Wow, what a night with This Will Destroy You! I’d seen them once before, just a few years ago, and the experience was mostly the same, but they had more songs from their most recent album (which are somewhat different from the rest of their canon and add a nice flair to their setlist). They aren’t a theatrical or energetic live show, but if you are invested in their music, it is very, VERY emotional. I’ve included tonight’s setlist, every song is a link to the studio version of that song for any people who are interested in this band. And the concert might seem short, but bear in mind the live versions of some of these songs go past the 15 minute mark:
I could not be more excited to see This Will Destroy You tomorrow right here in Harrisburg! Yes, this is a band with a somewhat annoying name (until you get used to it and actually love the name) but they have gradually, over the past few years, become one of the more important bands to me in my life.
This Will Destroy You (TWDY) is what is known as a post rock band, although that term, post-rock, can be argued about at length exactly what it means or what qualifies. The commonly accepted definition is a group of people that plays strictly instrumental rock music, typically long songs, 10 minutes or longer, with multiple sections, no refrain or chorus musically, and an intense quiet/loud dynamic, although any of these elements can be changed, and the fundamental post-rock-ness remains.
Anyway, I began to love this band about 4 years ago, right before Karla and I got together. I had heard their name here and there as I was making me my way down my post rock journey, and had just started listening to their first album when Karla and I got together. I was still living in Philadelphia and she was living in Harrisburg, and she would come to see me about every two weekends. One weekend, TWDY was playing a show in Philly, and she was coming to see me that day, but she wasn’t going to be getting in until late at night. So I left her my door key, and I went to the concert. I remember feeling amazed at the concert, listening to this music that meant so much to me, that was so intense and so profound, knowing that the woman who I already knew I was going to be with for the rest of my life was laying in my bed back in my Philadelphia apartment. Which by the way I was going to ride my bike to after the concert; I was so hip. I felt so amazing, perhaps, the most amazing I’ve ever felt in my life. When I got home that night, I slid into bed with her and woke her up and talked to her about the show, then as she fell back asleep, I put their self titled album on the stereo quietly, and I drifted off to the sounds of Burial on the Presidio Banks.
My relationship with the band has only deepened over the past few years since I moved back to central Pennsylvania. I have acquired a jewel of a collection of their vinyl albums, including the centerpiece of the my post rock collection, their “Live from Reykjavik” on three vinyl records. In addition, the very first movie that Karla and I ever saw in a theater was “Room”, in which their song The Mighty Rio Grande is featured during what is arguably the turning point and the most intense part of the movie. See below:
It is arguable that I put on this band’s music more often than any others, even though at this point I still would not classify them as my actual favorite band, but it is the perfect mood music, when I’m feeling a little down, when I feel like I need inspiration, when I’m reminiscing, when I’m writing. This band’s music runs through the fabric of my life almost like no other band, and somehow, tomorrow night, they’re playing a show in Harrisburg!
My favorite song of theirs is this one, A Three-Legged Work Horse:
I had big plans to write my first big concert blog in a long time after last night’s Arcade Fire show. I long ago ceased writing lengthy concert reviews when I realized nobody really cared (not your fault!). But last night’s show was SO different than any rock concert I’ve been to, I had big plans. But the need to go to work in between the concert and the blog has taken the wind out of my sails, so allow me to make a long story somewhat short.
So the music media has made a big fuss over this tour. Arcade Fire has, in the past year or two, become an immensely popular band, but not in the usual way. They don’t have any radio songs. Their music doesn’t necessarily appeal to the average music consumer. And yet millions and millions of people like them. They are a band with “indie” or “hipster” appeal, and when a band such as that decided to play arenas, a lot of people cry foul. I understand this argument. To make music from a distinctly artful, non-populist place and then play immense buildings whose construction was underwritten by public tax dollars and then named after banks and beer companies, well, it’s weird, but also: that’s life. What ya gonna do? They’d have to play ten times as many club dates to allow this many of their fans to see them. And I have no problem with talented artists getting rich. So anyway. There was also the thing I mentioned earlier in my blog about them requesting formal wear and costume. So yeah. A lot has been said and written about this tour (known as the Reflektor tour).
