Hello All! I thought it would be a good idea to start a post where we can tell each other about recent live shows that we have been to. My city has been suffering through a lack of good live music recently so I have nothing to start with but I will add comments on any show that I go to from here on in. What was good/bad about the show, the venue, the crowd, the songs they played etc...

I saw Phil Elvrum (Microphones, Mt. Erie) a few weeks ago at a place called "The Shop" in Spokane, Wa. The venue was pretty intimate, and it was cool being in such close contact with an artist I greatly admire.

The set consisted solely of Phil and his electric guitar which he fed through a distortion pedal and a vintage tape delay. The sound was really warm and fit the loose nature of his songs nicely. I recognized a few of the songs as numbers from "it was hot, we stayed in the water" and "the glow, pt. 2," but other then that, everything was new to me.

A few complaints:
1. Phil refused to play "I felt your shape" which is one of my fav Microphones tracks.
2. The set was very short (i.e. no more then 35 minutes)
3. The crowd had the most indier-then-thou attitude of any show i've probably ever been to. The amount of contrived apathy in the room was palpable.

Overall, the show was decent, and I feel content having got a chance to get close to a musician whom I hold in high regard.

Last concert I saw was a few weeks ago at the Echo Lounge in ATL, the Unicorns were the headlines, put on a great show which I was really suprised about. Also the opening bands we're pretty good, Snowden which was the first opener we're pretty decent, kind of an Interpol sounding band, then the next was The Arcane Fire, awesome performance. There EP I got was pretty weak but definately entertaining and good sounding on stage, then Unicorns were awesome. Someone also proposed on stage which was pretty cool because I've never been to a concert where that has happenend.

I just saw a couple of good shows this lost weekend, with some friends driving in from Atlanta to join me...

Diesel Island, an ad hoc St. Louis alt-country "supergroup" with members of the Bottle Rockets and Rockhouse Ramblers. They do all country covers, from classic outlaw country to more populist stuff ("Drivin' My Life Away" by Eddie Rabbitt...YEHA!)

Saturday night was Richmond Fontaine, an alt-country band from Portland. While the early records were a little bit derivative (Uncle Tupelo-esque), they've added some more sonic flair to their sound as of late. The set-closing cover of Camper Van Beethoven's "Sweethearts" was fan-freakin-tastic.

Plus, two nights enjoying the ambience and spectacle that is...Fred's Music Lounge. I know LinnTate will offer up an amen for that one.

Bonus: not having to see/duck/dodge Beatle Bob at either show!

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Originally posted by philosopherEric:
I just saw a couple of good shows this lost weekend, with some friends driving in from Atlanta to join me.

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Friends in from out of town and two night at Fred's. I'll bet it was a lost weekend, indeed. Amen.

Beatle Bob. Don't get me started. His name was invoked on the Audities mailing list today. Three times. Isn't that kind of like saying Bloody Mary in front of a mirror three times?

Now Playing: "Assessment" The Beta Band Heroes to Zeros streaming on Seattle's KEXP

I was going to see The Icarus Line last night but they cancelled, so I ended up going to see Chromeo instead. They are a heavily eighties influenced two-piece featuring two of the guys from VICE magazine. The set was quite fun, and though the place was packed with scenesters(of which there are a ton in this city), the crowd made a lot of noise and cheered hard. They closed with a hilarious cover of GNR's Patience done electro-funk style! I got pretty drunk, enough to buy the cd for 10 bucks and get both of them to sign it! I'll get back on the merits of the cd when I have listened to it. They also had excellent Chromeo pins, with pictures featuring Darryl Oates, Bobby Brown, Rick James and someone else I don't remember. Fun stuff, nothing groundbreaking, but check em out if they are in your town and you want to have a good night out. I'm checking out the Killaz tomorrow night, which should be very interesting. They used to be known as the G.I. Joe Killaz until Hasbro sued them. They are Destro and the Baroness together and this is their first show this year and they will be playing songs from their new, unreleased ep. I am quite excited!

My upcoming gigs include Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers (tomorrow night, in lovely Sauget, IL), Jesse Malin with the Damnwells (next week, in Atlanta), and Liz Phair/Nadine/The Hang Ups (free gig Friday night on the St Louis Riverfront). I'll fill you in on these soon...

Well, the Killaz show was amusing. 30-35 people in a tiny little venue, sweating like crazy, all dressed in camoflauge. The group was pretty amateurish, with a crappy sound system and awful, fake laser guns. Destro's flow was pretty tight though, and the Baroness(Stacy), did a good job singing the hooks but she needs to work on her rapping skills. Who Spilled The Juice was definately the high point of the set for me. If you've heard the G.I.Joe Killaz cd, rest assured, the live show is exactly what you would expect.

