Live Music

WAGNER WAGNER WAGNER WAGNER

Went to see Tristan and Isolde with my mum. Awesome music, awesome poetry, awesome production. Blew me away. Plus, I have now witnessed with my own eyes the origin of the expression 'It ain't over till the fat lady sings!'

Over the weekend I saw a ton of different folk acts at the Port Fairy Folk Festival!

The stand outs were thus:

• Hanggai: A Mongolian (all HK members with Mongolian heritage) folk group, mainly focusing on rock fusion with traditional elements. Brilliant musicians the lot of them and one of the most unique acts I saw. They were launching their new album, so I snagged it.
• Lúnasa: A traditional Irish group, whose work is almost all reels, tunes and instrumental numbers. Incredibly atmospheric and the chilling use of the double-bass had me entranced.
• Damien Dempsy: An Irish folk rocker of frustratingly small renown. Very political songwriting coupled with some reggae inspired numbers and angry, angry singing made for an awesome performance.
• Pokey La Farge: One of two US international acts that blew me away. I have no idea what to call the genre he played, but Americana sums it up rather well. I would have bought one of his albums had they not been sold out after his second show.
• Jon Cleary & The Absolute Monster Gentlemen: The second US act and my pick of the festival. Electrifying New Orleans R&B, old school Blues, funk and jazz. Normally a four piece (elec guitar, elec bass, drums and piano/keys), they were without a guitar player. They don't even need one, they were that amazing. The grooves and jams they got into made every show they did go well over time and no one gave a shit. Luckily scored one of their albums and got it autographed by all of them.
• Rapskallion: The weirdest group I saw, they are a combo of burlesque performance, raunchy fun and gypsy-like traditional music. Honestly, the visuals of strutting women was unneeded since the music was great by itself, but I think I know what they were going for. Lots of confused people in the audience leads me to believe I was in the minority in enjoying them, hah.

If I think of anything else, I'll add it.

But that brings me to future plans! Nine Inch Nails and Queens Of The Stone Age in a double-bill on Friday.

I've seen a few major shows (and many more by local bands and bands I'm friends with), though not nearly as many as I'd like. Those would be:

• The Who: a good show, even if the lack of Keith Moon and John Entwistle was noticeable. The new-ish rhythm section was alright, but it lacked the brute force and energy of the original, which robbed the louder songs of some of their power. On the other hand, the quieter material was actually the highlight of the show. And Townshend and Daltrey can still put on a show and play/play well, I'll grant 'em that. No windmills, though, sadly... They played many of the classics, and even lacking the brute force of their golden years, they were still good.
  • Highlights: Won't Get Fooled Again, Baba O'Reilly, Behind Blue Eyes, Who Are You, My Generation, and I remember some of the acoustic songs off their new album at the time being really good as well (much better than the studio versions)- Man In A Purple Dress comes to mind.
• The Moody Blues: saw this this one was actually great. The surviving members are still performing well and the supporting members who filled in the gaps were pretty solid. Since they still have most of their classic (keep in mind that their best-known lineup is not in fact their original, hence "classic" rather than "original") rhythm section (they're missing their flute player and keyboardist, I think, but Graeme Edge sometimes plays keyboards, though he's mostly a drummer). The visuals were good, the band's still in good form and they played all the key songs.
  • Highlights: Nights In White Satin, The Other Side of Life, Higher and Higher, I'm Just A Singer In A Rock & Roll Band, Tuesday Afternoon.
• Sting and Paul Simon: yep, that's right. Actually just saw this the weekend before last, and let me tell you- it was awesome. Two favorite songwriters of mine doing sets both together and separately, and a pair of ridiculously talented backing bands (who sometimes combined their efforts and mixed/matched players throughout- for some songs, their were about a dozen musicians, including Sting and Paul Simon themselves). The banter between the two was also pretty damn funny. It was great.
  • Highlights: Fields of Gold, all of the songs they played off Graceland (five or six in total), I Hung My Head, Roxanne, Mother and Child Reunion, Driven To Tears, 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover, Bridge Over Troubled Waters.