The band obviously has done all it can to silence these critics. From the moment I entered the building I never once thought about the fact that I was at an arena rock concert. Not once. Not everyone was in costume or formal wear, but well over 50% (my guess would be 70%) were in one or the other. Enough so that I never once felt self-conscious about my mask. There were many and various interesting things set up and taking place throughout the concourses that added to the effect of being somewhere other than a rock show–I don’t have time or space to detail them. The house lights were kept off for the entire duration of the audience being in the building. This is actually unheard-of. What this means is, once we left the concourse area where you buy your beer and t-shirts and went into find our actual seats, the lights were off. Like, even before the opening act. The lights stayed down during the opening act. Of course there were the lights from the stage, etc, but the big lights, the “house lights”, stayed off. This added a major effect of otherworldliness (although admittedly also was in many ways a pain in the ass). The lights stayed off when the opener was done playing, in the wait period before Arcade Fire came out (the house lights always come up between acts!). but most surprisingly, the lights still stayed off even after Arcade Fire was done. This almost seems like a safety concern! But it was worth it. It was the first thing, aside from our own costumes, that immediately changed our expectations of this event.
The modern-day rock concert is very predictable. It moves with a certain pace and certain things always happen on cue. Nothing was to be like that at this show. I swear I’m trying to hurry this story up.
The opening act: Dan Deacon. This man is an electronic musician (he makes music by himself using, well…electronics). Again, right off the bat, just not what this audience is expecting. But I must say, his music does compliment Arcade Fire’s rather well. The big deal here is that Dan didn’t play from the stage Arcade Fire was going to. He was on a stage at the other end of the arena. This was genius. See, the folks in the first 20 or 30 rows against the stage (they are not in assigned seats like me but are General Admission) are not going to do any dancing or moving, because they are concerned with their placement by the stage. But Dan’s position at the other end brings the General Admission folks who were too late to get a good spot at the main stage over to HIS stage, and he proceeds to do amazingly interactive things with them; dance contests, “high five walls”, all kinds of neat stuff that probably is pretty run-of-the-mill at electronica shows but is all-but unheard of at a rock show. The audience was interacting. On a large scale! AND, on top of all this, this unique and terrific activity made those of us in the stands rapt with what was happening. Let me break that down: a bunch of hipster rock fans were rapt with attention at an electronic musician opening act.
So that was kind of neat.
So Dan Deacon got done and we waited for the main act. The lights stayed down which was creepy and awesome and annoying. The wait wasn’t as long as normal. After about 20 minutes, with very close to no warning, the main stage throbs with sound and light, the curtain gets yanked up, and suddenly Arcade Fire is playing “Reflektor”, the title track from their new album. I was really far away but this is what it looked like from closer. It happened with so little warning, I can’t find a video on YouTube that actually caught the beginning:
So then they rocked our faces off for awhile, which I won’t bore you about. There were tremendous things throughout to really set the show apart: confetti and lots of it from the rafters, lots of glow in the dark things, incredible stage presence with jumping and dancing and twirling of strings and people wearing many different masks and just all kinds of oddities. But mostly just really incredible, intelligent, emotionally-charge artistic rock music that can’t be beat.
I regret there is not yet quality video of their performance of “Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)”, a song that is constructed like a swelling rock anthem, but is a story about two children whose town gets completely buried in snow, but they climb out their chimneys and survive, eventually reverting to more bestial ways and forgetting much of their past civilized lives, while also falling in love with one another. It exists as a wholly unique song in the pantheon of rock. It has always moved me with its sideways and unexpected approach to deep human themes such as fear of loss, longing for love, and desire for the unexpected. And yet, as unconventional as it is, as the song began to play, 20,000 people sang, quite loudly, along with me, lines such as
“Then we tried to name our babies,
but we forgot all the names that,
the names we used to know.
