Concert Reviews Archives
« Page 9 of 11 »
I am the first person to admit that the last Bunnymen show in D.C. was underwhelming. It never got its legs and took off. Last night was much different. Maybe it was the crazy weather outside. Maybe it was the late start time (Jeebus, I'm old) but last night was everything the previous show was not. The Bunnies ripped through a set that focused mostly on their vast catalog, so much so, that I was actually disappointed not to hear more from Siberia, but I will stop short of complaining. "The Cutter" was to die for. And the transition form "Scissors In the Sand" right into "All That Jazz" was just incredible. Yes, I'm gushing. But hey, the Bunnies were in fine form last night. They are quickly rocketing up the Favorite Band Ever list for yours truly. Will Sargeant is just amazing. I could watch and listen to him play guitar all day, every day. Mac was in typical proto-Liam form. He was just oozing cool in every direction.
Going Up / Show of Strength / Stormy Weather / Seven Seas / Bring on the Dancing Horses / The Disease / Scissors in the Sand / All That Jazz / The Back of Love / All My Colours (Zimbo) / The Killing Moon / Do It Clean / Never Stop / Villiers Terrace(Roadhouse Blues) / Rescue / The Cutter / Nothing Lasts Forever(Walk on the Wild Side) // Lips Like Sugar // Ocean Rain
More pics here. I could not get a decent shot of Ian to save my life.
Boy Kills Boy were the definition of 'meh.' If Maximo Park sucked, they would sound like Boy Kill Boy.
Here's another MP3 for everyone, and oldie but goodie.
Echo & the Bunneymen | Never Stop (MP3) - This is live from Sun Plaza Hall in Tokyo, Japan on Jan. 17th, 1984. It rules.
Sonic Youth were teh awesome last night. Jeezy Creezy. I had a very bad day yesterday and was in no mood to see a show but they, along with spunky youngsters Be Your Own Pet, turned that around real quicklike. I'm not a huge SY fan, I don't even own a single album of theirs (bye bye cool points!), but I enjoy seeing them in concert. Last night was undoubtedly the best show I've ever seen them do. BYOP were great as well. So full of energy. They only have one gear, full speed ahead, but they know how to use it.
I have pics and a review over at DCist. See all my photos from last night at Flickr.
PS - Mark Ibold! Best.
Sweet. [thanks Ms. Smith]
Sorry for the lack of updates this week. I have a supermega important project at work that has to be done on Monday. I suspect I'll be spending most of my weekend staring at my office walls.
My new co-worker gave me his extra ticket to go see The Strokes last night. The show was good (not great) and confirmed most of my opinions about the band. First Impressions of Earth has a few good songs but most of it is cheezy metal solos (that don't sound any better in a live setting under rows and rows of strobe lights). Is This It is a classic but for my money Room On Fire is where it's at. Dceiver has a full review that's much more fun to read than mine was over at DCist.
I might be interviewing John Vanderslice for DCist tomorrow or Saturday. Stay tuned.
I wish I had the time to do a proper review of last night's Billy Bragg show. It was brilliant. Brilliant and weird. Brilliant because it's the fucking Bard of Barking belting it out about 10 feet from where I was sitting, playing a wealth of old stuff, some new stuff and talking about Morrissey, the Magna Carta and everything (and I mean everything) in between. Weird because the Birchmere is a strange venue. It's disturbing when you're watching a show, sitting down, with the odor of BBQ chicken and pulled pork wafting through the air. Even moreso when you are likely the youngest person in the room.
Bragg was in top form (apparently his voice has been pretty ragged on this tour, but not last night) and any night that you can hear "The Milkman of Human Kindness" and "A New England" is a good one. And again, even moreso when he plays the entirity of Life's A Riot With Spy vs. Spy as the encore. Best.
Billy holds a special place in my heart (as if you can't tell). Old friend Ed Bellafiore got me into him when we did our college radio show together in the mid to late 90's and when I was interning at Epic Records, I made the shrewdest trade of my music career when I sent Mike DePippa the entire Ozzy Osbourne catalog in exchange for the entire Billy Bragg catalog. Hearing Bragg's first three albums (now packaged together as a box set) really reminds me of my first few years in New York, listening to those songs on mix cassettes I made for my walkman and later, my mini disc player as I walked all over the city. Billy Bragg, so necessary.
One of the highlights of last night's gig was a rendition of "Tank Park Salute", which was a request from a fan that came to the gig from Juno Juneau, Alaska. Like Woah. Here is the album version:
Billy Bragg | Tank Park Salute (MP3)
Also, here's a live version of Billy doing "Milkman":
Billy Bragg | The Milkman of Human Kindness (live) (MP3)
Here's a free Billy Bragg download from Billy's official site.