How was the QOTSA/NIN double bill? It sounds incredibly awesome.

QOTSA and NIN sounds like a match made in heaven to me. I would be able to die happy if I saw that combo... Sadly, I have yet to see either of them. I have a very long list of bands to see yet, as one might imagine.

So how was it, anyways?

&

It was bloody amazing!

QOTSA was on first, with this setlist, followed by NIN with this setlist.

Because I hadn't bought ...Like Clockwork before the show, a lot of the QOTSA half was new stuff, but I really enjoyed all of it. They are tight as fuck, which I'll admit I wasn't expecting. A more loosy goosy performance is what I was planning on seeing, but they were spot on with everything and I loved that. I ended up getting Era Vulgaris and ...Like Clockwork yesterday.

NIN blew me away. I wasn't quite sure what to expect for them, but it satisfied, that's for sure. I would have liked a bit more Year Zero in the setlist, but I'm pleased with what I got. Especially since Reznor's wife, Mariqueen Maandig, showed up for two How To Destroy Angels tracks.

Sadly, they didn't team up for anything. I wish they did, because that would have be mind blowing.

Everything about that sounds awesome. Damn. Two faves of mine. I need to see those two some time...

Kinda surprised NIN didn't do "Closer", though...

edited 15th Mar '14 9:27:38 PM by sharkcrap11

I just went to a country concert in Kalamazoo on Friday. It was a triple billing of Josh Thompson, Randy Houser, and Justin Moore. The venue: Wings Stadium, jam packed.

I missed most of Josh's set, which only lasted 30 minutes to begin with, but I've seen him twice before and know that he's a great guy.

Randy has a great set of pipes, and he really seemed to get a lot more soulful than he does on albums. I loved that his keyboardist even had an actual Hammond organ up there.

Before Justin came on, he had some guy named Jordan Rager sing about six songs to a prerecorded backing track. One of them was a cover of Blake Shelton's "Kiss My Country Ass", which the whole crowd seemed to know even though his version was never a single. Most of Rager's stuff was just average.

By the time Justin got on, about half the crowd was starting to get drunk and rowdy. Justin was doing quite well at his show, but between the rowdy crowd and the fact that I was starting to get tired, I decided I would only stay until I started nodding off.

Most people like to bash on Justin for singing about driving tractors, drinking beer with hot girls on tailgates, etc., but I find his takes to be quite palatable most of the time. He also gets bashed for his small size (he's probably about 5'6" and very skinny) and his whiny voice, but I have no issue with either of those.

Sounds great, I've seen Qotsa with [this setlits, which was awesome. Kinda jealous they played Misfit Love at your gig though.

I saw And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead last night, performing the entirety of their most famous album, Source Tags & Codes (followed by some other stuff, because it's only a 45 minute album). I'm admittedly a fair weather fan, because that's the only album of theirs I'd heard, and I don't know if I'd have come if I didn't know they were playing that album. It was a really good show though, and made me want to revisit that album and check out more of what they've done before and since.

One of the openers were Midnight Masses, who are basically a Trail Of Dead side project, and the other was a more unusual choice: La Femme, a French "psyché-punk" band who somehow reminded me of both The B-52s and Stereolab, sometimes at the same time.

edited 31st Mar '14 12:30:14 PM by MikeK

Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings at the House Of Blues in Boston. It turned out to be kind of a bad time to go to a concert at that venue, since it's next door to Fenway and there was a Red Sox game, thus I had to deal with crowds both on the way there and back. But thankfully it was a really good show. I've seen Sharon Jones by herself with Daryl Hall as part of a Live From Daryl's House concert revue type thing, and she was great then, but it was good to see her with a whole set to herself this time, and she naturally had way more chemistry The Dap-Kings than with Hall's house band. Oh, also there was one song where they had a handful of women from up front in the audience come up to dance on stage, then they turned it Up To Eleven during a Sharon-Jones-less encore number where they had all the front row women they could possibly fit dance on stage... Which is somewhat fewer people than you'd expect, because The Dap-Kings are kind of a large band, but still a lot.

