Hey S, your link doesn't work. No matter, I googled them and got a taste. They are alright, but they probably sound better live. Judging from the pictures I saw on the site, they are very hot.

The link works fine now, if you're interested!

I can definately vouch that they come across with more energy and passion live! Thanks for fixing my link Mark!

quote:

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Originally posted by HellaHellaHella:
Arcade Fire Jan 14th in San Francisco was the best show i have ever been to.

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i went on the 13th and it was good stuff. they come as advertised live. they passed out flashlights and lots of people also brought them (i guess i'm not cool enough to get these updates), and during the encores, the lights were mostly off except for people shining flashlights all over the ceiling and whatnot. pretty cool.

i also saw david dondero on wednesday. i love the banter, and of course, the music. so good.

Saw Scissor Sisters again last night. I am nursing quite the hangover as I write this on my second last day of work. This time they were at a venue over twice the size, The Commodore, with a capacity of around 1100. First off, not as good as the last time I saw them, but I think the crowd had something to do with it. There certainly weren't any weekend warriors or implants at the previous show, but they found there way to this one! They opened with Laura, which is a great tune, and excellent opener. Then got to hear a bunch of new songs, which all sounded a tad too disco-ish for my tastes. The soundman made a few mistakes at the beginning and the vocals were a bit too low. When they started into Comfortably Numb though, the show really picked up energy. Jake sang it much better than the first show, hitting all the BeeGee style high notes perfectly! From there on it was all good, especially the encore, where they played Take Your Mama back to back with Take Me Out! I did feel somewhat disappointed that they didn't play longer, but that was because at the last show the club didn't give them a ton of time and they stated that they would have liked to play longer. This time around, they had tons of time to play more but opted to bail out only 15 minutes later than they were forced to stop at the first show. Oh well, that's the danger of expectations!

We had Josh Martinez at the club last week. He was very good, he had a 3 piece band with him who he had excellent chemistry with. His interaction with the growd was great and they showed him lots of love. I know he's heading back southwards soon so check him out in your area!

Sneak Previews:

February 20: Five tickets for Camper Van Beethoven AND Cracker (Both Unplugged) at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano.

April 2: Five tickets for The Soundtrack of Our Lives/The Dears at the Avalon Hollywood.

My Cracker/Camper van Beethoven Unplugged show turned out to be just David Lowery and Johnny Hickman playing some new songs from Johnny's upcoming solo album before they teamed up for plenty of Cracker/CVB standards. I'd say personal highlights were "Low", "Teen Angst (What the World Needs Now)", "Take the Skinheads Bowling", "That Gum You Like is Back in Style" and an encore of "Pictures of Matchstick Men". I DID expect more band members, but once I realized that wasn't going to be, I was plenty happy with it. We sat (no standing this show) right next to the stage where the steps were, so we were up close and personal. When Lowery went into a long explanation about how "That Gum You Like is Back in Style" was about the War between the Theocracy of Texas and the Republic of California, but that it was really being waged by space aliens who were controlling the humans through the TV show "Twin Peaks", it got me laughing and firing off a few thoughts which got me looks from both guys but no comebacks. For an "unplugged" show, Johnny certainly got to show off his tremendous six-string technique which seemed like an inspired cross of BB King and Hendrix with some down home moonshine occasionally distilled in.

It was a great show, but my daughter was disappointed that they weren't selling any T-shirts, except for opening act Matt Costa, whose one man show was very good, consisting of his solid original songs, a well-played acoustic guitar and the occasional mouth harp.

I wonder if they've given up the full band thing because they've had the full band's equipment ripped off twice?

Seriously, I'd love to see the duo on Cracker/Camper stuff. I've seen several of the Camper shows and the Cracker/Camper full band shows, and they're always good, but the acoustic duo sounds really cool.

or are gonna see??


yessssssss.....

sasquatch festival...only a trip over the mountains.

