Last Saturday (only a week ago, really?) I went to Studio B to see Cut Copy with Amy, Jess, and Alex. It was my first “real” concert in…a long time. Strange to think that in high school I had the stamina to go to a concert, say, more than once every two months, but now I kind of loathe the thought of staying out until my contacts adhere themselves to my eyeballs and potentially having to go to work the next day. (I’m going to see Caribou this Friday though. Excitement! Wee!)
The main reason I went to see Cut Copy, besides that I like their music, was because Amy asked me to. Alex was a last minute add-on when he said, “OHAI, I’m coming down from Vassar for the weekend just because!” He didn’t have a ticket, but all we had to do was wait outside in a line moving at the speed of a disabled sloth before he was allowed entrance. Our wait was enhanced by shivering fun!—neither of us had brought jackets so we could avoid checking them in. This was the first time I actually left everything at home (”home” being Tristan’s not-too-far-away apartment) aside from a few necessities I could cram into Alex’s pockets. After waiting forever to check my bag in the last time I went to Studio B, I didn’t want to relive the horror.
This also mean I couldn’t lug my dSLR with me, but sometimes it’s okay not to take photos. I guess. Also, Amy took plenty.
So…the concert. I’ve become increasingly horrible at being able to describe these things. Most of the songs they played appeared to be from their first album, Bright Like Neon Love, which worked for me because I hadn’t listened to their newest one, In Ghost Colours. I think I…danced. Just a tad. It’s a rare thing, to see me dancing because I’m too self-conscious and feel like an mal-coordinated idiot when I move in ways beyond walking/running/etc. The band was into it, and the screaming fans led me to believe that the crowd was too.
The only low points of the concert were 1) standing next to or behind super-tall people/hipsters when I am barely over 5 feet tall, but i guess it’s my fault for having crappy genes ill-adapted for going to concerts, 2) standing next to people who wouldn’t stop making out (when people are shouting at you to “get a room,” you know it’s not good), 3) when at least one girl attempted to crowd surf and failed, 4) when this one guy wouldn’t stop hitting on Amy even though she was obviously not interested, although not obvious enough for this guy because her personality does not include “acting like a bitch.” Dear people of the male persuasion: do not talk try to a girl WHILE THE CONCERT IS GOING ON, IT’S KIND OF AWKWARD.
…about 2 weeks ago? Really? I feel like it’s been much longer. But the photos I took are only 3 pages back in my flickr stream, so I guess they’re not that old.
still Becky
Ah, I know…time is slowing down as I approach the end. You know, death? Yeah. That’s why I feel like I’ve aged a few years since the concert. And soon time will stop completely. And I will know I have passed into the neeext woooorld.
Guess who this is!
But…that’ll take a while. Yeah. While I am living, I’m glad that people like Becky Stark exist to make fun bands with fun songs because it makes living a little more enjoyable. She wasn’t as shy as she was during the NYPL performance. She was still silly, but confidently so. It’s quite a difference. I especially liked it when while singing “You Broke My Heart” she pointed at various members of the audience as though they were the perpetrators.
I wonder if someone really did break her heart. …I suppose so or else she wouldn’t have written it. Is the song even sad? It it happy? I can’t tell. If Becky sang about livers being torn out of squirrels, it would probably still sound kind of happy. … …Yeah.
So, my concerting kinda seems over for the summer. Maybe I will go to a Pool Parties show, but man, Williamsburg is far from me at the moment. If I were less dumb, I would’ve seen Feist and Grizzly Bear. But no…I am full dumb. And sleepy. [eyelids droop]
Posting about a concert a week after I’ve gone to it is somewhat pointless. But I’m really lazy. So lazy that I sat in the balcony at the Peter Bjorn and John concert last Tuesday at Bowery Ballroom. I only sit in the balcony at the insistence of friends, but I was thankful that night to plop my bum down for a few hours and not have my nose squished against the back of an obscenely tall guy (because I almost always end up behind an obscenely tall guy) or suffer from “the nerve endings in my feet have died” syndrome.
crowd
I would have never known the show/crowd was so “bad” if I hadn’t read Brooklyn Vegan’s immediate response to the show. Hmmm. Um. Well, I didn’t go to the first two shows. I’d say that the Bowery show was a lot like the first time I saw them, except I was looking at the band from a different angle. I must be one of those people most other people hate—the kind that doesn’t dance (a rock could dance better than me) or seemingly move to any kind of beat. I sat quietly and still the entire time while staring at the band. That’s how I soak it in. Don’t like it? Eh.
You can download live mp3s from ryspace (plus a few more). I wasn’t annoyed at all by Bjorn’s memory lapse during Amsterdam. It may have bothered me if another artist did it, but Bjorn…nah. They played my favorite songs (The Chills, Up Against the Wall…oh, and that really popular single I overheard someone whistle the other day. Over and over again and over again. DO NOT WHISTLE THE SONG, YOU WILL ONLY KILL IT) and they looked happy while doing it. More people were talking during the show than I would’ve liked, but you can’t do much about that. The show was enjoyable and I left feeling tired and satisfied.
snow?
…And cold. It’s snowing? W-T-F? Ah well, it made the otherwise gloomy Bowery look a bit prettier.
Annnnd thus I am inspired to write about the PB&J concert I went to nearly two weeks ago. (I’ve been a bit busy/lazy lately. It’s finals week and I somehow need to not fail things while say goodbye to people and eat as much in Paris as possible and buy a million gifts and blah blah blah, not that I’m complaining or anything considering that when I walk out of my apartment and turn left I have a full-on view of the Eiffel Tower.)
I disappointingly took very few trips for someone who is studying abroad for one semester, but I managed to plan a weekend trip to London that coincided with the concert. Which was great because there were no concerts I wanted to go to in Paris (or by the time I found out I wanted to go, it was too late).
twinkly
After wandering around under the depressingly early sun-less sky, I met up with my awesome host/longtime Internet friend Leanne, ate a burger for the first time in months, and we both made our way through the chilly weather to ULU.
