Live Music

We had The Skatalites play the club I intern at tonight. Well, actually I hit wikipedia because I was curious, and it turns out that most of the original lineup has passed on, so only a couple of people in the band were on their sixties recordings (one of whom was a singer who took the lead on some songs from their classic era but wasn't an "official" member at the time). Regardless, they sounded great - I've only heard a Greatest Hits Album of sorts, but they really captured that same sound. Also, I always like a show a little better when the audience actually dances, which they did.

Julia Nunes is also playing there in a couple weeks. I've been to a show of hers once and it was pretty fun. Going by prior experience it's going to be a largely female, under-21 crowd though, which made me feel the tiniest bit awkward the first time 'round.

edited 16th Feb '12 1:00:31 AM by MikeK

Iron Maiden announce 2012 North American tour dates

• Thur | 21st June| Charlotte, NC | Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
• Sat | 23rd June | Atlanta, GA | Aarons Amphitheatre
• Tue | 26th June | Boston, MA | Comcast Center
• Wed | 27th June | Wantagh, NY | Jones Beach
• Fri | 29th June | Philadelphia, PI | Susquehanna Bank Center
• Sat | 30th June | Washington, DC | Jiffy Lube Live
• Mon | 2nd July | Newark, NJ | Prudential Center
• Thur | 5th July | Chicago, IL | First Midwest Bank
• Sun | 8th July | Quebec, QC | Colisee Pepsi Arena
• Wed | 11th July | Montreal, QC | Bell Center
• Fri | 13th July | Toronto, ON | Molson Amphitheatre
• Sat | 14th July | Sarnia, ON | Bayfest
• Mon | 16th July | Buffalo, NY | Darien Lake Performing Arts Center
• Wed | 18th July | Detroit, MI | DTE Music Theatre
• Thur | 19th July | Indianapolis, IN | Klipsch Music Centre
• Tues | 24th July | Winnipeg, MB | MTS Center
• Thur | 26th July | Calgary, AB | Scotiabank Saddledome
• Fri | 27th July | Edmonton, AB | Rexall Place
• Sun | 29th July | Vancouver, BC | Pacific Coliseum
• Mon | 30th July | Auburn, WA | White River Amphitheatre
• Wed | 1st August | Salt Lake City, UT | USANA Amphitheatre
• Fri | 3rd August | San Francisco, CA | Shoreline Amphitheatre
• Mon | 6th August | Phoenix, AZ | Ashley Furniture Home Store Pavilion
• Thur | 9th August | Irvine, CA | Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre
• Sun | 12th August | Albuquerque. NM | Hard Rock Pavilion
• Mon | 13th August | Denver, CO | Comfort Dental Amphitheatre
• Wed | 15th August | San Antonio, TX | AT&T Center
• Fri | 17th August | Dallas, TX | Gexa Energy Pavilion
• Sat | 18th August | Houston, TX | The Woodlands

God, I'm excited about this

Saw the Wolfe Tones with my friend who's a big fan. Merriment was had and much Irish beer was consumed. Also the music was good. They definitely know how to put on a show, but I suppose they've had quite a bit of practice at this point.

I guess it is.

They may be coming to Ottawa as well, since they'll be passing through between Montreal and Toronto at the same time as Bluesfest will be going on, and they drew a pretty big crowd 2 years ago.

I saw Comfortably Numb last night. They were pretty good, but I'm not as familiar with Pink Floyd's music as I'd like to be.

I also went to a masterclass with Patrick Breiner, who's an improvisational jazz/other sax player, and he did a solo number at the end of it since we had a bit of time. He was amazing, blew my mind, and he was really humble about it and easy to talk to.

I want to see The Darkness if they come to Australia, and I would kill to go back and see Guns N' Roses and/or Queen when they were still together.

Just got back from a jazz show in Macon. Oscar Jackson Quartet. Never heard of them before, may never hear of them again, but they were really swinging. The structure of the songs was very formulaic (melody, sax solo, electric piano solo, bass solo, drum solo, repeat melody, end song), but the musicians were all good enough to keep things interesting. And the bass player kept quoting other songs in the middle of his solos: stuff like "The Little Drummer Boy".

Some trumpet player joined them to play "Night in Tunisia". I'm not sure if he knew the group beforehand or not.