Just got back from a pair of shows in Atlanta...Jesse Malin and the Damnwells at the Echo Lounge and (later) the reunion of Dillon Fence at Smith's Olde Bar. Both excellent. Jesse (former D*Generation singer/current Ryan Adams pal) put on a rockin' show for a very small crowd (due, at least in part, to the competion...the Curiosa show around the corner, or Cure-a-palooza, as we dubbed it), highlighting songs from his excellent new record "The Heat". He also tore off covers of Neil Young's "Helpless" and Elvis Costello's "Oliver's Army". HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!!

Dillon Fence, doing two weeks in the southeast, were in good form, although i only saw the tail end of the show. Good sound, good fun, great guys. Here's to a future tour stop in St Louis...

going to see built to spill tomorrow night...anyone seen them live?

so i didn't end up seeing built to spill, but i saw ratatat and i thought it was great. it's kinda weird because they were pretty much just playing guitar with the rest of the music controlled by the sound guy (no messing with decks on stage), but amplifying the guitar sound for their music is tremendous.

has anyone seen Mum live? Dont if you havent. They arent very good live at all. They pay no attention to the audience and do nothing entertaining. if you want to see a band just play instruments and do nothing to keep you interested, I recommend them.

For all of you out there with the Scissor Sisters on your top albums of 2004, I will be very disappointed in you if you don't catch them live when they play in your city! I saw them last night and they were awesome! They opened with Take Your Mama, definately one of the best songs of the year, and the lead singer sounds EXACTLY like he does on record. Very impressive. They played a few songs that aren't on the album, as well as a brand new one. The between song banter was great, some of the best interaction between crowd and performers I have been a part of in a long time! They were on stage for about an hour and a half, and probably would've played longer if the club had let them(we have two clubs here that have early shows on fridays and saturdays, by 11pm everyone is kicked out and they turn into meat market club night, very lame). I see big things ahead for the Scissor Sisters based on last night's performance, they are filling a void in the music industry that needed them in a major way. I am very excited to hear what the follow up album will be like, I certainly have some big expectations for them now. The positivity of the entire band, their joy of playing to a crowd and the audience's love for the band, reminded me of Ween concerts, which is a massive compliment coming from me. I hope all of you out there currently enjoying the album get a chance to see them live, it is truly worth it!

The Old 97's are playing about five miles from my house at a pretty small club on my anniversary (October 11), so I hope I don't screw the pooch and miss it, especially since my wife says that's what she wants to do for it. I'll report back about it.

Smenky, Scissor Sisters must be coming here soon (West Coast) but I don't remember and if it's soon, they'd probably be sold out. I guess Vancouver is the place to see concerts.

If tickets are still available, I might try to go see Pixies, Mars Volta and Thrills at the outdoor Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre in a month or two. It's only about 12 miles from my house. Oh well, enough about sneak previews.

It was my first time ever to leave Ireland for a gig, and on the 12th of September I went to see RUSH on their 30th anniversary tour in the Glasgow SECC. They are my favourite live band ever, they're so much better live than on record. You'll know this if you own 'Exit...stage left', 'All the world's a stage' or the 'Rush in Rio' DVD. There's only 3 of them and they played a 3hr 15 minute set, with all the classics, including 'YYZ', 'Red Barchetta', 'Leave that thing alone', 'working man' and 'Xanadu' with the return of Alex and Geddy's double necked guitars.

Neil Peart is a machine. Undoubtedly the best drummer in the world. Well, to me. His 20 minute drum solo was pure joy to watch. I get the feeling that was the last chance I had to see them seeing as they're pushing on, but while saying that, they continuously improved over the 30 years.

I'll play sneak preview with you mark...

On Monday, I'm going to see Yo La Tengo's stumping tour for John Kerry on the Wash U campus. I'm not a big YLT fan, but I'm excited to see David Kilgour (of the Clean fame) as part of the gig, as well as comedian Tod Barry.

And then, a week later, another benefit for Kerry with Brian Henneman (of the Bottle Rockets), Magnolia Summer, Waterloo, Adam Reichman (of Nadine), and the excellent British-cum-California alt country band Minibar.

Although both are Kerry benefits, I hope to spared of too much political rhetoric. I'm pretty sure most of the audience will be hip to the cause...just play me some music. I'll vote in November, I promise!

Also this month: Badly Drawn Boy, and Camper Van Beethoven! (two different shows)

I should hope that you are a bigger YLT fan now, pE. I would also enjoy seeing anything involving the main man from the Clean.

Well, I can now talk about the actual Old 97's/ Jon Rauhouse show at the Galaxy Theatre in Santa Ana, CA last night. My wife Brenda and I went for our anniversary, and we had a great time.