But sometimes, we remember our bedrooms,
and our parent’s bedrooms,
and the bedrooms of our friends.”
We were singing these unconventional lines like it meant something to us, like it was important. Like they were secrets.
On their most recent album, they have a song called “We Exist”, which is about the pain of teenage gays “coming out” (so far as I know, everyone in the band is straight). A great moment for me was Win’s introduction of this song, which can be seen in the video below, and then the absolutely terrifyingly gnarly version of the song they proceed to play. What isn’t visible in this video is that during this song, the “reflektor man” came out and stood on Dan Deacon’s stage, as spotlights
“Reflektor Man” on the opener’s stage during “We Exist”
bounced beams onto all of us, as Win sang, from the vantage point of teen gays, We exist! It added yet another layer to the complicated, thrilling, and admittedly academic theme of reflection, twinning, and identity that is explored on the new album.
So the band ended it’s “main set”. Here is one of those conventions of the modern concert industry I was speaking about. The main act plays for about an hour and a half and walks off the stage, pretending the show is over. We all know the show is not going to be over, that there will be an “encore”, regardless of whether it is asked for. It is expected (one way we usually know this? The house lights stay off, which of course means nothing to us now). Well, literally the SECOND Arcade Fire walks off the stage, the openers stage again (which is closest to me) rises up in the air, and there are “The Reflektors”…this is an “alter ego” band that Arcade Fire has used throughout promotion leading up to this album. This alter ego band looks like this:
The Reflektors are normally Arcade Fire wearing exaggerated masks of their own heads (get the exploration of identity and reflection????) but clearly this group that just popped up on the second stage was not them. After claiming to be the true “great band here tonight” and trying to get us to chant “Arcade Fire Sucks”, a recording of Chubby Checker’s “The Twist” started playing and The Reflektors pretended to be playing it. About halfway through the song, Arcade Fire came back out on the main stage (never a moment of us having to cheer really loud for under some guise we were “trying to get them back out”, no long moments of interminable waiting…just straight-through unexpected oddity).
So. The encore. They played a four song encore. The second was a cover of BoyzIIMen’s “Motown Philly”. They’ve been playing geographic-specific covers at every show so far, but I honestly was not prepared for this! Watch this amazement by clicking here.
The next-to-last song was the Haitian-music inspired “Here Comes the Night Time”, which featured by far the largest blast of confetti I’ve ever seen. Click here to see it. Start watching around 3:30 to be in good shape for the confetti blast.
They closed, of course, with their raucous heartwrencher “Wake Up”. If you watch only one video on this page, you should make it this one. Look at and listen to the crowd in the great video this person took. This rivals the best crowd moments I ever had at a Pearl Jam concert. Here are 20,000 grown people have an absolute, without-a-doubt, joyful cathartic moment together. I should have expected that moment when they let us do the singing but it took me by surprise and shook me up. Watch how, after the drastic tempo change about 3/4 of the way through the song, the entire arena turns into a huge dance party. And seeing the big frat-boy-esque lugs beside me just belting out lines like “I guess we’ll just have to adjust!” was a perfect illustration of what makes this band so great, and also so unconventional.
