Concerts And You - Page 5

I just got back from seeing Yonder Mountain String Band at the Orange Peel here in asheville. One hell of a show, three and a half hours of foot stompin', finger pickin' awesome bluegrass.

I'm going to be seeing Dark Star Orchestra on the 18th and then taking my girlfriend to see Bela Fleck and the Africa Project on March 12th.

Best concert story I've heard in a while:

My brother took my 13-year-old nephew (hot young guitarist and old-school vinyl junkie) to a club to see Jonathan Richman the other night. My nephew made a sign that said "Play 'Government Center' and I'll sing it with you."

And he did. And they did.

Just a quick heads up: that amazing Spoon show that I saw recorded last month? It's going to be rebroadcast on KUT on February 25th at 8:00PM Central Time. You don't have to live in Austin, I think you should be able to stream it from the KUT.org website or from their iPhone app.

YEASAYER and JAVELIN just completely destroyed. Amazing gig and in a venue no bigger than a bar, both groups were just on fire but YEASAYER were awe inspiring. Definitely worth seeing them if they tour near you, it's probably the closest thing I'll ever have to a religious experience (helped massively by an amazing audience)

Bump. This is tonight, folks. Tune in.

Spike, did Yeasayer play "Final Path"? I've only seen Youtube versions, but it looks like it destroys when played live. How did the new material sound mixed in with the old?

They did play Final Path and it sounded, almost grungy. In fact aside from Wait for the Summer, which sounded exactly like the album version, most of the ALL HOUR CYMBAL stuff was made to sound a lot grungier and heavier sounding which really worked with the more dancey/funk stuff of ODD BLOOD.

I’m off to see RICHMOND FONTAINE, A SILVER MT. ZION, EDITORS, TEMPER TRAP, and HIDDEN CAMERAS in March. Looking forward to them all (especially A SILVER MT. ZION and HIDDEN CAMERAS) but it’s going to be an exhausting couple of weeks.

I lked some of All Hour Cymball (mainly the beginning), but it didn't grab me. Maybe I should try it again. Is the new one good?

A SILVER MT. ZION is a safe bet at a great evening btw.


And I booked Midlake and Jonsi in May.

I really wanted some Midlake ever since Van Occupanther, and I'm a huge Sigur Ros fan, and Jonsi's new songs sounds awesome.

It's good, but just buy the damned tickets!!!!

Yes. The first and last tracks are blah, but I like the rest of it quite a bit. I may be in the minority, though.

Got hold of a ROADBURN ticket this week. If you don't know what the fuzz is about: it's about the biggest goddamn nirvana a psychedelic/doom/underground metal fan can witness. And it's in Holland, which means the necessary paraphernalia are right at hand.
This year among many others (They go on for 4 days): Earthless, Goatsnake, Enslaved, Firebird, Church of Misery, Karma To Burn, Master Musicians of Bukkake, Jesu, Thorr's Hammer (Sunn O))) side project) lined up. As well as John Garcia doing a set of Kyuss songs (band members not known, as yet), yay!
All this in a beautiful venue, with the best sound system I ever heard (loud but crystal clear) and great visuals.
Don't know if any chewers are a bit into this scene, but this is gonna be great.

Master Musicians of Bukkake sounds like a band I'd listen to if I was 13 and really angry.

Typical brilliance from Richard Thompson at Great American Music Hall last night. The set of new material (the upcoming album is being recorded live) covered such areas as love, murder, love as murder, the passing of old friends, Wall Street, The Thames, Burning Man, and The Krays, with many of the songs so instantly catchy we were singing along before he'd finished.

The second set of familiar material was, of course, too short, but it was highlighted by some astonishing interplay between Thompson and drummer Michael Jerome on the furious extended solo in "Can't Win." Jerome also got one of the night's biggest ovations when, during "Al Bowlly's In Heaven," after each band member had taken a solo moment, he tossed down his sticks and did his bit using hands, arms, feet, head, and anything else that came to hand.

Having seen Richard plenty of times before, I was OK with the fact that this turned out to be all Electric Thompson, but some people were probably disappointed that there was no solo acoustic segment in the show (thus making it the first time I've seen him skip "1952 Vincent Black Lightning" since it was released, apart from the "1000 Years of Popular Music" show). And at age 60, his electric playing has as much fire and feedback as ever.

Since my wife got sick, my daughter wound up going with me (she's the one that bought the tickets for us as a Christmas gift), and had a great time, particularly taken with Richard's cheerfully dry onstage demeanor (he cracked up the Python congnoscenti when he introduced the song about The Krays by saying they'd have gladly nailed your head to a coffee table).