As usual, we stood right up front. It was easy to get up front at this show, which means about five feet from where all the microphones are. The stage is only about three feet high, so it was easy for me to do my normal interaction with a band DURING the concert. For example, during opening act Jon Rauhouse's set, he introduced his band, including his stand-up bass player from Salt Lake City, whom he said has three wives. While Rauhouse apologizingly said that he couldn't let that one pass, I said, "I saw the fourth one at the bar, and you better sneak out the back", which broke up the band. (When Rauhouse smiles, he looks a lot like Gary Busey as Buddy Holly.) They put on a solid set with the steel guitar virtuoso mixing it up with his band of electric guitar, stand-up and drums with an occasional female vocalist adding just the right touches. No, it wasn't Neko Case, who sings on Rauhouse's albums, but she was really good. The band played some classic TV themes, surf instrumentals, country jams, swing, even a torch song. They were well-worth catching.

Old 97's came out, and even though their last album has some quieter songs, they tore through everything. It definitely wasn't a quiet show.
Main man Rhett Miller was all over the stage, dancing like Ray Bolger (the Scarecrow) in "The Wizard of Oz". Bassist Murry Hammond reminded me of a young Henry Fonda and had a fond penchant for holding his bass up and playing it almost as if he was shooting a rifle. Lead guitarist Ken Bethea wasn't too expressive most of the show, looking like he was actually at work, but when he sang his "Chicken Ravioli" song, he really lightened up, and after the last song, he stayed out the longest and even blew the crowd a kiss. Drummer Philip Peeples was further away than the others, but he was rock-solid, and counted the beginning to almost every song smacking his sticks together.

After a stirring version of "Bloomington", there was just the slightest pause for me to yell out to Miller, "Which Bloomington?" He shook his head, and laughed back, "Which Springfield?" So I guess that means you're right again, LT.

They came out for two encores, which were even more pumped-up than the rest. I counted in total 28 songs, including about half from each of the last two albums, so that meant they did a few I hadn't heard before. I guess the actual highlight was when Miller came out by himself at the start of the first encore with just his acoustic, so I thought we were finally going to hear some quieter songs. Didn't happen. Instead, he blasted into some of their oldies with some of the fastest strumming I've seen, and wobbling back and forth in his crazy dance moves where he seems like he's just got to fall over, but never does. The rest of the band came out and you could tell they ad-libbed the rest of the encores because Miller was running around the stage telling everybody what they were going to play just before each song.

My wife liked the whole show, but I think she really likes Rhett Miller now. We had a great anniversary, and drove home with the moon roof open. By the time we got home, the ringing in our ears was beginning to subside. Later, Gators.

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Originally posted by mark f:
After a stirring version of "Bloomington", there was just the slightest pause for me to yell out to Miller, "Which Bloomington?" He shook his head, and laughed back, "Which Springfield?" So I guess that means you're right again, LT.

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Great concert report, mark.

The fact that you remembered to ask would be great enough, but Miller's response absolutely makes the story, and my day. Thanks!

What mad my day yesterday was coming across a flier for anouncing an evening with Neil Innes and Jon Langford produced by Lafayette, Indiana's Friends of Bob. That is going to be a weird and wonderful double-bill and you can bet I plan to be there.

Now Playing: "T.T.T.T. (Twelve Tone Tune Two)" Bill Evans The Complete Fantasy Recordings (1973-1980) (Fantasy)

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Originally posted by robot:
has anyone seen Mum live? Dont if you havent. They arent very good live at all. They pay no attention to the audience and do nothing entertaining. if you want to see a band just play instruments and do nothing to keep you interested, I recommend them.

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i have seen mum live, in July, and they were pretty much great. the sound was great, the performance was somewhat different from the records, and the drummer tore it up on a couple occasions (which sounded great with the programmed beats). So basically, if you were hoping for a "rock show" this would be dissapointing, becuase for most of the hour plus that they played, they definitely transcended that. If someone likes them, i couldn't recommend the show highly enough.

I just had a back-to-back concert experience, both nights at Modified in Phoenix. First was the all-of-a-sudden-totally-despised Travis Morrison, with two local bands opening (both of which were pretty good). So, Travis brought no guitars with him, just three synths and a percussionist and a drummer. They were pretty tight as a band, and Travis' voice was (as always) amazing. The crowd was sad, maybe 30 people there, and there were only two people who actually danced and a handful (like me) who groved and got into it but didn't bust out. It got a little cheezzzy once or twice (goofy covers will do that), but all in all, it was fairly impressive, despite the fact i would choose the dismemberment plan (his old band) over travis solo everytime.

the next night was John Vanderslice. I attended his in-store, which was a little bit underdone, just him and an acoustic is not really enough to give his songs the life they have on record. But man, that night he and his band were amazing. Multiple times they went off into small jams and Scott Solter absolutely destroyed with his amazing keyboard noises. The whole band was all smiles, you could tell that they were stepping out a few times into uncharted territory for them, and to me, that's exactly what a live band should do. This show was probably one of the best I've seen in sometime; they were just plain awesome.

So, mum, travis morrison, and john vanderslice: if you dig the cd's, you NEED to check out the shows.