Setlist:
1. Reflektor
2. Flashbulb Eyes
3. Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)
4. Rebellion (Lies)
5. Joan of Arc
6. Rococo (with snippet of Lady Gaga’s “Do What U Want”)
7. The Suburbs
8. The Suburbs (continued)
9. Ready to Start
10. Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
11. We Exist
12. No Cars Go
13. Haiti
14. Afterlife
15. It’s Never Over (O Orpheus)
16. Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)
Encore:
1. Normal Person
2. Motownphilly (Boyz II men)
3. Here Comes the Night Time
4. Wake Up
1. Let’s talk a little bit about Facebook, and/ or any other online social media you’d like to apply this to: my Facebook page is not a magical realm of free speech and considered debate. It (as well as, obviously, my blog. Hey, you want a blog too, you can get one!) is a place where I put the stuff that I already think. Sometimes, that stuff is “I like Triscuits”, but other times it might be “We need stricter gun control in this country, because guns and people kill people.” Those are my opinions, and I didn’t get them from numbskulls like you, I got them from the world, and my observations of it. Now, you are of course more than free to have your own opinions, and even ones that are different than mine, but these people that seem to think that everything needs debated all the time, and that you need to listen to all sides of a debate! are mistaken for a few reasons. Yes, debate is healthy and necessary, but I don’t spend all my time online, nor do my opinions get formed or forged there. By the time I’ve “statused” an opinion, I’ve read about, watched something about it, talked to a human being in person about it, observed something about it, etc. I communicate things via social networks that I already think. Now, you may ask, what’s wrong with even more debate? And my answer to you is, nothing is wrong with more debate, but not Facebook debate. Facebook debate sucks. Nobody is ever swayed by anything said online, it makes me hate you, it reveals your lack of grasp of the English language, it wastes my time, and makes people who like each other say things they regret. Just don’t bother. And then, the topper, is when since it is after all MY Facebook page, I delete the contrary comments so as to avoid the debate, the person notices I’ve deleted the comments and wants to get all high-and-mighty as though I am oppressing their free speech or quashing some important, vital public discourse. Listen Chachi, this aint Meet the Press, you aren’t the Op-Ed page, and Facebook isn’t housed in the National Archive. Step off my status, Anthony Scalia, I already know what the fuck I think.
2. I just saw “Gravity” in the movie theater. This was a fantastic experience. Now, don’t get me wrong, this isn’t about to become my “favorite” movie, but it is very unlike anything else I’ve ever seen in a movie theater. It is an experience. I don’t want to oversell it here, but listen, this thing has GOT to be seen on a big screen, in 3D, if you want to grasp what the whole point of the endeavor is. Do it. Go. Soon.
3. As you may know, for many years, I was a very vocal opponent of professional sports. I thought they are a nuisance distraction from what is generally important in the world. I thought the energy and attention that followers of sports devote to them was a drain on other places they could be placing that attention, such as government and world affairs, the fine arts, the world of science, and the great story of human history. Guess what? I still absolutely think that is true. There isn’t really any getting around it: professional sports are, by-and-large, a great waste of time by otherwise fantastic cultures. It’s just that at some point a few years ago, I made a conscious decision to drink the Kool-Aid. I now follow sports like a 70s housewife followed soap operas; all-too aware of their impotence in the world, but completely invested regardless. And it is through that lens and with those caveats that I now say this: why the fuck do some of you people make a conscious decision to have “your” team be a team that is nowhere near you? Like someone from Pennsylvania, with no connection to Colorado, being a Denver Broncos fan (hey! We have two pretty neat football teams in our very own state!) or someone from California being a Green Bay Packers fan (again…THREE serviceable teams in that particular state). Now, I hear what you’re out there saying: But Seth, didn’t you just say that sports were essentially meaningless? Didn’t you compare them to soap operas? If so, isn’t my choice to follow the Vancouver Canucks just like preferring “General Hospital” over “One Life to Live”? Well, that’s a pretty good point, but you’re wrong. One of the few socially relevant and culturally significant facets sports do afford us is the ability to help define our regional cultures, bring us temporarily and intensely together as citizens of a common area, form loose bonds out of otherwise unrelated people, and energize regions and cities with not only economic growth and civic pride, but a kind of localized patriotism which, even though it arises from games that in reality mean nothing, it serves to define us as people from a certain place, with a certain history and tradition. Once you have bought into this artificial but nonetheless powerful facade, you become part of the tapestry of the history of a place and culture. And you want to go and just…like some team colors? For a team that is from a place you’ve never been, and which you know next-to-nothing about???That is NOT like choosing one soap opera over another, it’s like watching static on a screen while “Gone With the Wind” is on the other channel. Put some meaning into your meaningless sport, I don’t care how long you’ve “liked” the Yankees.