It's also always nice to be at a show where I'm NOT the oldest person in the audience.

If your 13-year old angry self would be down for a bunch of Gandalf beekeepers conducted by a mansize chicken into some apocalyptic drum-and-feedback-heavy jams, then: yes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfdQGA-kvwo

Damn! The Chevelles are finally coming to the US, but while they're playing club dates in LA and Vegas, they're skipping the SF Bay Area.

Those hungry for power pop are seriously advised to check them out: they're in Vegas on Saturday, LA Sunday, and doing Houston, Austin (four dates), Cleveland, Chicago, Brooklyn and Boston through the end of the month.

Richmond Fontaine turned their, really kind of dull, recorded material into something electric live. It's always great when a band really turns you around on their recorded stuff, but I'm not going to be able to listen to the albums anymore because the live versions were just so fantastic. Also a hilariously mismatched band, three dudes who all looked like archetypal country musicians and one long haired dude in a t-shirt who looked like he was a session musician from a heavy metal band and did that awesome thing where whilst playing his guitar he seemed genuinely enraptured and surprised by the sound it was making.

You don't get too many of those guys anymore so it's always worth appreciating the awesome of the 'holy shit, this thing makes NOISE?' guys

I also scored tickets to see ISLANDS supporting their new album for $10 and then the gig got indefinitely postponed the day later.

How's Mark Lanegan as a solo performer. I've wanted to see him and Isobel Campbell for a long time, but he's a doing a solo show nearby and I'm definitely interested in going

Tickets Booked.

It's just down the road from me anyways and I try to see a gig a week so there's no excuse for me not to go. Thanks for the good word.

If they're the Happy Hollows I think they are expect the bastard child of METRIC and THE DONNAS.

Over the past couple of months i've seen The Killers, Metallica, Coldplay and tonigh i go to Franz Ferdinand.

I have a feeling tonight will be the best of the bunch.

Have you ever seen Franz Ferdinand before? I got to see them last year in a bigish venue and whilst they're very technically proficient they didn't seem to have the personality to really fill the stage. Not disparaging them because they sounded amazing, it's just that they felt out of place in such a large venue. Ironically there support, School of Seven Bells, felt really natural in that environment.

I saw them 4 years ago as the opening act of U2. They killed it in a 70k+ stadium

Tonight is their show at a small 6k indoor stadium. I'm hoping they have even more chemistry and energy.

It might have been a bad night for them then. Hope they kick ass tomorrow.

I'm actually really looking forward to seeing Editors on Tuesday. They're an oddity because they're popular but they're kind of second tier over here. They occupy the same place as Muse and Biffy Clyro where people know of them, but they don't have massively vocal followings.

They're amazing live, they lose a lot of the pseudo Joy Division affectation of their recorded material and just really tear the place up.

Also, not to double post. But holy shit, Surfer Blood are playing at my local in about a month and a half. Already got my tickets because Astro Coast has been kicking my ass for weeks.

That was exactly my reaction; I saw them on the Main Stage at Reading in '04 and they played well but just didn't command attention the way a Big Band should. Granted, they've had plenty of time to practice since then so you never know.

Just read that ROLLINS is doing a spoken word show here on my birthday. Hell yes.

I saw him in Leeds a few months ago. He came on at 7:45 and didn't stop talking until 11pm. The guy is just a dynamo of energy and he is absolutely riveting to listen to.

How was Franz Ferdinand Tati?

Got tickets today for the Star Wars in Concert show swinging through Orlando in May. Haven't been to an orchestra in quite some time, so I'm really looking forward, despite the teeth-gnashing fury of having to deal with Ticketmaster.

Really really great. The show itself was kick ass with a set list that kept the audience going from start to finish.
The only crappy aspect was the venue itself. The sound there was kinda crappy and didn't have good acoustics at all. So the show sounded like crap, but it was actually great.

Going to see The (English) Beat tonight at the Roxy, mainly because my friend's ska band is one of the opening acts. I really like Save it for Later, though. Should be an interesting night.

Anybody know how The Beat are these days?

Saw their initial comeback tour two years ago on the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. At that time, it was Dave Wakeling, Lynval Goulding (from The Specials) and some younger guys. They were a bit shaky (at one point, Wakeling apologized for not having had time to rehearse "Too Nice to Talk To", though they made a brief attempt at it), but Goulding's enthusiasm was infectious and Wakeling was in good voice.