I was amused to see that my friend and I were the only white people in an audience of about thirty.

So I got my Iron Maiden tickets today. Not the ideal seats, but I'm, guessing the floor-level sold out quickly.

I'll be wearing earplugs during Coheed & Cambria's presumably uninteresting set. Why risk ear-damage on the opener when you can do that with the head-liner?

I saw The Slackers for the second time tonight, though it was my first time 1) seeing them headline and 2) seeing them while actually knowing most of the songs. I liked 'em when they opened for Mighty Mighty Bosstones at House Of Blues, but they're just such a party band that they just seemed more at home at a smaller club. The openers were two bands who seemingly are always somewhere in the lineup for Cambridge ska shows (Rikki Rocksteady, The Pomps), but both are also pretty good. It's not necessarily the kind of thing I'd come out for every week, but a ska show can be a good time if the music's good and the audience is into it and dancing.

Oh, and the Julia Nunes show was good, and my prediction of a largely under-21 and female crowd was correct. A largely under-21 female crowd carrying ukuleles (due to there being a meet-and-greet where she signed stuff). I guess it's pretty cool that she's causing fans to gravitate to her instrument of choice.

edited 25th Mar '12 12:26:24 AM by MikeK

Last September, I actually saw Canned Heat (four guys, of whom three were in the "classic" line-up) live at Bluesrock Tegelen. Seeing one of the legendary bands of The '60s live really made an impression - these guys had been at fucking Woodstock and here I was, watching them rock from just a few metres away.

Cruelly, the same night, Jerry Lee Lewis gave his last-ever European concert (in a venue where I could well have gone - in fact, it was closer to my home than Tegelen). Well, you've got to make choices in life.

edited 29th Mar '12 10:49:13 AM by MidnightRambler

Mache dich, mein Herze, rein...

We had Tim Fite headline a show at ze club tonight - I hadn't heard him before, but it was a pretty interesting show - his style is sort of a mix of oddball indie folk and abstract hip-hop. Mostly he was singing to pre-recorded backing tracks, but the projected visuals and his whole performing style kept it interesting.

Gonna see Daryl Hall, Sharon Jones, and Allen Stone tonight. I won a contest - it was the sort of thing where you end up entering a drawing just because it's there, not really thinking of actually winning. But I do like Sharon Jones, I looked Allen Stone up and he seems to do a similar retro-soul thing, and I'm willing to give the actual headliner a shot. Plus, in a weird way I feel I'd be ripping myself off by not going to what would normally be a $50 show.

If I may do some self-plugging, I've been involved behind the scenes at a Battle Of The Bands and have been blogging about the performances elsewhere. I'm actually gonna miss the next one due to the Daryl Hall thing, but I've seen almost every band still in the running, and the one I haven't is going to be on the bill tomorrow, so I figure I can afford to miss one, even if some of the bands playing tonight are really good. My favorites to win are Ghosts Of Jupiter, who have really impressive musicianship and this very late 60's or 70's blues / prog / hard rock sound (think Cream, maybe Led Zeppelin circa Physical Graffiti).

edited 12th Apr '12 3:32:51 PM by MikeK

Saw Mark Lanegan back in March. Cool show.

Probably my best two shows have been the Red Hot Chili Peppers, when I was 14, and Lupe Fiasco, last year, for two different reasons. RHCP did an amazing, all-out set in a huge-ass stadium when they were on their Stadium Arcadium tour, and I had tons of fun. Lupe, on the other hand, did a great show in the parking lot of Georgetown University, and as a smaller venue, it felt more personal.

Childish Gambino is doing a free show at my university in a few days, so I'll be seeing him, and I'm seeing ASAP Rocky on the 29th when he comes to DC.

edited 12th Apr '12 7:30:51 PM by AcesoldierZero

https://soundcloud.com/rich-justice-hinmen Too white for the black kids, too white for the white kids.