4. My buddy Kyle knows a girl who is in a band called The Colourist, and it turns out, they might actually be on the cusp of being a legit famous band! (how do we know they are going to be famous? You have seen them in a commercial! This commercial!) They are currently on tour opening for a band called The Naked and Famous, which is a band that is currently enjoying a fair amount of stardom, at least on the “indie rock” scene. Anyway, Kyle, knowing my penchant for concert-going and thinking one or both bands might be down my alley, asked his friend who is in The Colourist (her name is Maya) if she could put me on the guest list for their upcoming show in Philly at the Trocadero, and she did! So tomorrow night, I get to go see a rock show for free! Yay! Now, I have not been able to really familiarize myself all that much with the material of either band, but the listening I have done, I like but don’t love. Both bands do make, generally, the kind of music I like, but they seem to draw a bit more from pop influences than usually suits my taste, but again, I haven’t listened too much. But I certainly like them enough to go see them play! Thanks again for the hookup, Kyle!
Here are the songs I have liked most so far from The Colourist as well as The Naked and Famous:
Pictures, video, and setlist from My Morning Jacket show, 8/10/11 in Pittsburgh
Jim James and Neko Case duetting "Islands in the Stream"
The following videos are all from the same show, but only the first, “Knot Comes Loose”, was taken by me (the sound sucks.) The others were taken by people with better cameras and shittier crowd positions. :)
Picture of the setlist taken from the band’s Facebook page:
Setlist:
1. Victory Dance
2. Circuital
3. Off the Record
4. I’m Amazed
5. Gideon
6. You Wanna Freak Out
7. Knot Comes Loose
8. Slow, Slow Tune
9. Evelyn Is Not Real
10. Honest Man
11. Dondante
12. Movin’ Away
13. Smokin’ From Shootin’
14. Run Thru (end only)
15. First Light
16. Touch Me (I’m Going to Scream) part 2
17. Mahgeetah
Encore:
1. Wordless Chorus
2. Islands in the Stream (w/ Neko Case)
3. Holding Onto Black Metal
4. One Big Holiday
So. That was a pretty insane trip home (and lots of other places). I’m not even sure where to begin. This may end up being a ridiculously long and disjointed blog entry. I apologize in advance. If it ends up not being extremely long and disjointed, I will come back and delete this intro, and you will never read it.
First, I should like to thank my family (Dad, Mom, Sister) for their various forms of hospitality and much-needed displays of unconditional love. Yay human spirit and the familial bond! I feel pretty damn good about my family. You guys rule! And thank you to all my friends who made me feel as if I never moved away. I am blessed beyond belief with deep, intense, loyal friendships! In addition, a big frowny face to those who I had to miss on this trip (most notably, loyal blog reader and renowned Muse, Cory. Little does she know, my next trip home is going to be so all about her, she will have to call the cops on me. And the truly lovely Mercedes, whom I am unabashedly smitten with. Also, on-again-off-again blog reader Tiff, who I had *promised* a certain something to…well, next time, ok???). I was stretched a little thin to do and see everything and everyone I wanted, but it was fairly satisfying nonetheless.
My Zany Itinerary
Let me just show you the zaniness of where I’ve been the last week and a half. I am going to include tomorrow, as I go to Pittsburgh tomorrow for a work seminar. Here’s where I was, for the most part, the last ten days:
3/25: Erie, PA/ Carlisle, PA
3/26: Carlisle, PA/ Asbury Pary, NJ
3/27: Mantua, NJ
3/28: Brooklyn, NY/ Newark, NJ
3/29: Manhattan, NY/ Mantua, NJ
3/30: Mantua, NJ/ Carlisle, PA
3/31: Carlisle, PA
4/1: Carlisle, PA
4/2: Carlisle, PA/ Erie, PA
4/3: Erie, PA
4/4: Pittsburgh, PA
4/5: Pittsburgh, PA/ Erie, PA
And I aint even tired yet. Bring. It. On.