In April I went to see Status Quo in Glasgow on the Frantic Four Reunion Tour. It was absolutely terrific, especially seeing as I'd never seen the Frantic Four lineup before and will never be able to again. It's was as though all those experiments they did with synths were completely forgiven - this was proper heavy rock they were playing! There was a welcome mix of classic Quo tracks, such as "Backwater" and "Forty-Five Hundred Times", as well as a few fan favourites like "(April) Spring, Summer And Wednesdays" and "Oh Baby". Oh, it was wonderful.

And then in May I went to see Ian Anderson and his band in Inverness. The show was in two parts. He played his new album, Homo Erraticus in the first half, followed by a short break and then the best of Jethro Tull in the second half. And what a terrific showman he is. There were many theatrical aspects to it, such as the band members having costumes and things to say, and things being projected onto a screen in the background. He also had a very talented band, who played all the songs just as Jethro Tull would have. Because Ian's voice isn't quite what it used to be, he has a singer and actor called Ryan O'Donnell to sing certain bits for him. He can actually sing in Ian Anderson's old voice! The album is worth a listen, by the way.

My wife and I saw Sevendust live at Horseshoe Casino in Tunica, MS this past Saturday. They played an all-acoustic set and were very impressive. I lost interest in them after their second album but need to catch back up.

Just got back from a festival I attended with my girlfriend. Saw some great artists over the span of two days, including but not limited to Manic Street Preachers, Out Kast, Little Dragon, The National, Slowdive, Kavinsky, Janelle Monae, Real Estate, Robyn & Röyksopp.

Apart the music the festival was great too, well-organized, great area, good food, it was adults only so your drinking wasn't restricted to these small pens much too far from the actual stages. Yet this did not result in being dead drunk everywhere; it seems like the elitistically high ticket prices kept away the people who go to festivals mainly to drink 24 hours a day. You truly have to pay for quality.

edited 11th Aug '14 8:37:06 PM by Xeroop

You saw Janelle Monae? I is so jealous. I've heard she gives a good live performance, and drops her trademark stoicism when she gets into it. Was it just material from the Electric Lady?

It was easily the best performance of the whole festival. While the set mainly centered around The Electric Lady, she also played some songs off The ArchAndroid , including "Cold War", "Tightrope", "Come Alive", and a surprise rendition of James Brown's "I Got You (I Feel Good)".

The only nitpick that I have that there was slightly too much time dedicated for making-the-crowd-shout antics for a rather limited festival time slot.

Sounds like a blast.

Cheap Trick? More like Expensive Merch Booth. Well, honestly I shouldn't complain too much because I won my ticket for free, so it kinda evens out. $35 t-shirts aside, this was a really good show. Apparently there's been some recent dispute with Bun E. Carlos, so they've pulled a Van Halen and put Rick Neilsen's son Daxx behind the drum kit, but the performance certainly didn't suffer for it. Pretty much all the famous songs that aren't called "The Flame" were represented, and there was also a smattering of more obscure material and a surprise Velvet Underground cover ("I'm Waiting For The Man") with Tom Peterson on lead vocals. Gary Cherone stepped up to sing some of "Surrender", as did the vocalist for the opening band, Goddamn Draculas.

Nicola Conte (in jazz combo format). A nice 1 hour and a half gig, with great musicians (particularly the sax & flute player, Magnus Lindgren), and a nice voice from Melanie Charles, an NYC singer of Haitian origins. Good jazz-soul-soft funk music, mostly from his most recent album, Free Souls, with a few jammy/psychedelic flourishes here and there.

Being a fan of his work and having a free ticket/invitation, I can't complain in any way. The seats were also quite comfortable. It's my second time seeing him (first time was when he performed in a quartet format, if I'm not mistaken).

