Concerts And You - Page 9

Saw Tegan and Sara last night (full marks for starting their European tour in Belfast, by the way.) Good set, if a little heavy on the stuff from Sainthood; it started to feel like a live album playback party, at one point. Could've done with a So Jealous injection, but the oldies that were played - "You Wouldn't Like Me", "Speak Slow", "Walking With A Ghost" - were great.

Minor loss of points for accusing Belfast's summer weather of being "freezing." Canadian lightweights.

Yep. It was kind of douchey, imo. He basically only wandered out for his songs, and the few times he blessed us with his presence on a song he wasn't singing he kept his back to the audience. His songs tend to be my least favorite on the albums, but I have to admit, they sounded great live.

I'm going to see The Jayhawks this weekend there as well, then The Hold Steady on July 4th, Liars on the 13th, Built to Spill after that, Gaslight Anthem after that.

And I'm really fucking tempted to see The Swell Season, Tame Impala, and Blitzen Trapper, but I'm not sure if I can sell that much plasma

Bejar always struck me as an uncomfortable live performer to say the least. That said, I agree that his songs always sound amazing live and are sometimes my favorite when I see The New Pornographers live. I'm surprised he was actually out there during other people's songs at all, to be honest with you.

ETA: I was just thinking about this. Has there ever been a band like this? With another contributing singer/songwriter that is considered a member of the band, but only partially? It's such a unique relationship they have that I'm really curious just how it works in general.

Not only is that kind of unique, but you have Neko who is a gifted songwriter in her own right who doesn't (as far as I know) contribute beyond being a performer.

After they rocked my socks off in March I've booked tickets to see Yeasayer again in October.

She wrote (or co-wrote) one of the songs on the new album, but yeah, usually that's not the Case (smirk).

Crosby, Stills, and Nash and sometimes Young, kind of? But the level of Young's involvement in a project is explicit in the name.

To some extent, Broken Social Scene, but they've always seemed more amorphous to me than the New Pornographers, who have two primary songwriters and three (now four) lead vocalists.

Bejar and Case must enjoy their involvement, though. There have always been rumors that one or the other wouldn't be contributing to a given album, but they keep coming back; and their appearances on tours have become more, not less, frequent.

Case has stated in interviews that she really enjoys having her "rock band" that she tours with and records with. Sometimes I wonder if Bejar does it because the New Pornos are somewhat of his cash cow and allow him to do his own thing. But I don't really have anything to base that off of. I do get a sense that they are all friends. I love how some of his lyrics talk about different band members. He's clearly having fun in the songs he contributes, so I'm probably off base.

Going to be seeing Gogol Bordello tonight. Should be fun.

I sooooooo wanted to just take off after the Tool show in New Orleans this past weekend and drive right on to Houston, pick up a scalped ticket, and then call into work/drive back from Houston on Monday.

But alas... I didn't. I could've technically afforded it, but a) I just got promoted so I don't want to pull fancy maneuvers like that just yet, and b) I'd be on the ramen/PB&J diet (or something similar) for the next 4 weeks or so in order to still make my house insurance payment.

I like my job/life now and all, but times like that I do miss the old "college days" when I could throw caution to the wind and do dumb shit, financially, in the name of seeing great shows.

Ah, but you only live once. Experiences > responsibility (usually).

SF Bay Area folks should remember that San Jose's free Thursday night concerts in the park started this month. Missed The Skatalites last week, dammit, due to a meeting I had to attend.

Upcoming shows include:

The BoDeans this Thursday (6/24)
English Beat 7/1
Tonic 7/8
Don Carlos 7/15
Gaslight Anthem 7/22
Pete Escovedo Orchestra 7/29
Eek-A-Mouse (!!) 8/12
Pato Banton 8/26

I skipped over the Michael Jackson tribute show, and Y&T, among a couple others.

Saw the Jayhawks this weekend for probably the 50th time, but only my second time with Mark Olson. They played a lot of stuff off the first LP, which isn't really surprising since these few shows were mainly just for pub for the CD release of that album. It was a good show, very country, but I still prefer the band post-Olson, and prefer their post-Olson material. Patterson Hood of Drive-By Truckers was there in the crowd, which was cool.

Next on my schedule, The Hold Steady on 4th of July weekend.

So I'm having trouble coming up with words to describe Gogol Bordello other than "incredibly awesome". Probably the strongest communal vibe I've ever gotten at a concert. I also don't think I've seen people from so many cultural/musical/generational backgrounds in one place having such a good time together. I'm also pretty sure I saw a couple of 60-something Eastern European/Russian guys up front by the mosh pit. Pretty crazy.