CNN interviews Billy [via a vacationing, but ever vigilant Chromewaves]
Bradley's Almanac has Billy's Boston show available for downloading.
No photos due to the venue's stupid no camera policy (which really is too bad because I had a great line for pictures).Oh, I almost forgot...what are you doing on April 8th?
Friday night.
Nethers, Cedars and Bicycle Thieves at the 930 Club.
Three great local acts, all putting on great shows and nary a "The" to be had.
As if the show itself wasn't exciting enough, I was also eager to give my camera another work out at the 930, the lighting there is fantastic and I hadn't been back since seeing the Super Furries a few months ago.
First up were Nethers, the one band on the bill that I wasn't that familiar with. They were formerly The Carlsonics but they broke up a year or two ago, changed their sound up and reformed as Nethers. I almost skipped seeing them and boy am I glad I didn't. Nethers is a weird hybrid of folk and shoegazer/drone rock. And by weird, I mean incredible. At times they sounded like Luna, other times like Mazzy Star and others like Sonic Youth if they went folk. It's nice to go see a band that doesn't churn out your typical indie-rock and Nethers fit the bill nicely. The lead singer was just incredible. She belted out every tune with great charisma and passion. I couldn't take my eyes off of her. I liked their set so much I bought a CD after the show, something I haven't done in ages. I enjoyed them the most out of all the bands and can't wait for their next show in DC (part of their national tour *hint hint*).
Download: Nethers | Hung Herself In A Birdcage (MP3)
That last remark shouldn't be taken lightly because Cedars played the best show I've ever seen them play on Friday. Their new material breaks new ground for the group. The songs were really energetic; just leaping out of the speakers. The band has come a long way since I saw them at DC9 last March. They were trying out a new guitarist who used to be in Phaser and he added a definite rock element to the songs which is a welcome plus, because their live sound has been lacking a bit since Mark left the band. "Fleets" still needs some work but these guys are definitely headed in the right direction. Again, they looked like they belonged up there on the 930 stage.
Download: Cedars | Lo-fi (MP3)
Bicycle Thieves definitely drew a big crowd and had everyone signing along and dancing before the night was done. John Kaplan is an amazing songwriter. He has hooks for days and knows how to use them. They've also added an extra guitarist since I've seen them last and as a result, their live show is much beefier. They don't gig around town as much as many of the other local acts but strangely, this doesn't seem to work against them. It seems like people always make time to see them because they know they won't be playing again for a few months. But by the number of new tunes the band played, it seems like they've been practicing alot lately.
Go here to download some tracks by Bicycle Thieves. "Loser of the Year" is highly recommended.
I got some amazing pictures of all three bands which I highly recommend you check out over at Flickr.
On Friday night, I dragged The Smith to my office's Xmas party to take advantage of the open bar and free food before we headed over to Bliss and Annie at the Black Cat. I was also hoping to score one of the corporate giveaways that are the highlight of the party (last year I won a $100 gift card to Borders) but that was not to be. So after quite a few G & T's and some champagna, we headed across town to catch the show. Unfortunately, we had to check our coats, which took over 30 minutes and caused us to miss Annie's first two songs. But once we were settled, we made our way up front and I got a nice vantage point in front of the speakers, stage right.
Annie tried her best but her stage presence is sincerely lacking. I don't mean to nitpick, but as my photos can attest, she doesn't really know what to do on stage yet. I'm sure she'll improve, but she has a ways to go. She spent the show behind the mic stand, only venturing out from behind it a few times. But she can sing, the songs sounded great and she's hella cute, so it's not all bad. I had alot of fun at the gig and it seemed like everyone else there did too. It was a pop show and everyone behaved as such, singing along and dancing, which is very unusual for the normally stoic DC crowd. We grabbed another drink after the gig and then waited another 20 minutes to get our coats back. The Black Cat needs to step up their coat check game, it's seriously lacking right now.
Head over to Flickr to see all of pictures of Annie at the Black Cat. Some of them look really amazing. I'm really loving my new camera. Props to the Black Cat for finally turning up the lights on stage so I can get a decent photo.
I took it easy on Saturday. I finally went and saw the Andy Warhol exhibit at the Corcoran and then caught the Harry Potter movie later that night, which i really enjoyed. I heart Alan Rickman, he's so best. This was the first Potter movie that made me want to go read the book, probably because it differed from the first three movies, which all seemed to follow the same basic story outline.