So, ze Daryl Hall thing: I came in skeptical, and remained skeptical when Daryl Hall and Allen Stone each did short sets that were well sung and played but stylistically not my thing (i.e. smooth, vaguely soul-ish adult contemporary). But then Sharon Jones was great, and the second half of the show was basically all three of them singing together on more songs from each of their catalogs, which was much more fun to watch than either of the other two singing solo. Plus it turns out I kinda dig some Hall & Oates songs. Oh, and this was an offshoot of his show Live From Daryl's House, and was apparently set up like the show is - there's one house band backing everyone up, so there weren't any breaks other than an intermission where they showed footage of the three of them learning to make cheesesteaks.

edited 12th Apr '12 9:28:01 PM by MikeK

Apparently Mark Kozelek is coming to Israel! TOMORROW. FUCK MY LIFE.

edited 6th May '12 3:32:55 PM by Litis

I'm going to see The Bad Plus on June 30th.

This is the age of decay and democrazy What is the price of your soul?

Oh, I am going to do security for a Girl Talk show tomorrow. Which means I'll be watching the crowd, not the actual show, but I'll be there hearing the music and observing the craziness.

Girl Talk was pretty fun. People who'd seen him before sort of complained that now instead of jumping around and getting crazy himself, he just lets the fans that get to go on stage do it for him. But the show flowed well together, people were clearly having a lot of fun, and there were balloons, confetti cannons, and girls in short black dresses blasting toilet paper at people with leafblowers. The openers were called Big Gigantic, and they were pretty dubstep-ish but at least had the interesting addition of live drums and saxophone.

they have a free album out.

This is the age of decay and democrazy What is the price of your soul?

I'm going to see Porter Robinson and The M Machine on June 26.

Saturday I'm probably going to Earth Fest, which is this Whole Foods-sponsored free outdoor show they have once a year. I've started affectionately thinking of these things as "Oldies concerts for people in their 30s" - case in point, this year's line up is three bands who were at their most popular in the 90's (The Spin Doctors, Third Eye Blind, Eve 6) and one who started out in the late 90's but didn't really have mainstream popularity 'til the 2000's (Switchfoot). I like a few Third Eye Blind singles, "Two Princes" and "Inside Out" are somewhat nostalgic for me, and really only vaguely remember Switchfoot's "Dare You To Move", but I figure that's enough reason to go if the weather's nice enough.

edited 13th May '12 5:20:34 PM by MikeK

This was kind of amazing.

I saw Gary Jules tonight - I was admittedly just here for "Mad World", but it was a pretty good show. His original material was more singer-songwriterly than what I normally like, but well-done for that, and I really liked his voice. Plus, he did a pretty cool, seemingly impromptu Neil Young cover - near the end of the set he asked if there were any requests other than "Mad World" or "that Grey's Anatomy song", and someone shouted out "After The Gold Rush!"

edited 6th Jun '12 12:29:58 AM by MikeK

Alice Cooper and Iron Maiden. We showed up a bit late for Alice - not a lot of that half was stuff I knew, and the vibe was a bit hair metal-ier than I expected, but it was a pretty fun set, and I at least got to hear "Poison" and "School's Out". Maiden also played a bunch of stuff I didn't know *

, but they just put on a hell of a show - they sounded great, there was a lot of energy, and of course there's the whole visual spectacle thing. First stadium-type show I've been to in a long time, and I pretty much had a blast.

edited 26th Jun '12 11:16:25 PM by MikeK

Got back from Iron Maiden a few hours ago. Best show I've ever been to (I spent months memorizing the set-list in anticipation).

Coheed and Cambria opened, but I spent the vast majority of their set either zoning out or imaging better opening acts. I distinctly remember thinking "Play Welcome Home and get off the stage." They weren't bad for what they were, but as an opener for Iron Maiden, they weren't great in any degree.

My voice managed to hold out until the encore, after which I was basically screaming badly. One distinct moment was during the bridge of Seventh Son (the moody part before the guitar solo) where I saw an organ-player show up near the back of the stage. I had no idea they'd do that. During the same section Bruce held a note for somewhere over 25 seconds. His voices sounded louder this time for some reason (might have been the superior acoustics in the venue from the last time I saw them).

I kind of wish I brought my lighter for Fear of Dark or Afraid to Shoot Strangers.

I thought Aces High and The Evil that Men Do were great choices for the encore; they're two of my all-time favorites (during Running Free they mainly banter and introduce the members). Overall this was one of my all-time favorites concerts I've ever been to.

P.S: I counted about 3 Coheed and Cambria shirts. Dream Theater were a way better choice as an opening act.