The Swamp

Seeing Frightened Rabbit opening for The National in a couple of days. Very excited for the show.

Forgot to post about seeing Frightened Rabbit and The National last week. Super cool show. FR was great, as always (4th time seeing them), but it sucked that they were the openers, and thus only got to play for about 40 minutes or so. And I didn't get the people milling about the lobby of the theater, rather then watching them.

The National was pretty damn good. I was impressed with the sound they were able to create....the lead singer was great, but he needs to play an instrument or something...he paced around the stage like crazy. They did a great cover of a Perfume Genius (local Seattle act) song to open the encore.

Punk tonight...

The Copyrights
Teenage Bottlerocket
The Queers

Went to see Jack Johnson with the Girlfriend last night. She's a big fan, but I've never listened to his stuff. Pretty good show...mellow beachy kind of vibe. Not sure I'd ever put one of his albums on my iPod (I need a bit of an edge to my music most of the time), but it was a fun couple of hours.

Except of the girls in the crowd who insist on screaming "WHOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO" a couple of times each song, usually right during a slow melodic part. What exactly do you think you are adding to the song? To the listening experience?

I have an unusually busy month ahead of me. Surfer Blood Friday, Slayer the following Friday, Geographer the following Wednesday and then Nine Inch Nails/Explosions In The Sky the Friday after that.

Saw Mazzy Star with the Girlfriend last night.

Probably one of the weirdest concerts I've ever seen. The stage lights went down....they didn't come out. Then 10 minutes later the house lights came down....and they still didn't come out. Then some weird music started to play....and then they finally walked out, never acknowledging the sold-out crowd.

They finally started to play.....but never turned any lights on. It was totally dark on stage...couldn't see them at all. And in between every song, they would take 3 or 4 minutes to start the next song...but they would play a pre-recorded piece on instrumental "interlude" type music.

Then they had a tech problem with the guitar player's amp about 3 songs in, and they just stood around while the stage crew tried to fix it.

Then, after playing about 8 or 9 songs in about 45 minutes, the singer said "I guess that's it", and they walked off the stage. They came back and played one weird, dirge-y, very Doors sounding song as an encore, and then walked off again, never acknowledging the crowd at all.

As we left, we asked another couple walking up the street what they thought...and they pretty much had the same reaction that we did...that the band just didn't seem very interested or excited to be there, and that it was a disappointment.

All that said...Hope Sandoval still has a great voice.

Oh, I emailed the KEXP DJ John in the Morning today, and asked if he'd heard from anyone else about the show, and told him how bizarre it was. His response was "Sounds about right...last time I saw them I fell asleep".

Todd Snider coming to lexington late this month, hoping to make it down for that.

Went to see Geographer in a small club last night. Really surprisingly good for a band which features a lot of electronics. I usually expect the worst.

Also, be sure to check out their 2012 album "Myth". I just discovered it a couple of months ago, but would have definitely included it in my best albums of 2012 had I heard it then.

Saw Avett Brothers from the front row at UCF arena last Saturday. Fucking great show. Hearing their new stuff live really made me enjoy the new album more than I already had. We were just to the right of center stage, and they had a small peninsula-like stage that came out from the middle of the stage. There were moments where we had to turn around to see them play.

Also, they announced they're coming to Tampa in March, and I scored four more great seats in the presale yesterday. I'm really looking forward to seeing my boys enjoy them from up close.

Alabama Shakes coming up in two weeks. That ought to be fun. GA tix with an eight and a half month pregnant wife.

govmentchedda wrote:Saw Avett Brothers from the front row at UCF arena last Saturday. Fucking great show. Hearing their new stuff live really made me enjoy the new album more than I already had. We were just to the right of center stage, and they had a small peninsula-like stage that came out from the middle of the stage. There were moments where we had to turn around to see them play.

Also, they announced they're coming to Tampa in March, and I scored four more great seats in the presale yesterday. I'm really looking forward to seeing my boys enjoy them from up close.

Alabama Shakes coming up in two weeks. That ought to be fun. GA tix with an eight and a half month pregnant wife.

Ask her doc if she can still crowd surf and stage dive. I'm guessing Alabama Shakes concerts don't have mosh pits. Are mosh pits still a thing?

Remember when mosh pitting was called slam dancing? Why the name change?

I imagine the Alabama Shakes show will be just a bunch of head nodding and toe tapping.

Hopefully no cervix dilating.

Went to see Selena Gomez last week, with my 10-year-old daughter.

Or should that go in the Confessions thread?

I guess it's been a long, long time since I've attended a concert. I don't think I've ever actually seen people hold up their cell phone screens instead of lighters before.

After Googling "Selena Gomez", gotta ask. Did you bring earplugs? Not to block out the "music", which would obviously have been auto-tuned lipsynced dreck, but to counter the screeching? I'd imagine that in a 20,000 capacity venue there would be a staggering number of ceaselessly screaming painfully shrill tweens.

Scottie wrote:After Googling "Selena Gomez", gotta ask. Did you bring earplugs? Not to block out the "music", which would obviously have been auto-tuned lipsynced dreck, but to counter the screeching? I'd imagine that in a 20,000 capacity venue there would be a staggering number of ceaselessly screaming painfully shrill tweens.

You got it exactly. The most painful part by far was the screaming of the little girls, especially when the warmup acts asked if anyone was "pumped" to see Selena. I just told myself it's what the Beatles' US tour must have sounded like.

Steve of phpBB wrote:

Scottie wrote:After Googling "Selena Gomez", gotta ask. Did you bring earplugs? Not to block out the "music", which would obviously have been auto-tuned lipsynced dreck, but to counter the screeching? I'd imagine that in a 20,000 capacity venue there would be a staggering number of ceaselessly screaming painfully shrill tweens.