My Newville Tour
Early on in my trip, I had a little extra time to kill early in the morning, and I drove into Newville (the small town I grew up in) and walked around the town for the first time in many years (I have been there plenty as of late, but not actually walked around). I took some pictures of major landmarks in my life, also making sure to get a few pictures of some of the places that have played large parts in some of my blog entries. Here is a bit of a pictorial tour of Newville:
My first house, 66 Big Spring Avenue. My bedroom was the top two windows on the right of the picture.
I have been trying to upload the famous picture of my mother and I admiring my grandmother’s garden, but I am having some trouble, so here is a link to that picture on Facebook. And here is a picture of that back yard area today:
One of my most popular blog entries ever was “The Fruit that Ate Itself“, about me being bullied in a local church yard. I snapped some pics of that area in current day:
The church yard itself.
The line of trees is where the dreaded swingset and slide had been.
The Senior Center where the "fight" ended. Those are the bushes I flew through in the climactic moment.
If you’ve read my blog entry “Down the Rabbit Hole“, you may be interested to see this cellar door on one of my childhood neighbor’s homes:
OK, so just a few more pics here, but not related to any previous blog, just some Seth-historic stuff:
The very spot where I got on a school bus for the very first time.
This was my corner when I was a crossign guard.
Friendies
I had almost too much fun with friendies to try to sum things up here. I’ll hit some highlights:
I surprised Kate with my presence not once but twice, and she lost. her. shit. each time. First, Michael and I surprised her at her house:
It was also on this visit that this picture of Michael happened:
A few days later, I was strolling through Carlisle wasting a few minutes before picking up another friend, when I came across Kate and her family at the local eatery The Green Room. As I was leaving them I took this pic of Kate, her husband Matt, and their son Dylan:
Let me just take this moment to say, as I was strolling around Carlisle that night, I was struck by just how freaking cool of a town it is. Those of you who still live there, please do not take it for granted. First, it is totally adorable. And such a great pedestrian town! And for a relatively small town in central Pennsylvania, it is arts-friendly. Open mic nights, free music, poetry readings, public displays of photography, and on and on, are quite common. The area known as the square and the surrounding blocks are humming with a vibrant intellectual life (not to mention some fantastic cuisine). Please partake of what the gem of a town has to offer!
My brief time with Burke was spent in some fairly intense conversation that may, in fact, make me think about my life differently. Oh, and Johnny Depp is a fucking sellout.
I spent some truly hilarious time with Jenny. Jenny is quickly becoming a Major Friend. (if her name is unfamiliar to you, this was the last woman to be an “official girlfriend”…and if my hunch is true– that I am a lifetime bachelor– she may go down in the history books as the last woman to be an official Seth girlfriend…what a distinction!). Anyway, I sure do love this woman. She has the special ability to make me laugh until I am worried about my health…without saying anything. She has a non-verbal humor akin to Kramer. She can just look at me and I lose my shit. Here we are, loving life:
Of course, you know I saw Michael, and it resulted in a moment of hilarity that I am pretty sure you “had to be there” for, but we decided that Merle Haggard had at one point recorded the “classic” song “You’re Gonna Make Daddy Fart (and Momma Aint Gonna Be Happy)”. I still laugh when I type that.