Peter
Standing in the venue was the most New York City-esque experience I had since leaving NYC. Being squished up against the stage reminded me of the Bowery Ballroom, except…smaller. With additional legal cigarette smoke. And with everyone speaking English.
Bjorn, Peter
I was most struck by how differently they played their songs live as opposed to on the album. Not that they replaced their instruments with chainsaws or anything like that, but…ye know, more noticably different than live performances of other live artists. Either I was really tired, or they made some of their songs longer. Or maybe some songs just feel long, like one of my favorites:
It feels endless to me, but it’s only 3 minutes and 50 seconds long. Uh. Maybe it’s just my inherent lethargy.
Victoria, Peter
Victoria Bergsman came out in some ridiculously cute purple dress + vest outfit (you will rarely ever hear me comment on people’s clothing; I usually don’t give a crap) to sing her part for “Young Folks” while Peter did some furious shaker shaking. This song was obviously everyone’s favorite song.
Bjorn, John
Oh yeah, there are other members of the band; I just didn’t get good photos of them. Although Peter and Bjorn did the most talking, John did randomly get a few words in, which were somehow the only words that stuck in my head. He mentioned that the band usually ate Thai food, but went for Japanese food that night instead, consisting of some fish on rice thing. I didn’t get the impression from his nonchalant manner that he was trying to be funny; there was just…something funny about it. The randomness.
The setlist went something like:
* Let’s Call It Off
* See Through
* The Chills
* Paris 2004
* Far Away, By My Size
* Start to Melt
* Big Black Coffin
* Amsterdam
* Young Folks
* Objects of My Affection
* Up Against the Wall
…not including the possibly 4 songs during the encore.
I know this is one of the least enthusiastic reviews one could possibly write, but I really did enjoy the concert aside from the subsequent stench of smoke in my clothing. That night I ended up going to sleep much earlier than usual if it’s any testament to my tired-ness.
I think $15 is alright for their Mercury Lounge show. WHY MUST YOU WHINE? The London show was 10 pounds, aka almost $20. Yes, that exchange rate makes my eyes bleed too. The only souvenirs I brought back from London were four packs of biscuits and a Cadbury advent calendar.
— update-ish —
The Mercury Lounge shows seem to have sold out already. Oooops.
Kinzaza went to perhaps the best Kings of Convenience performance ever in St. Petersburg. Totally worth the 10 hour trip from Moscow? Yes. Read about it in her journal entry.
First the guys played in the club itself (well, it isn’t even a club, just a few large white tents with a restaurant arranged inside). However, Erlend & Eirik were obviously not prepared for a +30 C degrees at 10 pm in a North-West city, and after having played about 8 songs Eirik suggested leaving the tents and going to the beach nearby.
[…] Following my example, a lot of fans then surrounded Eirik and he had to stop, while Erlend went farther and sat on the sand not far from the water, and about 20 people sat around him in circle. First he we were talking for a while, then he played Röyksopp’s Remind Me and after that I suddenly said “Erlend, let’s sing something altogether! Maybe Homesick?” - “Ok, - he answered, - but not altogether, let’s do it you and me!”
[…] Don’t trust the name of the band - Erlend and Eirik can hardly behave as Kings or as superstars (who they are, in fact:). They’re just 2 simple guys, awfully nice and open to everyone. And they really made everyone happy that wonderful night.
Last night I impulsively went to Maxwell’s to see Midlake. I rarely go to concerts at the last minute…by myself…in Hoboken. But all those things had to be done. Besides, it was the last day for me to use my unlimited train ticket to Hoboken. Of course, there was also that nagging feeling in my gut that said “You want to see Midlake”, despite that I still don’t have any of their albums and have based my large interest in them in the handful of songs I’ve found on the Internet. The gut refuses to be ignored.
stage and bar
I hadn’t been to Maxwell’s before (years ago my mum would tell me that it’s a dangerous place and going there would spell my doom…and I think she still has that idea despite that I told her, “I think it’s different now; they have Coldstone and Panera Bread, and I didn’t get mugged”) so I didn’t know how small the performance area was. Well. It’s small. And intimate. There are steps to sit on along one side of the room. I like it.
Midlake
Midlake started with “Van Occupanther” while an animated movie starring the yellow dude on their album cover played in the background. Odd, but a good odd. The movie for “Bandits” was more straightforward, featuring a bunch of robbers invading a rich guy’s home and then getting beat up, or beating each other up in addition to running through tunnels. You have to see it for yourself though because my description is horrible and makes it sound like a weird action movie when it’s…not.
Midlake
Clips of period films provided a perfect backdrop to their songs. Don’t ask me how; it just worked. One of my favorites, “Young Bride”, has it’s own movie-like video that adds to the song’s beauty:
It has a slow, natural and graceful feel to it that puts me at ease, as opposed to thinking, “GO FASTER, DAMMIT.” I think the high lilting level of the song gets to me. Enters my brain. Makes it gooey. It’s a nice feeling–you should try it. Tim Smith’s voice gives me the feeling of softly fluffy clouds and Thom Yorke. What does that mean? A happier, softer Thom? Of course, that’s just my opinion and it probably doesn’t make much sense to anyone else. (For instance, if soft fluffy clouds attacked you as a child, you wouldn’t find them very comforting.)
They played for about 45 minutes before clearing the stage of their mountains of equipment for Cold War Kids. I wish they played longer, but there isn’t much you can do about that when you’re first to play out of three bands. Or perhaps I could learn to make time bend to my will. Yes, that’s it. Opening bands I like will play longer and I will convert 4 hours of sleep into 10 hours of sleep.
hand waving time
I didn’t know much about Cold War Kids, but I must’ve been one of the few as the room became more tightly packed and people, especially of the female persuasion, smooshed up front for an optimal view of the craziness going onstage. Quite the opposite of Midlake, the members of CWK spasmed around the small stage as much as they could while putting all their energy into the performance as sweat rolled down their faces (the bassist’s at least; like a leaky faucet, yes!) without missing a beat. While their music isn’t the kind I’d leisurely listen to (the kind being blues/soul/etc kind of rock, correct-me-if-I’m-wrong), they’re fun to watch live and even got me, the kind of person who’s nearly imcapable of coordinating body movements to any kind of meat, moving. Barely. But it still counts.
blur
They move around a lot, as you can see. Lots of smashing into one another, yet miraculously not resulting in any bodily harm. Like controlled haphazardness. Cool.
