I saw Bon Iver at the Bill Graham Civic last night. Great show, except they didn't play Wanted Dead or Alive or Bad Medicine (or Highway to Hell, for that matter). Their first album was mostly a one-man affair, but there was a nine-man (literally) indie rock ensemble on stage, with a bunch of multi-instrumentalists, and they made an awesome racket. The kids (mostly twentysomethings) in the crowd were all right, very nice and polite. The encore was especially good; they played Ophelia in honor of Levon Holm. A bonus was that I got to go backstage with my brother-in-law, who is friends with the main guy, Justin Vernon. I was thinking it was my first ever backstage visit, except I then remembered I had gotten to go backstage at a Sheena Easton concert in 1989 with my friend who was reviewing the show for a local weekly. I didn't get to talk to Sheena, though, and did hang out with Justin, who is a very nice guy, for awhile. Also, for the first time in a long while, I bought the t-shirt (two actually), which I guess is the budget version of the middle-aged guy buying a Porsche.