How about Sean Dockery? He totally got Shelden Williams off the hook last night. The Landlord missed the front end of a 1 and 1 that would have sealed the game and then didn't block out on the ensuing posession and let Virginia Tech get a tip-in to take the lead with 1.6 seconds left. When the shot left Dockery's hands, I thought it had a chance but I didn't seriously think it would go in. Josh McRoberts pass set everything up, so he deserves his propers too.
David Garrard makes me look good and the Panthers finally beat Mike Vick. I'm going to beat this Garrard thing into the ground, so be warned. There are only like four successful alumni from ECU out there, so I'm flying the flag while I can.
The Yankees lost anywhere from $50 to $85 million last year.
Sorry for the late update today. I have alot going on right now, but more on that later.
I had an incredibly fun, if not completely exhausting weekend. The highlights:
Bunnymen - Didn't quite reach the heights of the show I saw in Lancaster, PA but it came close. I think Will Sergeant is officially my favorite guitar player ever, he was on fire during the show. The new stuff sounded superb. The band was a bit subdued, but the crowd went apeshit when the break came in during "The Cutter". A great show all around. See my craptastic photos here.
Bluestate - We had what might have been our most enthusiastic crowd ever on Saturday night. I was feeling really under the weather all day on Saturday but I pulled it together in time for the gig and felt much better once the music started. I stayed away from the booze and DJ'ed in my scarf. It's the new style. I had a revelation during the day that I had yet to play "Peter Piper" at the Black Cat, so I dropped that in right after I played The Supremes and there wasn't even room to move on the dance floor. Also, I played Prince and the kiddies didn't clear the floor. Bonus. Peep the set lists and photos.
Chicago - I didn't get to see much of it during the 36 hours that I was there, but I loved what I did see. Chi-town has a very NYC feel. Catherine lives like 6 blocks from Wrigley and that whole area is filled with great restaurants and bars. We popped down to the John Hancock building and had a drink there and took in some of downtown. We met up with DCSOBLOOP* for dinner around 6:30, pounded some Red Bull and then went to the gig. Matt, fresh off the train back from St. Louis, had no problem finding us inside and then right before the Furries went on L Boogie appeared out of thin air. The Furries didn't disappoint and a good time was had by all. We didn't hang out very long after the gig since it was a school night for Catherine and BLOOP. But I did go say bye to the guys and thank them for taking care of me on yet another US tour. Apologies to all the people that emailed me wanting to meet up at the gig. Maybe next time.
* term coined by Pyg in a Blanket. Respect.
Oi. Finally back at home and settled after a crazy weekend. I got about 10 hours sleep last night and I still feel like I'm behind. But enough of my bitching.
The Chapel Hill show was the best show I saw during my trek, with Norfolk a close second and DC a distant third. The band switched things up by putting "Something 4 The Weekend" after Golden Retriever and added "Frequency!" and "Hello Sunshine" back in. This really fixed any problems there were with the pacing of the set. It all flows really well and keeps everyone entertained. The sound at the venue was really boom-y on the low end and this lent all the songs a more rockin' feel. Best of all, since I didn't have to drive anywhere after the gig, I actually had the chance to get drunk, and boy did I ever. L Boogie was all like "Wow, now I've seen drunk leafblower!" By the time the bus left at 2:30, I was wayhasted. Hanging with Miss Boogie, Johnny English and Mike Grass definitely added to the vibe as well. A fun time was had by all I think. I also got to stay at the new casa de English/Boogie, which was approximately 437 times bigger than their former DC townhouse. And their old townhouse in DC wasn't exactly tiny. It looks like life down south is agreeing with them both, which is great to see, even if I still miss hanging with them here in DC.
Best bit of the night:
Me: (Drunkenly) Dammit Bunf! You didn't even sing the backing vocals on "Ohio Heat" tonight!
Bunf: Oh for fuck's sake. I knew you were going to say that.
I've been bugging him since DC that he wasn't singing backing vocals loud enough for my tastes. He said he had a chest cold so he can't sing as loud as he usually does. The whole bit had become something of a running joke. Just playing my part.
Another treat in Chapel Hill was an extended version of "Calimero" that had a breakdown in the middle before ramping up again at the end. It was sweet. "Laser Beam" was really working for me live too. More fun was had backstage after the gig. The band took turns DJing and I took turns drinking all of their beer. The "backstage" area at the Cat's Cradle is pretty small, the complete opposite of the opulence the band enjoyed in Norfolk.
Here are my pictures from the Super Furry Animals show in Chapel Hill on Flickr. Here is the setlist from Chapel Hill and the setlist from Norva.