I left right before they were going to play their final song and before Sound Team could come on since I wanted to go home and rest for a smidge before repeating the next day’s life processes (and I mainly went for Midlake anyway). For a more detailed account of the Midlake/Cold War Kids experience, read Music Snobbery’s review.
The other title for this entry was “Endless sweating”, but that’s kind of gross.
endless people?
The sun didn’t keep people away from this week’s Pool Party with headliner Of Montreal. The other performers were Asobi Seksu, Irving and Enon. I was mainly interested in Asobi Seksu and Of Montreal, which left a lot of time in between to bake and unintentionally bathe myself in my own sweat.
makeshift pool
You could cool off in this accidental puddle (or the slip-n-slide in the back).
ice cream
Or by eating Ben & Jerry’s. I wouldn’t normally go for a small $3 cup of cookies and cream, but I wasn’t hungry for anything else. Besides liquids.
Asobi Seksu
Irving
I liked Asobi Seksu most out of the first three bands, but that’s probably because I’m most familiar with their music. I don’t have much to say about Irving or Enon besides that they played and…I watched. I’m just glad that no one died in a pool of their own sweat.
Of Montreal
The members of Of Montreal came out waving home-made flags before Kevin Barnes appeared in his stylin’ green miniskirt, ruffled red shirt and red high-heeled, thigh-high boots. Good lord. He changed outfits two more times during the show. Because he is just that awesome.
the sunglasses make sense, but the hat?
I don’t remember the setlist, but I remember them playing “Old People in the Cemetery” in particular because…it’s a song about old people in a cemetery. It’s funny, in case you haven’t heard it before. They played at least new song from their upcoming album…of course, I have no clue what it was. At some point Kevin pointed out that there was a fork on the wall. I liked that. (But why is there a fork on the wall?) The set ended with a cover of Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” for an encore.
Aside from the heat and feeling more like a sponge than a human, it was a fun day. The event seemed well organized to me, although I heard that there wasn’t enough water. (After the show there were definitely enough empty water bottles strewn about the pool floor to give someone who likes recycling a bit of moolah.) I’m pretty sure that the beer line wasn’t as scary as at the Bloc Party show, which resembled the DMV. On a bad day.
I got to McCarren pool yesterday at around 5:45 to see Mew. On the walk from the subway station, we ran into other concert-goers.
“Who are you here to see?” asked CJ innocently.
“Secret Machines and Bloc Party.”
“Annd…what about the opener?”
“Oh no, I don’t care about them.”
“WHAT, I’M GONNA RAISE SOME HELL!” At which point CJ’s eyes shot laser beams.
…Okay, the exchange didn’t happen exactly like that. But I could read CJ’s mind. Lasers, I say.
they’re so tiny
Mew came on at around 6:30 and proceeded to make some people very happy for the next…30 minutes. Yes, I know openers don’t get a lot of stage time, but it’s still a shame. The sound was surprisingly good. Jonas’s voice was as clear as on the album, but better since you could see where the sound was coming from. That little guy on stage, eyes closed, hair being wisped by the wind, standing almost perfectly still, but in a natural way, not rigid. Jonas would go from singing softly enough to put a baby to sleep (and looking like a sleeping baby at the same time) to opening his mouth to Totoro-like proportions and holding out a high note of other wordly pitch and clarity.
so..far…
The setlist:
* Circuitry of the Wolf
* Chinaberry Tree
* Amy I Wry? No
* 156 (or was it something else?)
* Special
* Comforting Sounds
Comforting Sounds is one of the first Mew songs I ever heard and is still one of my favorite songs out of…all songs. Beautiful enough to make me cry, if I felt like it. (No song has every actually made me cry, but sometimes you get the feeling. Yes? Especially when it’s live.) The music video is great:
The performance felt peaceful even while being surrounded by a bunch of tall average-sized people and craning my neck every now and then for a better view (overall, I thought the crowd was good. There were either a lot of Mew fans or a lot of Mew fans in-the-making). I can’t imagine what it must’ve been like at Hiro Ballroom in a dark room…hell, in a room. Since some of my friends had to leave early and I figured I already experienced the best part of the concert (for me, at least), I left as Secret Machines started to play. After I got home three hours later (important note: 1 hour isn’t enough time to get from the pool to catch a train in Hoboken), I’m still Mew-happy and feeding their songs into my brain.
On a random (but still Mew-related) note, after wondering who sang the other part in “Symmetry” (one of my favorite songs!…damn, there are a lot of “favorites”), but never actually looking it up, I found out that the source is a 13 year old Becky Jarrett. Her story is sweet:
When I was 11, I decided to get on a music chat line to talk to other Hanson fans (yes I use to like Hanson). I asked,” Does anyone listen to Hanson?” and I received a private message saying ” no, but what other music do you listen to?” Little did I know that it was the lead singer for the band Mew. We chatted for a while and exchanged email addresses so that we could keep in touch. I sent Jonas some videos of me singing and he decided that he wanted me to sing a song called “Symmetry” on their upcoming album. So of course I was so excited! My mom and I flew to Copenhagen, Denmark in July of 1999 (I was 13) to meet Mew and record “Symmetry”. It was such a great experience and all the guys were super nice!
Interesting way to find a vocalist, but it worked out. For some reason I didn’t think the singer was actually a young teenager, despite that she sounded like one. I may as well upload these songs too, eh?
You know, you should just buy Frengers. I love And The Glass Handed Kites, but not nearly as much as Frengers. God knows why it hasn’t been released in the US by now.
Mew may be touring in the US again this fall. Hopefully as headliners. I miss them already.
Judging from other people’s reactions, Mew’s show on Wednesday night was awesome. Not that I expected anything else. I figure that tomorrow’s show opening for Bloc Party will not be as awesome. It will most likely be shorter, sunnier, and hotter. But I’m still very muchly excited.
Dedicated Japanese Mew fan no snow rounded up lots of photos and reviews.