Saw Pearl Jam for the first time last night. It was their first ever Belfast gig. People were coming from far and wide to see them and I think it's safe to say not a single person left disappointed. How could you with a set that encompassed so much of their career?

"Do The Evolution",
"Animal",
"Daughter",
"Got Some",
"Rearviewmirror",
"Amongst The Waves",
"State of Love And Trust",
"Better Man/ Save it for Later",
"Leash",
"Yellow Ledbetter."

Those were just a few. 2 Encores. Eddie even recorded a video of the crowd singing happy birthday for Brendan O'Brien. The roof of the Odyssey Arena was jeopardized during "Even Flow", "Alive", and "Jeremy."

Can't remember the last time I enjoyed a gig so much. I got into them when I was about 14 and it was well worth the wait to finally see them. It's a day ago already and I'm still on a high from it (a totally legal high.) Instantly into my top 5 gigs of all time.

Bar: raised.

Ticketmaster just sent me a text to say the Get Up Kids gig slated for Sunday is now cancelled. This honestly feels like a cruel joke.

Go to the Tonic show, they're great live.

Seriously debating whether I'm going to go see Phish in either Charlotte or Raleigh next week. I want to...but I'm about to take a trip to Canada with my girlfriend next month...so I feel I should save the money I would spend on the concert for our trip.

Congrats on finally seeing them. There a band everyone should see headline at least once. Unfortunately, and not that this in any way matters and it has nothing to do with the band or performance, there were people who left disappointed. The same uppity, douchey, Pearl Jam fans that leave every show bitching about what was omitted (they debuted a brand new song the previous night, and then didn't play it in Belfast - that alone guarantees these fucks were whining).


Anyway, I went and saw Silversun Pickups on Thursday, and then Hole the next night. Both shows took place in a new(ish) live music venue in Northern NJ, a place I hadn't yet been to. The floor is GA standing, the balcony is GA seating. I got stuck with balcony both nights, and was in the back for The Pickups, and the sound blew (unfortunately, the air conditioning didn't - it was hot as balls). Halfway through the set we "snuck" (I use that term loosely) downstairs, and it was much better. They were pretty good, not unbelievable, but I'm glad I saw them. It was a solid concert.

Hole the next night was uneven, to say the least. Courtney Love was probably the last really big 90's modern rock personality/performer that I hadn't ever seen, so I finally got to cross her off my list. She took a while to get going (She opened with a snippet of Pretty on the Inside, then played part of Sympathy for the Devil, then she mashed up a Judy Garland song with NIN's Closer...it was odd). Aside from the incessant name dropping (you have been famous for 15 years, we kinda assume you know famous (and have fucked) people - less talking, more rocking, please) she righted the ship halfway through and actually ended up putting on a decent show. Her screaming is still in good form, and she didn't look to bad (for this show we were able to be in the floor the entire time, as nobody was bothering to check tickets).

A Place to Bury Strangers were incredible last night!
Their sound was leaps and bounds better @ Spaceland than at the El Rey when opening for The Big Pink.

I think my soul is still vibrating from the distortion.

Thanks, Rasp! Having now had the pleasure of seeing them, I get what you mean. I'd never heard a bad word about them live before, but even so... I wasn't prepared for just how great they were. Rarely do I find myself talking to strangers the next day about how fantastic a gig was.

Not sure if anyone around here is in to this type of music, but I saw Maylene & the Sons of Disaster back in February and I'll be damned if it wasn't the best concert I've ever seen. The sad part? They were opening for fucking Saosin. Who were fucking terrible. Maylene's energy was nuts, they clearly love the music they're playing, and the music itself is of course incredible.

Plus, Maylene is (or was) on tour through Australia with the Dillinger Escape Plan. I would kill to see that show.

Do stand up shows count? If so: caught Lewis Black on his In God We Rust tour on Friday. His new CD is okay at best, but he killed live. Did very little of the CD's material, did mostly regional stuff ("I thought I knew solitude, but we were driving through South Dakota on the way to Billings Montana and I realized you people had taken it to an insane level.") and new bits. Very good. Got to have stuff signed afterwards and he laughed at a joke I told in response to him making fun of me. I nearly shit myself. Yes, I'm a huge fucking nerd.

So, Pavement at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley.