You got it exactly. The most painful part by far was the screaming of the little girls, especially when the warmup acts asked if anyone was "pumped" to see Selena. I just told myself it's what the Beatles' US tour must have sounded like.

I'm going out on a limb here, but I predict Selena Gomez won't have the staying power of the Beatles.

Brittany Howard is my Janis Joplin.

Hey, we've got a few Ryan Bingham fans in here don't we. Half-seriously thinking we should get four or five guys and go in together on the $10,000 donation to this Kickstarter to get a private acoustic concert with him.

brian wrote:Hey, we've got a few Ryan Bingham fans in here don't we. Half-seriously thinking we should get four or five guys and go in together on the $10,000 donation to this Kickstarter to get a private acoustic concert with him.

Does that at least include a blow job?

The Sybian wrote:

brian wrote:Hey, we've got a few Ryan Bingham fans in here don't we. Half-seriously thinking we should get four or five guys and go in together on the $10,000 donation to this Kickstarter to get a private acoustic concert with him.

Does that at least include a blow job?

Waiting on an answer to this before I commit.

I wish I had that kind of extra money to throw around. Pretty cool.

I will be attending this during the first weekend.

Pet Shop Boys? Really?

There's some good bands on the bill as usual, but Muse is an exceptionally weak headliner. Was Slipknot or Nickelback not available?

Big fan of J. Roddy Walston & the Business.

brian wrote:There's some good bands on the bill as usual, but Muse is an exceptionally weak headliner. Was Slipknot or Nickelback not available?

Seriously nothing like either of those. I'm not a huge fan of their music, but they put on an amazing live show. They've headlined ACL two of the five years I've been there.

It's also some bullshit that Superchunk gets 8 point type.

Giff wrote:

brian wrote:There's some good bands on the bill as usual, but Muse is an exceptionally weak headliner. Was Slipknot or Nickelback not available?

Seriously nothing like either of those. I'm not a huge fan of their music, but they put on an amazing live show. They've headlined ACL two of the five years I've been there.

I realize it's different genres, I'm just saying I'm not a fan and their music seems pretty lowest common denominator. Coachella should be able to do better than Muse for a featured headliner. Only three bands gets to headline each year and they're what they came up with?

brian wrote:

Giff wrote:

brian wrote:There's some good bands on the bill as usual, but Muse is an exceptionally weak headliner. Was Slipknot or Nickelback not available?

Seriously nothing like either of those. I'm not a huge fan of their music, but they put on an amazing live show. They've headlined ACL two of the five years I've been there.

I realize it's different genres, I'm just saying I'm not a fan and their music seems pretty lowest common denominator. Coachella should be able to do better than Muse for a featured headliner. Only three bands gets to headline each year and they're what they came up with?

I'm guessing these festivals keep putting them as headliners for a reason. Have you ever listened to them other than like the one or two songs they play on the radio or actually seen one of their live shows? I wasn't pumped about seeing them, but damned if I wasn't up and jamming by the end of the first song. They're a great band for that type of atmosphere.

brian wrote:

Giff wrote:

brian wrote:There's some good bands on the bill as usual, but Muse is an exceptionally weak headliner. Was Slipknot or Nickelback not available?

Seriously nothing like either of those. I'm not a huge fan of their music, but they put on an amazing live show. They've headlined ACL two of the five years I've been there.

I realize it's different genres, I'm just saying I'm not a fan and their music seems pretty lowest common denominator. Coachella should be able to do better than Muse for a featured headliner. Only three bands gets to headline each year and they're what they came up with?

So, Muse is not that big in the US ? Just curious to know because in Europe, they headline every major festival when they go on tour.

I saw Muse at Coachella in 2010 (and coincidentally the weekend prior in Tucson at the local rock radio station's annual KFMA Day). They were fucking amazing. And 2010 featured some serious, serious talent. It was also the last year before Coachella went mainstream and their ticket prices exploded.

I'm hyped for OutKast and the trap/techno artists on there (RL Grime, Flosstradamus, UZ, Calvin Harris, Dillon Francis). Overall, no matter what, there's always a nice gathering of musicians and I'm down to see whoever is playing. (And the bonus is the bands in small font means you can probably watch them up closer than you usually could.)

The good thing about living in Las Vegas is that a shitton of the bands end up playing here either the week between the shows or immediately before or after. Saw a bunch of great shows in April last year. The bookings are starting to come in now.

brian wrote:It's also some bullshit that Superchunk gets 8 point type.

Fo realz

I looked at the list for Friday and was pretty damned depressed at how few bands I have heard of. Six, unless Schlomo refers to my great uncle. At least I was more clued in on Saturday and Sunday. I'm trying, Ringo. I'm trying real hard.

If forced at nuclear-weapon point to attend, I'm sure I'd hate virtually all of the bands on that list with a white-hot passion. But I have to admit that Flosstradamus is a great band name. I pray that they play death metal.

There are some acts on there that I'd love to see (like Chance the Rapper!), but there is no way in hell I could handle going to a big music festival.

Robeet earl keen in two weeks.

Seeing Wild Feathers tonight.

Got tix to the two big Tampa festivals (Gasparilla in March, and Big Guava in May)

Gasparilla lineup includes Flaming Lips, Trombone Shorty, Delta Spirit, Jason Isbell, and others.

Big Guava lineup includes Outkast, Vampire Weekend, Foster the People, Tegan and Sara, Violent Femmes, Cake, Girl Talk, Grouplove, Haim, and others.

govmentchedda wrote:Violent Femmes

I can't believe that they are still playing. 34 years since Violent Femmes was released. They've probably got 10 other albums and no one knows anything but maybe 3 songs off the first one.