20, The XX performed at the nTelos Wireless Pavilion. I'm still not quite sure who the opening act was, but after about an hour of the opener and an intermission that lasted over an hour itself, you could almost feel the collective restlessness buzzing through the audience by the time The XX finally came onstage.





In retrospect, the concert was everything you could have expected with a band like The XX. I do remember feeling a distinct sense of disappointment with their performance--their lateness tainted the entire show with the slight feeling that they did not truly appreciate their fans. Despite all that, I think I walked out the venue satisfied all the same.

There was a special kind of intimacy between Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim; I felt like I was witnessing musical sex as they swayed back and forth, walking slowly towards each other with a certain deliberateness and chemical pull.

But that's exactly the kind of mood evoked by The XX's songs. When they ended the show with "Intro" and "Angels", I almost felt like crying.