I'm sort of a casual fan of the band, but for my nephew it was a pretty damn big deal, and he just loved it. I thought they sounded good (though far more "just like the record" than I'd expected), and seemed to be having an appropriately goofy time onstage. Original drummer Gary Young would wander out from backstage periodically, clad in bathrobe and shorts (and a few sheets to the wind) to bang a cymbal or something; he finally joined in for the last few numbers, and everyone seemed to be having fun.

At one point, a couple of the guys were reminiscing about having attended previous concerts at the Greek back in the day, and one of them commented about having been there for an R.E.M. show that got rained out-- I was at that show myself!

Opener Quasi played the hell out of some songs that I couldn't remember five minutes later (the same effect I got from listening to one of their albums), but while they've certainly got the chops, they could spend less time on the rockstar posing.

We caught Lewis Black here in Alana a few years ago. I agree that he puts on a good show. He had some good "southern" jokes tossed in the mix. The crowd was told before the show that they would be recording for an album and to keep comments to a minimum. Some drunk lady didn't gt the note and Lewis ripped her a new one. It was fun/terrifying to see.

So Mumford and Sons and Laura Marling are doing a joint show in my home town next week. Only problem is that it's seating only and I can't imagine enjoying the show if I'm sat down and in the dress circle (they're playing at my local theatre).

I remember being really irritated when I was seated at a Muse gig, am I gonna have the same issues with Mumford?

Usually, I'm all about standing at gigs, but I had a seated ticket for Pearl Jam. My enjoyment wasn't diminished one bit. I'm of the mind that, if the performance is that good, it won't matter how you experience it.

I can't say I've ever actually been to a seated gig where people stayed seated. They always stand in front of their seats as soon as the band walks on stage.

Due to height, I'm way more fond of seated shows, because I tend to be pretty invested in actually seeing the goings-on onstage. If it's general admission and the venue's on the smaller side, we'll often head straight for front row balcony for a good view.

Depends on the show. I stood at the Pickups (and got yelled at by someone behind me), as did about half of the other poor saps in the seated section, and EVERYBODY stood during the Pearl Jam shows, but I had no problem sitting during the Decemberists or the Eddie Vedder solo show (though, if memory serves we all stood when he came out, and he told our dumb asses to sit down).

Yeah, I was operating on the assumption that this was a given.

I'm guessing this is the right place for this:

So, just got home from seeing Otep live. Awesome show, but I'll save that for the metal thread. Tinnitus, I was prepared for. It's metal, and I was way too close to the right speaker. However, this time brought something new: Life has gone up an octave.

Every piece of music, person's voice, even the horn in my car, the pitch is wrong. Higher. Has anyone had this experience, and does it normalize when the ringing goes away?

I'm really hoping to see Sleigh Bells on the 13th. I'm betting that will be one loud motherfucker.

Paul McCartney at AT&T park tomorrow night... couldn't be happier.

Waiting on Arcade Fire tour dates as well, it's been far too long.

seeing Spoon at the Palladium in Sept. Never seen them live before. I'm excited.

Need to get tickets for that, myself.

Just out of seeing The National, stood up 6 rows back. Absolutely phenomenal gig, and people are right- Terrible Love is fucking colossal live. Can't recommend seeing them enough.

Nothing can stop me from seeing Janelle Monae live this fall with Of Montreal.

England?

Also, a hall fall of people singing 'I was afraid, I'd eat your...brains' is pretty much the awesomest thing ever.

Going to see MGMT at the Greek tomorrow. Should be fun. Anybody seen them?

San Francisco's free Hardly Strictly Bluegrass (Oct 1,2,3) is starting to confirm the lineup for this year's 10th Anniversary.

The first officially confirmed acts include Patti Smith, Avett Brothers, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, Roseanne Cash, Justin Townes Earle, and Earl Scruggs.

Unofffically "confirmed" (usually from info on the artists' websites): The Flatlanders, Nick Lowe, Dave Alvin, and the Dukes of September Rhythm Revue, which is Donald Fagen, Boz Scaggs... and Michael McDonald, but you can't have everything.

Something like 70 acts total will play over the three days, so lots more announcements coming.

So, I just got back from seeing .38 Special at my local fairgrounds.

They did Trooper with an Attitude from Super Troopers, so that was pretty cool.

saw Gaslight Anthem at the Wiltern. Love the band but the sound was awful and was by far the worst sound Ive ever heard at the Wiltern. Still the crowd seemed to like it with lots of crowd surfing.

Taking the seating out of the Wiltern turned it into an echo-chamber.

Going to try to catch Gaslight Anthem for free down in San Jose tonight, but not sure I can get off work early enough to beat the crowds.