* Special
* Shelter….Swanky
* Am I Wry? No…156
* White Lips Kissed
* She Came Home for Christmas
* Apocalypso….Saviors of JAZZBALLET! (WHAT!?)
* Snow Brigade….Zookeepers Boy
* Louise Louisa
Encore:
* Comforting Sounds (AWESOME!)
“They actually were supposed to play SheSpider but Jonas told me that they were running too long (70+ minutes). ”
Girl 1: This music sounds tentacle-y.
Girl 2: Yeah, it makes me want calamari!
the human sea
Yesterday I checked out Yo La Tengo at the Propect Park Bandshell to watch them perform Sounds of the Sounds of Science, their instrumental score to a selection of Jean Painlevé’s short undersea documentaries. I had no idea what the films or music would be like, but figured…hey, it’s free, one of my friends is going, and there isn’t much point in going back home to NJ if I don’t have to. (And of course, I like Yo La Tengo. And sea life.) As the bandshell was completely packed, I guess lots of other people had similar ideas.
looks like tentacles?
While watching the films, you didn’t really notice the music. Or maybe that was just me. And by that I mean it went really well with the films–it certainly wouldn’t be the same without any accompanying music. You could also listen to the music by itself, but it makes more sense when seen with…jellyfish budding, octopuses mating, shrimp shedding, etc.
The audience sometimes cheered on the documentary subjects, most notably when the male seahorse painfully birthed babies from it’s engorged egg sac. “The Love Life of The Octopus” was also particularly freakish (cos ye know…they look a bit freaky), but also funny due to the fertilization process during which the male octopus hooks it spermy tentacle into the female’s respiratory cavity and just…leaves it there for a while. Let those eggs and sperm do their thing and voila, end up with a gajillion eggs linked together in a ghostly plant-like fashion.
I probably would’ve focused more on the music if I had sat closer within view of the band (we picked the last row figuring it’d be a good spot to view the film from), but I happily walked away with the message, “The sea is full of crazy-ass stuff.” Which is is. I wouldn’t otherwise think that looking at the development of nearly microsopic jellyfish or the countless undulating tentacles of sea urchins could be so interesting. It made my accomplishments feel highly insignificant; “Damn, I can’t reproduce by budding.” Seeing the survival instincts nature pre-wires into all organisms makes me wonder what’s up with humans (a highly eloquent and deep question). Of course, we’ve had to do many unnatural things to populate the whole world. May someday we can be ROBOTS!!!
…And thanks to Yo La Tengo and Jean Painlevé, now I want fried calamari.
—
Holy crap, it’s birthing time! (Also time to “dissect the male seahorse” and “show the embryos”. The music and film are beautiful. Thanks to John for taking this video:
As soon as the concert started, I thought, “I want to experience this every night. Foreverrrrr.”
…Okay, maybe not. I’m still half deaf, althought the feeling that cicadas are mating in my brain have died down. But is it worth it? Of course! I mean, not having cicadas literally mate in your brain, but the brain fuzz of going a little deaf. The Flaming Lips are worth a bit of bodily harm. You won’t endure much else during their concerts unless you get hit on the head by gigantic balloons too many times.
I’ve only been into The Flaming Lips since “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots”, but I’ve been lucky enough to have seen them three times by now. (Sure, if I were more obsessed I guess I’d see them more, but I’m not at the level where I need an intravenous Flaming Lips IV drip attached to my brain. I think.) When they played with Beck, I felt kind of bad for liking their set more than his. When I saw them properly at Roseland, I could hardly believe how awesome they were, unlike anything I had ever experienced before. I wanted everyone in the world to have the same experience. And I wanted to throw confetti at everyone’s faces like a madman.
setting up
The Flaming Lips set up their own equipment onstage. I’ll use that as a reason to like them more. It takes down a barrier between the audience and the artist. Also, it looks like they’regenuinely doing stuff while setting up the stage, as opposed to making us wait pointlessly while our legs turn to Jell-O. There’s no mysticism; “Yeah, we’re the Flaming Lips…I just need to tune this guitar. And blow smoke at you.”
time to begin…
But then the show begins. Crazy huge pink and yellow words blow up on the screen:
THE WORLD BEGINS AGAIN / AND IT WILL BE / GLORIOUS
It builds up. Excitement. Anticipation. For crazy glorious things. Like the stage might explode in blinding awesomeness. Or if not the stage, than the audience. Gonna ’splode. Not our corporeal bodies, but the other part. You know…that one…the part that feels floaty and full of joy. If you didn’t know you had that part, you would if you saw the Flaming Lips.
attack of the balloons
After the introduction doodad they played “Race for the Prize” and all hell broke loose. And by “hell” I mean bouncing balloons attacked the audience; they were like gigantic hyperactive puppies that wanted to play with us, except they only way they knew how to play was by running into our heads. A lot.
It was awesome. And of course, the performance doesn’t suffer at all while the madness is going on. Not a beat is missed. Scary.
confetti shower
Wayne utlized his sack of confetti, ecstatically throwing handfuls of it at the audience at the most confetti-worthy times. He also threw handfuls straight at Kilph (drummer). Really, straight at him. I thought it was funny. Hopefully Kilph didn’t end up with mouthfuls of confetti. I did notice at some point that he had a ridiculous amount of streamer-age tangled up in his drum sticks. There were probably a few points where roadies (dressed up as Jesus) had to gather up piles of streamers to clear the stage a smidgen…
happy stage people
Unlike previous tours where there were people dressed up as bunnies, fish, owls, and god knows what else, this time people were dressed as Jesus, aliens, Santa, and…god knows what else. I prefer the animals, but these costumes must be less deathly in the “how likely is this going to suffocate me?” department. (To clarify, a few lucky people at each show get to boogie on-stage while waving around lights and whatnot. I think many times enthusiastic fans get to do this, although it’s harder in NYC since…well, there’s a lot of people and the band doesn’t have to pick up as many random people to be on-stage. If you went to a concert in a smaller city, you’d have a better chance at being Jesus. It’s my new life goal.)