Got some awesome gigs coming up.

October 30th - St. Vincent @ Nijmegen

November 10th - Blood Red Shoes @ Utrecht

November 15th - Gaslight Anthem @ Amsterdam

January 23th - Interpol @ Amsterdam

February 23th - The Black Keys @ Amsterdam

March 16th - Royal Blood @ Amsterdam.

I'm psyched for every single one of 'em! :D

I saw St. Vincent a few days ago and it was amazing. I just want to marry her now.

Yeah, I've heard good things, excited for thursday! :D

E: That was damn great. It's a shame that she didn't play Krokodil and that I missed the outro to Your Lips Are Red since I had to catch my train. But apart from that I've got no complaints.

edited 2nd Nov '14 11:26:56 AM by Rvdz

Just got back from Mötley Crüe and Alice Cooper. It's one of those shows you can't miss, especially when the band signs a contract legally binding them to end the band.

I can safely say they have the single best stage show I've ever seen. That means they surpassed Rob Zombie in that field. Even in an opening slot, Alice knows how to really put on a show.

My ears are still a little sore from all the fireworks and explosions. Nikki Sixx's flame-spewing bass is one of the coolest things I ever seen a musician do, and that roller coaster that Tommy Lee rides on for his drum solo was just nuts. They pretty-much packed every single stage effect you can think of into the performance, and more.

And the songs? Of course I know the words; I always make sure to research every setlist for any show I go to. What surprised me was how many people nearby were perfectly on time as well. The Crue has a bigger fanbase than you'd think. The naturally pulled out all the stops for Kickstart My Heart, but for me, Live Hour and Primal Scream were the highlight.

Vince Neil finishing Home Sweet Home was kind of bittersweet. He said (not verbatim) "Good bye, Vancouver. We're gonna miss you crazy fuckers."

Well as they say, 'all bad things must come to an end'.

edited 22nd Nov '14 1:23:45 AM by Alucard

Just got back from Faith No More, and holy shit.

They played The Forum, which is like a mid-sized venue for bands that can't quite fill the Pacific Coliseum or Rogers Arena. That just made the whole experience a lot more intimate.

They apparently haven't played here in roughly 25 years, and I was really impressed by how many people in the crowd knew all the words (even when the vast majority of the set came from King for a Day). Patton even let us finish the last chorus to Midlife Crisis. My voice is shot, but I'm happy to have screamed along with these guys.

Mike Bordin played really hard, and Patton screamed pretty frequently, so they justified all the metalheads the crowd. Amazingly, I could feel the pit moving behind me during Evidence, of all songs. That was the kind of energy the place had.

Superhero and Motherfucker went over pretty well, and they debuted the title track of Sol Invictus at the show, which sounded really moody (I'm probably gonna love hearing that one on record).

They finished with this (which I guess makes for 4 songs from the new album overall). All-around, I'd rank this in my top 3 concerts ever.

Speaking of which, the opener was Christeene, a very sexually-driven performance artist. Likely the wildest opener I've ever seen, but these are Faith No More's fans: not much is going to weird them out, and so that particular show went over pretty well. For my part, I found his scream-rapping catchy.

edited 20th Apr '15 10:35:04 AM by Alucard

Just came back from what was the last ever concert of the local ska band Goon. After fifteen years they held their last gig in the same place it all started; a fitting end, one would say.

The problem is that while the band isn't exactly known, it still ahs gained large enough fanbase over the years that fitting the audience in the small bar was kind of challenging. Oxygen was far and between and afterwards both the band and the audience looked like they've been swimming in a sea of sweat for the last few hours, which they kinda did.

The setlist was great, they obviously played all their hits and fan-favourites. The only song I missed was "Bar Mary", which was one of my favourite songs I have never heard live. It is also about celebrating a last night of something (the titular bar), so I thought it would have been an obvious fit on the set, but oh well.

I had fun. Just like the previous years.