I saw Antony and the Johnsons tonight at the World Café Live in Philly. I expected a little more, since "Fistful of Love" left me chomping at the bit for a full accompaniment. I was met with a guitarist/violinst, cellist, and Antony on piano, who tends to weave in-and-out of microphone range (think Ray Charles) while he wails. I recommend the show to fans, but anyone on the fence should probably stay away — the performance at least didn't diminish my opinion of I Am a Bird Now.

The opener, Shivaree, was more entertaing.

Next up: Archer Prewitt, March 3, at the same brilliant venue.

Went to see a decent show over the weekend.

Nick Luca Trio
Calexico (just john and joey and a trumpet player)
Jon Rauhouse with Tommy Connel, Kelly Hogan and the guys from Nick Luca and Calexico backing.

Nick Luca Trio- good set, although not great. He adds a lot to many albums recorded in Tucson, is a great session player, but is not the best songwriter to me.

Calexico- Great set. They played a few songs I have not heard before, and it was cool to see them without a full band.

Jon Rauhouse- Also excellent. He is a great pedal steel player, as well as Banjo. Surprisingly, considering his instruments, he played almost no country, focusing more on hula music, and backing Kelly Hogan on great torch songs. She has a wonderful voice. All of the musicians seemed to have a great time, as this was clearly a get together and jam kind of night. Very fun in a small club where you could actually get up close and personal with the musicians.

On Monday night I saw The Futureheads here at Richards on Richards, one of my favorite local clubs, a two-leveler with a decent sized dance floor that holds a little over 400 capacity. Missed the first band, and the second band wasn't my cup o' tea. The Futureheads however kicked ass! This band is for real, they have the best written songs of any of the "hype" bands of the last few years (well, perhaps tied with The Libertines) and their Kate Bush cover slays! They all sing and the harmonies are tight from an obviously large amount of rehearsing. They bantered well with the crowd, if you could understand them through the heavy Suffolk accents! They played their entire song catalogue, starting with the album opener Le Garage. The third song in the set was Robot, the second song from the album, which is not one of my favorites, but live it was a revelation! I really dig these guys, they worked incredibly hard onstage, I overheard some girls who were right up front complaining about all the sweat flying off the band and onto the crowd! That is rock and roll!
Anyways, The Futureheads rock my world, if you get a chance, see them now before they are playing much larger venues!
Also, shirts and cd's were quite reasonably priced, and they all signed my cd!

Sweet Merciful Crap: A look at my April and early May itinerary.

Wed, April 6: Joseph Arthur
Sat, April 9: M. Ward
Sun, April 10: Josh Rouse
Fri, April 15: Buck 65 (Moby headlines)
Sat, April 16: M83 (likely to be missed)
Fri, April 22: Matt Sweeney & Bonnie 'Prince' Billy (for which I'm missing Dizzee Rascal, whom I saw in D.C. with The Streets last July)
Fri, April 29: Death from Above 1979
Thu, May 5: Decemberists
Sat, May 7: Junior Boys (Caribou opens; also likely to be missed)

went to a qotsa concert on mar 30... best band in the world. they just played nonstop, none of this talking to the audience too much, or doing stupid antics on stage... just loud, intense rock. and they played stuff from their self-titled right up to Lullabies. and i didn't notice any difference with the absence of nick. one of my favourite bands before, and the concert just made them all the better... the only bad part of the concert was the opening band, Throw Rag. one of the worst "punk" bands i've ever heard. but qotsa more than made up for it.