Onward to Chicago next Sunday!
Only 105 people at the Norva last night. While that's a bad thing for the band's checkbook, it's a good thing for L Boogie and myself. I got right up front and took 158 photos. The band changed the set up a bit, dropping "Hello Sunshine", "Frequency" and "Something 4 the Weekend" but added "Golden Retriever" and played it early, which worked much better. The small crowd last night was actually much more into it than the DC crowd was on Tuesday, so the place didn't feel as empty as it actually was. The Norva was probably the nicest midsize venue I've ever been to. Think the Bowery Ballroom is it was a tad bigger and had three levels. The backstage area was twice the size of my apartment. It had five huge rooms and included a hot tub and sauna. It was easily the nicest accommodations I've ever seen at a venue.
I got some amazing pictures last night. Take a look at my pictures of the Super Furry Animals at Norva in Flickr.
Chapel Hill tonight. We'll be rolling deep with Mike Grass and Johnny English in tow. Full report (and hopefully the much talked about interview) to come.
Despite purposely not drinking too much, last night was mental. But that's not a bad thing.
I went to the venue about 7 o'clock because I had to make sure my spot on the guest list was secured. I went and knocked on the door of the tour bus and the tour manager let me on. Daf was half asleep on the couch in the front of the bus and as soon as saw me, he jumped right up and gave me a big hug. I'm always nervous to go intrude on the tour bus but the band always seems genuinely happy to see me and as soon as we start chatting and catching up, that all goes out the window. It's an awesome feeling.
Once that was sorted, I met up with L Boogie and she came with me back to my place because I left my camera battery in my charger at home. When we got back into the city, we headed to DC9 and met up with Jillian, Randi and Randi's friend Andrew. We had a few beers over there and headed to the venue at 9:30 where we met up with Gl*mrocker and Mike Grass.
The band went on promptly at 10 p.m. and played a great set. I will hopefully get my shit together and have a review up on DCist at some point today. About the show, yes, it lags in the beginning. I spoke to the guys about it after the show and they're aware of it. They're still working out some kinks and are gonna change things up a bit at future shows. But the new stuff sounded amazing (if only a bit too laid back). Once they got to "Slow Life" the set really picked up and took off. And I finally got to watch a show from the VIP balcony/dressing room at the 930, so that was cool. While I was up there I could see all the things Cian does during the set, which is very hard to see from the floor. He was either fiddling with his laptop or his keyboard the entire time, either playing a melody or setting up stuff for the next song. He's one busy dude.
After the gig the band eventually made their way downstairs to the bar in the bottom of the club and we hung out there until the bar kicked us out at last call. I love seeing SFA play live but I like hanging out with them and just chatting after the gig even more. And since I hadn't seen the guys since Feb. of '04, we had lots of catching up to do.
The best bit of the night was when Bunf mentioned the gigs they did opening for Oasis over the summer:
Me: Shit, I totally forgot about those! How were they?
Bunf: Fookin' great man. Why didn't you come over for that show? I had a ticket for you and everything. As soon as we booked that show, I said to myself "Kyle is definitely coming over for this show."
Me: (mouth totally on the floor, speechless) Are you serious? FUCK!
I had a bluestate gig that weekend and really couldn't afford to go, but damn, now I wish I would have. I also asked Gruff about those gigs and he said Oasis "treated them like kings", gave them full use of the video screens at the show and things like that. Gruff also told me the band turned down an opening slot at the shows Oasis did in Loch Lomond in 1996. That's insane. 80,000 people went to those shows. I was stunned, but the way Gruff explained it, it made sense. He said they were happy to finally be able to do a show with Oasis.
The second best bit of the night was when Daf asked Mike if he was Latvian. He is. I have no idea how Daf knew that.
I also talked to Dav and Bunf at length about the band's future plans, which could be both depressing and very exciting at the same time, and the much rumoured "techno album". I'm not sure what I can reveal about that right now (I don't want to betray any confidences) but I'm going to be interviewing some of the guys later this week so I'll see if they'll go on record about it then. Bunf said the venue in Norfolk has a hot tub in the back stage area and he insists on doing his interview in there, so we'll see if that happens or not. Hehehe.
And before anyone freaks out about the previous paragraph, Daf looked me right in the eye and said, "I've been in this band for 11 years and I'm fucking ready for the next 11." So it's all good fellow Furry fans. I'm spacing on a ton of funny stuff that happened last night. More later if I think of it.
Here are my Super Furry Animals pictures on Flickr. Because of their glow-in-the-dark track suits, the lighting wasn't optimal, but I still got a few keepers.
Recent Comments