The second song they played was Bohemian Rhapsody. SING-ALONG MADNESS TIME!! Sadly, I didn’t memorize all the words, but they splodged them on the screen large enough so that blind people could read it. Another sad thing is that I only know the song because my school band performed it in high school. That’s sad, right? Right.
nun puppet
If I comment on every song they played, I will never ever finish this entry. Favorites: “The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song”, “She Don’t Use Jelly”, “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt. 1″, and “Do You Realize?” After Yoshimi, Wayne broke out the nun puppet and asked us to sing along with more feeling. Oh, the things you can do with a nun puppet.
toy keyboard
“Cow Jam” consisted of Wayne playing a little children’s keyboard (which I swear I’ve almost bought on eBay before) while everyone else…jammed. I think he made a mistake at first, causing Steven to incredulously say, “Two buttons.” Wayne only had to push the cow and duck buttons. YOU CAN DO IT, WAAAYNE. YES. QUACK LIKE NEVER BEFOOOORE.
Wayne
As for other cool instruments, they had a double necked guitar with a parasitically attached iPod and Wayne had an modified acoustic guitar with a…thingy in the sound hole. Thingy? Theremin-ish? I DO NOT KNOW. But it’s a hell of a lot cooler than my acoustic guitar.
“Do You Realize?” is one of those songs that kills me. In a positive way, I mean. It seems like a good song to accompany the passage from life to death. Of course, it’s great to listen to while you’re alive, but something about it makes me feel like it would be a good soundtrack to watching my life flash before my eyes, as long as the flash lasts 3 minutes and 32 seconds. I’m the kind of person that tends to gloss over lyrics (eh, I’m ignorant), but when I hear, “Do you realize that everyone you know some day will die”, I think, “…No, but maybe I should think about that more often. YES. DEATHY!!!” I don’t know how to describe the feeling of singing it loudly with a gajillion other people. You’re fixated on…something. Or nothing. There’s so much stimuli, your eyes kinda just glaze over and look at everything. What’s going on? WHO CARES! AHRAH! MRAH! BLUGUHR! KEYBOARD MASH!
[I forget which song it was, but one of the background movies they played was a Chinese cartoon involving a monkey and a dragon fighting each other…underwater. I’m almost positive that this is the same story (although not the same animation) I watched 500000 times when I was a little kid. Almost positive. The only problem is that I can’t remember what the story was called (I watched it 500000 times in Chinese, which never quite embedded itself in my head). I think it begins with a boy being born out of a flower and then avenging his mentor’s death and eventually committing suicide before coming back to life and slaying the evil dragon, etc. If anyone has any idea what i’m talking about, let me know. It’s possible it wasn’t even the same story, but it looked similar and kinda freaked me out for the nostalgia factor.]
before
after
Wayne blew up this huge-ass balloon until it exploded. Awesome.
Wayne chatted with the audience every now and then. He told us how great it was that we would do these silly things we wouldn’t normally get to do, like play with giant balloons, sing along to the songs and wave our hands in the air. It meant a lot that the concerts made people happy, especially people who needed a little escape from reality for a few hours. He also said that while tolerance was a great thing, perhaps America was too tolerant (of the government); what we need to do is legalize marijuana. Well, he said other things, but that was the last message. And…[pokes self in brain]…
This entry is too long. My head is still fuzzy. Nothing compares to the kind of happiness and joy you get out of a Flaming Lips concert; it’s not on par with anything else. Scott says it well: “It wasn’t a concert. It was a celebration.”
confetti
Other reviews:
* “Stereogum”:http://www.stereogum.com/archives/002451.html
* “Chris”:http://musicsnob.blogs.friendster.com/chris_music_snobbery/2006/04/flaming_lips_we.html
* “Who’s Driving the Bus?”:http://whosdrivingthebus.blogspot.com/2006/04/flaming-lips-webster-hall-night-1.html
I’m not a big fan of “Editors”:http://www.editorsofficial.com/ (I like them, just not intensely so), but since my friend Patricia invited me to see them and it’s not like I have anything else to do on a Thursday night besides eat and procrastinate (homework?…no), I joined her at Webster Hall last night. We got there rather late compared to when I go to more concerts (I’m paranoid about tonight’s Flaming Lips show; I NEED A GOOD VIEW, NEEEED…first time I saw them I started waiting at 4 PM or something, seriously), but there weren’t a crapload of people there at 8:30. I still ended up standing right behind a tall person though–I think that’s Murphy’s Law.
I heard their live show was good, so that was another reason to go. And…it was good. I mean, they played really well, the crowd loved it, and the band looked happy. But Patricia and I had the same thought about the lead singer, Tom: “forced spazziness”. Did anyone else get this idea? At first, I thought, “Oh, he likes to wave his hands around and stuff,” but it looked…forced. I didn’t mind the “running around the stage” bit and overall excitedness, but after a while all the spastic hand movements got distracting. Hohum.
It’s kinda weird for me to go to a concert where I’m not a huge fan (I don’t go to random concerts unless other people ask me to); I more likely to observe other people’s reactions than just pay attention to the concert. To my left was a group of guys who’d go jumping-crazy every now and then and in front of me were some girls who’d also go jumping-crazy while pumping their arms in the air. All around me fans sang along to the most popular songs. The stage had some nice lighting going on…all the better for me to take photos on my dinky Canon powershot while others whipped out their digital SLRs. Ahh. Someday, someday.
You’ll probably hate me for this, but I’m one of those docile concert-goers. I was more of the screamy time in high school, probably because 1) I was younger and 2) I hadn’t discovered the importance of earplugs yet. Most of the music I listen to is pretty docile anyway though, so it works out.
Near the end of the show, Tom whipped his beer at the audience. My first thought was that it was water…until I realized it smelled like beer. Ohhh. Hm. Well, I can’t say I got showered with it, so it wasn’t the worst thing in the world, but some of it got into Patricia’s eye. Yeeeah…that’s not fun. Afterwards she asked why we didn’t dodge the airborne liquid as we saw it splatter towards us; we had noo ideeaaaa. Maybe brains work more slowly when they’re bombarded with the stimuli of bright lights and loud music, which is fine and dandy, until someone overexcitedly throws stuff at you.