Dizzee Rascal last night. The man rocks! I felt like starting a mosh pit at several points during the show! He came out while the stage was blacked out, then started into Sitting Here while sitting on the stage. One hype man, his dj and himself was all he needed. The lighting tech did a great job considering the mostly empty stage. The soundperson screwed up a couple of times though, forcing him to restart songs on two occasions. The show did suffer a bit from the famously apathetic Vancouver crowd, but the people up front and those singing along did their best to make him feel welcome. He sounds identical live to his recordings, and his flow is impeccable. Unfortunately, he had dj's opening which I think sapped some of the energy from the crowd, hopefully in the future he'll bring some other rappers along with him on tour. All in all, everything that was under Dizzee's control was flawless, and I highly recommend checking him out when he hits your city!

quote:

Originally posted by Smenkharon:
The soundperson screwed up a couple of times though, forcing him to restart songs on two occasions. The show did suffer a bit from the famously apathetic Vancouver crowd, but the people up front and those singing along did their best to make him feel welcome. He sounds identical live to his recordings, and his flow is impeccable. Unfortunately, he had dj's opening which I think sapped some of the energy from the crowd, hopefully in the future he'll bring some other rappers along with him on tour. All in all, everything that was under Dizzee's control was flawless, and I highly recommend checking him out when he hits your city!

I saw him open for The Streets in D.C. last July. A fantastic show. And the same problems with the sound; I'd guess the first four or five songs were ruined by bass levels that weren't appropriate for a folk act. The Streets were better: live drummer, guitarist and a guy I couldn't see I assume was on keys. I don't remember much more than that from all the 8% IPAs, but both were incredible.

I think. This seems to be a recurring theme.

Last night, my wife, daughter, two close friends and I went to see The Soundtrack of Our Lives and the Dears at the Avalon Hollywood. I'd been to that club (then called the Palace) a few times in the early '80s, most notably for Dave Edmunds.

We went right up to the front of the stage, but this was a little different than my local clubs. They have a four-foot-high iron grate fence about five feet from the actual stage, so unless you're with the crew or press, you can't get any closer.

The Dears were really good. They played pop-rock, funky stuff and some psychedelia. Their lead singer is very charismatic and soulful, plus they have TWO sexy female keyboardists. I'm going to have to pick up their last album which I believe got a pretty good Metascore.

TSOOL started with their new "Transcendental Suicide" and things pretty much launched into outer space from there on. They played a pretty equal amount of songs from all four of their albums. Two of my favorite songs at the show were ones I'd never even heard before: "Mantra Slider" and "The Homo Habilis Blues".

For a band with "no hooks and no energy", they sure faked out the sold-out crowd. This show reminded me of some of the classic rock and roll shows I saw in the '70s and '80s (Cheap Trick, Undertones, Replacements, Smiths.) This was BIG, LOUD and FUN. My family has been going to several concerts lately, but this is the first one where their ears are still ringing the next afternoon. But when they played some of their quieter songs ("I'm in Someone Else's Mind", "Song For the Others"), their lyrics were moving and the atmosphere was otherworldly.

Vocalist Ebbot Lundberg (my wife says of him, "He's hirsute and fat, so of course, I think he's sexy.") came out into the crowd to sing one song, and I was standing right where he came through the fence and where the mike wire had to be fed out, so I temporarily became a roadie, keeping the wire in the right place and away from people's feet. The other cool thing was that I bought my daughter their first CD and a T-Shirt and we got it autographed outside by the bass player. We stood around waiting for some other bandmembers to come out, but it didn't happen. I guess they were hangin' for the after-hours show.

Next up, the reunited Undertones (sans Feargal Sharkey) in three weeks at my local club.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: mark f,

I'm not sure how many members we have here who live close to the Capitol Records Building Hollywood (yeah, the one which got destroyed in The Day After Tomorrow), but The Soundtrack of Our Lives is doing a free acoustic concert/signing there on Friday at 6 PM, so my family, friends and I are gonna be there. Maybe we can meet you. One thing's for sure; the band is a lot more accessible and less pretentious than their critics!

This is not a reflection on TSOOL, but if anyone is planning to catch them tomorrow, forgive me. I guess I was so hypnotised by last Saturday's concert and walking out to be confronted by the Capitol Records Building, that my "brain" was hijacked. TSOOL is actually playing TOWER Records tomorrow, 8801 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood at 6 PM, FREE, acoustic and sigs. Sorry about that; we'll still all be there though!