The best part, though: late in the show, a few fans go up on the stage to dance, and security gets a little rough tossing them off. Wakeling goes ballistic, grabbing at the security guys to pull them off the dancers, then storms off stage, leaving the band to vamp for a bit. The female DJ hosting the show meekly comes out and asks everyone to cool off and Wakeling to come back, which he does for a couple more numbers. After they leave, the DJ comes back out and tries to get the crowd to applaud the security people for just trying to do their job; she got about the response you'd expect.

There was no encore.

Just got back from Jason Robert Brown with Anika Noni Rose. Girl can sing a little.

So the show last night was actually pretty awesome. My friend's band managed to make a good impression despite a slightly crummy mix that made the guitar almost impossible to hear.

The English Beat were really amazing. They were incredibly tight, held a good groove, and played with a lot of energy. Wakeling's voice was really strong, despite it's obvious aging (which actually added some extra character to the songs). A couple people jumped up on stage to dance at a couple points and nobody seemed to mind. They played a really cool extended version of Save It For Later and they threw some of Pearl Jam's Better Man into the middle of the song as a tip of the hat to Pearl Jam playing Save it For Later as the outro to Better man in concert.

The Beat actually played a couple of really good new songs that stood up really well against their older classic stuff. I guess they're working on getting some new recordings released.

Oh, and whoever was doing the toasting during and in between songs was awesome. He had this really long one that he was improvising that he had to keep going because Wakeling's guitar went way out of tune after a song, and I think he ended up naming all the different types of ska fans there have been over the history of the style.

All in all a fun night, even if it did run a little late (The Beat didn't take the stage until 11PM and kept playing until 1:20 in the morning) and its always cool to see a bigger band in a small venue like the Roxy.

Bela Fleck and the Africa Project was INCREDIBLE! It was the last show of the tour, and thus the last time this group of musicians will perform together ever, so it was extra special.

So I saw the EDITORS last night. In my view they’re up there with MUSE in terms of technical ability, but they lack MUSE’s ambition and sense of grandeur. Granted they also lack the genuine sense of madness and irritation of MUSE, but there’s something very workmanlike about them at times. They’ve got the hooks, they’ve got the talent, they just don’t seem to have the heart for it.

As it is they did kick a lot of ass, like I said they’re technically proficient, and they flew through about 18 or 19 songs over an hour and a half. It was a literal whistlestop tour of all three of their albums and they only actually addressed the crowd once the entire time and that was a ‘we’re done now, so get the hell out’ sort of deal.

Looking forward to Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip on Thursday.

How's the new album holding on live? I'm wondering how Papillon and You Don't Know Love Like You Used To came out.

Papillion and The Boxer are amazing live, and they allow the lead singer to go mental on the keyboards which just looks fantastic/hilarious, and they seem to be opening all of their shows with In This Light and On This Evening which is amazing. In fact the stuff from their latest album seems to be what they’re most comfortable with. I mean Racing Rats and Munich are obvious standouts to their live show, but the new songs have a consistency to them which their older material doesn’t.

The one thing I will say is that the lead singer is far too ‘small’ in stature and in presence for the sound they create. He’s quite a small person anyways, but he curls himself around a lot and he just doesn’t seem to lead the band like he should. He seems utterly terrified when he’s facing the crowd which is why he seems to do better with the keyboards.

It was quite funny because he was hyper aware of the audience and even little things, like an empty bottle of water being thrown or someone shouting something (which are usual occurrences) seemed to really throw off his vocals. When you’re performing at the Manchester Apollo, which is an intermediary venue between larger gig venues and stadiums, that’s something of a problem.

Saw The Stranglers last night. I'd totally forgotten that they had done "No more Heroes" and "always the sun" and apart from a couple of the obvious tracks my knowledge of their work was very limited. They were fantastic. There's nothing like hearing "Golden Brown" performed live. There was more life in this crowd of middle-aged patrons than you find at most concerts. Baz Warne is cool dude.

They did three encores which i've never seen done before.

A month back, I went to the NME Awards tour concert which consisted of the Bombay Bicycle Club, The Drums, The Maccabees and The Big Pink. I'm a fan of Bombay and thought they were great. They looked about 12 years old on stage, such talented young whippersnappers. The rest of the bands were horrible, nothing to differentiate themselves on stage, tracks sounding the same, blah, blah, blah, Shit.

Scroobius Pip is fantastic live, really great performer and his enunciation and delivery are amazing. It's a shame that Dan Le Sac was content to press play on his synth and then look utterly bored. Great vocals, lame back up music.

Placebo is coming to town soon, How are they live? Worth it?

Friends of mine said it's good.

Good heavens-- those guys were already veterans when they had their first hits in '77.

I recently learned that Hugh Cornwell was a high-school bandmate of Richard Thompson.