So…overall, Editors know how to put on a tight show. As usual, I was freaked out by the drumming. Is that weird? As in, I love drums. Like..”Hey you other guys…are playing guitar…but that dude in the back that I can hardly see is pounding out 16th notes like a machine and watching him makes my arms feel tired.” I’d write something better, but I’m not qualified to write any kind of in-depth review.
But tonight? FLAMING LIPS? BUUH? YES.
Read a bunch of other reviews:
* “Music Slut”:http://musicslut.blogspot.com/2006/03/editors-webster-hall.html
* “Chris’ Music Snobbery”:http://musicsnob.blogs.friendster.com/chris_music_snobbery/2006/03/editors_webster.html
* “Stereogum”:http://www.stereogum.com/archives/002447.html
* “Village Indian”:http://www.villageindian.com/village_indian/2006/03/editors_webster.html
* “The Modern Age”:http://www.themodernage.org/2006/03/30/the-editors-overtake-webster-hall/
* “Yeti Don’t Dance”:http://noyetidance.blogspot.com/2006/03/editors-massive-attack.html
* “The Underrated Blog”:http://theunderrated.blogspot.com/2006/03/editors-webster-hall.html
This is random, but I thought I’d share this very sweet review of “Kings of Convenience”:http://www.kingsofconvenience.com/ in Singapore (with photos):
They’re one of the best live bands ever. From my concert experience, they’re the cutest, funniest, most endearing…dammit, they’re awesome. I regret not going to both of their shows when they were in NYC last year. …I went to one. ONE IS NOT ENOUGH.
You know you’ve waited too long to write about something (or you take too many photos on a regular basis) when the photo you’re trying to find is on the 12th page of your photostream. BUT THERE HE IS. Sondre Lerche, I mean. I’m not uber-obsessed with Sondre, but I do like him enough that I’ve seem him two times before. Both times were free shows, but still! Friday night’s show was for charity. I will see a proper “with a band” show later.
So…I don’t remember a great deal about the show besides that it was great. How could Sondre do wrong? Well…he can’t. What he can do is bop around with hair in his face and babble endearingly about random stuff (NYC is hot, Norway is cold and has polar bears, we find celsius foreign, someone said his songs are feminine, he really loves the Duper Sessions album) while testing out his new electric guitar and being overly humble. I recorded one song since it was the shortest (even though the original file works fine for me, it’s not in sync in youtube):
He mainly played new songs (I only recognized “Minor Detail”), but threw in a few old ones as well. Music Slut wrote a more detailed review so you may as well just read that.
Don’t miss Magnet upcoming performance on KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic next Monday, March 13th. (Or actually…you can miss it and listen to it online later. BUT DON’T YOU LIKE LISTENING TO THINGS IN REAL TIME? Yeah.)
Fans have been putting up lots of great media from Magnet’s North American tour so far. [Sidenote: This is what having no life and using technorati/youtube/flickr will get you.] Check it out:
[Warning: This might be long and rambling. Can’t say I didn’t warn you.]
I rarely go to concerts primarily for the opener. Hell, I don’t know if I’ve _ever_ done that. It’s not the same as going to a showcase for a few musicians, of which one I’m mainly interested in (although there was that cool show with “Rufus Wainwright and Beth Orton”:http://www.diskobox.net/rufus/jhc/). The vibe was 99.9% Stars fanatics, which makes perfect sense since it’s a Stars show. Actually, Webster Hall told us differently:
STAR!
It’s just “STAR”, folks. They dropped the S. Too many consonants.
I sadly underestimated the crowd; when I got there at 7:00 (doors were at 6:30, which seemed pretty early…oh, oh, horrible timing, just as I was walking up to the entrance I watched Even + others walk riiight in, resulting in me pondering the slowness of my brain functions) there was a sea of people sitting down. Doh. I huddled on the right side of the stage with the gaggle of friends that I either convinced to come with me or were already planning on going. Huddle. Wait. Huddle…
Magnet
Ahhghr, Magnet (aka, Even)! I hadn’t seen him in more than a year! …Which is saying nothing since some of my friends had never seen him at all. Uber-fan “Honey”:http://slapchar.blogspot.com/, for example. I was happy to see her happy. Of course, I was happy to see all my friends happy, but especially Honey since …I just knew she must’ve been as happy, excited as I was, or maybe happier. That’s a _lot_ of happy. I mean, you gotta restrain that happiness, shove it in a bag and shoot it before it grows to mosnterous proportions and wipes out the entire human race through asphyxiation.
Even’s set ran for about 35 minutes, which felt pretty short to me. I think this was the setlist:
* Everything’s Perfect
* Believe
* Where Happiness Lives
* On Your Side
* I’ll Come Along
* Smile to the World
* Nothing Hurts Now
I was surprised that he only played one song from from “The Tourniquet”:http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000E3L72S, but didn’t mind at all since I loved all the other songs he played. If you’ve never heard his live material, it’s different from the album. That would probably annoy people who _want_ to hear the same thing, but…nah! It’s better! Or for what its worth, I like the live versions more if he’s playing solo. It’s just him sitting down, alternating between electric guitar and lap steel guitar, fiddling with the electronic-y things to give himself a backing beat. With my limited music equipment knowledge, all I can offer is this crappy description: he taps his guitar and controls the delay/reverb/loopiness of it, resulting in eerie sounds that would seem to come from more than one person. He minor-ifies “Where Happiness Lives”, a version I like as much as the original. If you haven’t heard the original, then listening to this one isn’t going to make much of a difference…but here’s an example from WFMU in November, 2001:
The audience clapped during “On Your Side” (…I think it was that song), which he said is what the audience did during the show in DC the night before. You know you’re out of shape when clapping for a few minutes makes your arms feel achey. “Believe” was probably my least favorite of the set, but I liked it better live than on the album. Actually, I liked every song better than their album counterparts. “Everything’s Perfect” from his “live KCRW performance”:http://www.kcrw.com/cgi-bin/db/kcrw.pl?show_code=mb&air_date=10/14/04&tmplt_type=show is great (and apparently, he’s going to play another KCRW set on Morning Becomes Eclectic, March 13th, and maybe appear on World Cafe). I completely understand how Even’s music may “make some people sleepy”:http://so-iast-summer.livejournal.com/151762.html, but he’s so _into_ it. You can hear it in the strength of his voice, you can see it written on his face. Hopefully you can feel it too.
And then it was over. Well. Not the entire concert. You know something’s wrong with you when at the end of a performance, you just…your own brain kinda dies. And then you realize there’s another band coming up that you _like a whole lot_, but just isn’t the same. You want to focus on them, but you know you won’t be able to, at least not as much as if they had played with any other opener. I should probably explain the Magnet thing, but…eh, later.
Stars
Star!…I mean, Stars! They give off happy, energetic, cute, genuine, fun vibes. Awesome, no? Torquil Campbell (for whom I choose to represent with this one googled tidbit from his resume because I can: “voice of the cartoon character Bill Badger”) endearingly expressed his love for performing, for NYC, for…being there. Adoring fans sang along, primarily out of tune, but it was still sweet (although if they were louder, I would think otherwise). I’m not a big enough fan to sing along, but I do it in the comfort and loneliness of my room. HOORAH.
Amy Millan
I love Amy’s sweet, clear voice.
setlist
last song
Besides all those songs, they played an encore that included “Calendar Girls”, “Elevator Love Letter” and a final Torquil-solo whose title I don’t know, but to me was one of the strongest songs because of its bareness.
I wish I had more to say. It was awesome. And then we were all shuffled out so that clubbers could come in and fill the hall with dance music. Lovely.
While watching Stars I was struck by how non-Magnet they were. Not that they’re the antithesis, but that their performances are totally different. Even can’t have that super-energetic feeling with blasting lights and whatnot. Of course, it’s not necessary to captivate an audience with flashiness. But. Just…sayin’.
“Honey”:http://slapchar.blogspot.com/ and “Yetta”:http://yetta1.blogspot.com/ are the _masters_ of meeting musicians. It’s not something I’d ever do, but these girls have a love for music that I could never match. Remember that time I almost met Beck? (whose website I almost never go to anymore, sadly)…well, it’s best if you don’t, because I didn’t, and I’m glad; god knows how that would’ve turned out (probably not as bad as I think, which is part of my own mental problems, annnd yeah, end subject). One reason I would actually approach a musician I admire is if I had something to give them, which doesn’t really happen. I mean, I’ve done it, but felt embarrased at the same time. “Here’s a piece of crap I made…just for you!” Yeah. Well. I’m probably overreacting again.
While it was warm-ish earlier in the day, by the time we left Webster Hall it was brain-freeze cold. It didn’t help that I was only wearing a short-sleeve shirt under my jacket and no hat to cover my skull as frosty winds gradually whipped our faces into the frozen masks they would become after we died from hypothermia (we wondered how the skimpily dressed club-goers were faring while waiting to get in). When there was no sign of tour buses, musicians, or other fans, we semi-panicked.
“This is the only exit! They have to come out through here.”
Wait. Some more. Yes’m.
…
Some more.
…
I tried to inquire about Even’s whereabouts, but didn’t get any uplifting information. Yetta commented that she didn’t feel any Magnet vibes; neither did I. Maybe the cold killed it. “Diana”:http://d-yee.com/ and Arthur stuck it out for a pretty long time, but had to leave since they had a long commute ahead of them. The other 7 of us waited some more. It was more than half an hour after the show ended before Nancy suddenly shouted, “There they are!” _Commence stampede._
…I’m kidding; we didn’t stampede. Maybe. Calmly walked over. Yes.
And thus becomes moronic lobotomized-Robyn rambling. If you don’t already know, I am pseudo-intensely asocial. I’m not a people person. Hell, I might not even be a…person. (The tests are still unclear.) But I can usually carry out some form of comprehensible conversation among people I don’t know well. Except…nah, I really can’t. As much as I’d like to forget all the stupid things I blabbed to Even and David (the “other guy”, aka “the tech guy”), I can’t. I’ll have nightmares for days. Seriously. I like my sleep. GIMME MY SLEEP, OH JEEZ. [fidgets] After the confrontation was over and giant buses seemingly came out of nowhere, rolling westward down the street to whisk the equipment away and let Even and everyone else hop on a plane to Canada, I just buried my face in my hands and though, “MRAHRHAfhdsinfdvsmash” or something equally incomprehensible (disturbingly, not very different from normal Robyn-babblings).
This is when I start wondering why I can’t just act normal. If I could adore them less, that would make life a lot easier. Like…I could find out that Even clubs baby seals!; that would decrease the adoration, right? WOULD IT? There’s no good explanation for the “obsessiveness” (I don’t like using that word, but there’s no better one), and it bothers me because 1) I can’t explain it and 2) it might be creepy and 3) baby seals. Is it possible that Even’s voice is on a certain wavelength that messes with my brain? He doesn’t sound quite like anyone else (in my opinion), so…so. Even before I met him for the first time (summer 2004), I already had this “I don’t want to call it creepy but it even scares me” adoration that I seriously need to repress, thus it’s probably a good thing that he’s from Norway and his uber-fan lives in NYC.
I’d love it if everyone got the same happiness out of Even’s live performances as I did, but I know it’s not possible. The people that really like him _reeeaally_ like him (I’ve come across a surprising number of dedicated fanboys, not girls so much), and the people that don’t…well. That’s alright. It’s sad being an American; I decided a while ago that the only way to experience a “real” Magnet concert is to go to one in Norway where the reception and fans would be more positive. Or even Japan; they seem to like him there too.
NYC-ers, don’t miss out! Go to his show at the “Living Room”:http://www.livingroomny.com on “March 21st”:http://www.ticketweb.com/user/?region=xxx&query=search&category=misc&search=magnet+living&searchregion=xxx&genre=none&beginmonth=02&beginday=23&beginyear=2006&endmonth=02&endday=23&endyear=2007&sortorder=0, his last show in the US before god knows when he’ll come back.
Check out Matt’s live Magnet review in Boston (with photos). It’s so nice to read a “Magnet”:http://escapingwords.com/ review that is actually 1) written by a fan and 2) isn’t in Norwegian.
You know how sometimes you fall in love with someone’s voice and then you hear them live and you’re a little disappointed..? Yeah. That is the exact opposite of what happened with Magnet. That motherfucker can CROON. He sounded better live than he did on his CD’s, in my opinion.
I agree. …For the most part. Every time I’ve seen him, he’s sounded better than on his albums, but I’ve heard some of his live recordings that sound worse. Maybe the US gets lucky.
He’s playing this Saturday at Webster Hall, opening for Stars. It’s sold out, but there are probably tickets somewhere if you need one. I think “Janet”:http://escapingwords.com/ has an extra. Magnet isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but he’s my gigantic cup of tea (or since I’m not a bit tea fan, my gigantic bucket of “City Bakery hot chocolate”:http://flickr.com/photos/roboppy/102882718/).
Magnet’s 3rd album, The Tourniquet, came out last Tuesday. I’ve already mentioned that I don’t like it as much as his previous albums, but that doesn’t mean it’s not good. It’s just…different. I LISTENED TO IT A GAZILLION TIMES; I TRIED. Here are some recent reviews:
I’ve never seen “Explosions in the Sky”:http://www.explosionsinthesky.com/ before, so I thought I may as well. Besides that I…um, like their music. I don’t usually go to concerts on a whim, but the nice thing about their music is that it kind of all sounds the same. I don’t mean that in a bad sense–certainly the same can be said about many artists–but if you like just one EITS song, you’ll like them all performed live and won’t feel out of place for not recognizing what they’re playing. You might feel uncomfortable standing being a guy who’s 6 feet tall (and when I say you, I mean my 5 foot self), but you’ll forget about the weird feeling in your neck from craning it at an odd angle because EITS is really intense. Really really intense.
Or, better described by “Crackers United”:http://crackersunited.com/blog/?p=327, “EITS are a band that can evoke so much passion and freedom, joy and happiness and pain and suffering all within the span of an eight and a half minute song, without saying a word.”
Yeah, it’s something like that. I mean. I don’t know about the pain and suffering, as I feel mainly something kind of joyful, but I can see the pain and suffering bit. Passion and freedom are there. Sweating, too. Violently bashing a tambourine into the stage floor, yes. They put so much into it, I couldn’t imagine getting an encore, for their sake (of not dying from over exhaustion). Great show, nothing crazy, besides intense fans standing front and center thrashing about and the tall guy in front of me seemingly recording the show on his mobile. For some reason I don’t feel compelled to actually buy more of their albums (I just have “Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Live Forever”, my favorite song being “Yasmin The Light”) but if you can see them live, you must. Go. Do it.
And download this live Peel Sessions song, “The Only Moment We’re Alone”:http://explosionsinthesky.free.fr/eits04/explosions%20in%20the%20sky%20-%2001%20-%20only%20moment%20we%20were%20alone.mp3. [via “chromewaves”:http://www.chromewaves.net/?itemid=2046]
[Pre-note: Everthing in the world should have autosave, like gmail. _Everything._ Or…google should make a blogging tool that has autosave. Apparently I have the Scribe firefox extension but haven’t been using it. Hm.]
I’m not sure when I first heard of Rogue Wave, but…[looks at watch]…I don’t think it was more than two months ago. I bought their latest album, Descended Like Vultures, so I’d be more familiar with their music at their concert last night at the Bowery Ballroom. After listening to it for roughly a day, I decided I loved it. Because. It’s. Um. Pretty? Happy sounding? I know that description is about as helpful as describing a cookie as yummy and delicious, but you can make a better judgement if you listen to their music yourself. You can download some songs at “betterPropoganda”:http://betterpropaganda.com/artist_page.asp?id=416. No, wait, you _will_ download some songs; that’s an order. If you don’t like them, that’s alright, but I’ll sic these “lightsaber-toting squirrels”:http://www.eckernet.com/images/theforce.jpg on you. They’re lethal and surprisingly skilled in the art of lightsabering humans.
I went to the concert primarily to see “Mazarin”:http://www.mazarinband.com/ (pictured), but all the bands were great. You know, all…three. Local band (as in, Lower East Side local) “Shelby”:http://shelbynyc.com/ was first to play and I liked them. If I could describe them beyond that, I would, but I can’t. Read more press at “their website”:http://shelbynyc.com/pressframe.html or listen to their songs on “myspace”:http://www.myspace.com/shelbynyc.
Next was Mazarin, whose latest album “We’re Already There”:http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009W5K54/ is one of my favorite this year. It was one of those immediate “OH GOD I LOVE THIS I DON’T KNOW WHY” moments (such moments don’t have to be grammatically correct). There was an additional “guest keyboardist”:http://flickr.com/photos/roboppy/69751021 besides the four band members. The lead singer, Quentin Stotlzfus, wore a hat and I thought it was funny for some reason. (HATS = COMEDY GOLD.)
While I obviously enjoyed them, there was this problem all night where…I thought my eardrums were going to explode. No, it’s not like I’ve never been to a concert before, hence why I always bring earplugs (took me a few years to get to that point though). I rarely see other people wearing earplugs, so I’ll conduct a little survey: do you wear earplugs at concerts when necessary, ever want to wear earplugs when you don’t have them, or never wear them because you hate them? While I know earplugs degrade the quality of the sound (no, really?), the experience of not feeling I’m setting myself up for premature deafness outweighs listening to the music live in unadulterated form. I figured that out after I took off my earplugs for Rogue Wave’s encore. I don’t always need earplugs, depending on the venue and artist (Kings of Convenience = non-earplug bliss), but I usually try to get as close to the stage as possible when I go to Bowery Ballroom…which may not be such a good idea.
In conclusion: yay, Mazarin! I would’ve been happier if I could hear things more clearly, but that’s my problem. Random thing: the guitarist was using an ebow at one point. I forgot what song it was for, but I don’t think I’ve seen anyone use one before (and recognized it), so that was…interesting.
Uh. Back to the concert (which was not composed of blurry humans, although