Mary and I had one helluva time trying to find parking in downtown Harrisburg—notable because it’s usually not THAT hard. Sure, those few blocks in the very center of town are tough, but we were unable to find ANY spots on the street ANYWHERE. When we finally did park (in a garage) we ended up just hanging around Strawberry Square , when in fact we had intended to go to the Susquehanna Art Museum. I’m still not sure in the least how this distraction occurred, but we had a blast. But the major news from this venture is that Mary has OK’d some photographs of herself! You may or may not know that pictures of Mary are quite rare. She just hates pictures of herself, and of course I love taking pictures of people, so this is a friction. Plus, she really is one of the most exquisite women in existence, so I always feel as though the world in general is being deprived of some joy by the absence of Mary pictures. When I take a Mary picture, I have to show her, wheneupon she then either insists on immediate deletion, OKs the picture for my own personal collection but not anyone else’s eyes, or (the most rare) OKs a picture for online distribution. So here, lucky world, are 4 new Mary pictures:
That's the back of Mary's head in the lower right.
Staying at Dad’s
It is with much chagrin that I realize I did not take a single picture of my papa and me on this trip. *sad face* Nonetheless, I must say, spending time with my dad just gets more and more pleasant as the two of us age. It never stops surprising me how we continue to grow into friends (while he retains his essential papa-ness). He is one cool dude and we somehow never run out of things to talk about.
This also marked the first time in recent memory that I have stayed at Dad’s for multiple days without my sister also being there. In this sense it was entirely unique. The last time I stayed at my dad’s by myself for more than one night was way back when I was still drinking and on-again, off-again living there. So this was new, and really, really great. In a lot of ways, it felt like a true homecoming, learning how that house and I interact when I’m a grown-up, and sober, and left all alone with it. Turns out we get along just fine. And I sleep magnificently in my old bedroom. But it’s tough getting used to that shower again.
Hey Rosetta!
I’m gonna really have to shrink down the Hey Rosetta! story, or I’ll be here all day. So, in summary:
Here are pictures from Paul and I’s show in Asbury Park, NJ. It was a fantastic time, both Paul-wise (Paul, thanks for helping me see that not all my close friends have to be women!) and band-wise. Really, one of the more satisfying concert-going experiences I’ve had.
Then, I made an audible call and went to see them by myself twice more over the next three days, in New York City (more on NYC later). Long story short, I ended up basically knowing the band. But they started talking to me. I suppose when you are a band that is really famous and successful in Canada, and then you come to the states and are playing bars where most of the people are ignoring you, and there is a short fat guy with gray hair jumping around and screaming your lyrics, when he shows up to your NEXT show in a different state, it is worth taking note. So as I was taking this picture of the chalk board advertising their show in Brooklyn, a few of the band members were walking out of the bar and saw me and introduced themselves.
Because shows like this entail a lot of waiting around (if you insist, like I do, on front row) in small bars with no “backstage” area for bands, as well as lots of changing-out of gear between bands (not to mention trips to very small bathrooms), the two shows in New York would prove extremely fertile ground for me talking to the band. This went way beyond my previous “thank you, your music has meant so much to me” that I’ve been able to give other bands. This was basically a getting-to-know-you situation. Specifically cellist Romesh Thavanathan, lead guitarist Adam Hogan, and violinist Kinley Dowling spoke quite a bit to me and I was definitely on a first-name basis with them by the end of my second New York show, and I’d had a chance to speak to every member of this six-piece band. Certainly, this was fairly incredible, but also….in some ways, not as great as you’d think. Parts of this experience were awkward. I may blog more about this at some point, just because it was pretty intriguing (ever have your favorite band watch you as they are playing?) But don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t trade it for the world. It was an amazing experience. Here is a video I took of “Red Song” at Union Hall in Park Slope, Brooklyn, followed by a few select pictures of the New York shows:
I also managed to snag handwritten setlists off the stage two of the three nights. Here are scans of the setlists:
So now, for the benefit of probably just myself and maybe Paul, here is some Hey Rosetta! setlist discussion: on the first setlist shown, Bandages was skipped. On the second shown (from my thrid concert, Manhattan) ‘Bandages’ and ‘Red Heart’ were swapped in position (as were the two songs where a swap is indicated, ‘Yer Spring’ and ‘Welcome’…and talk about a way to open a show! “Lions For Scottie” into “Welcome”!) Here are all three setlists for shows I went to this tour:
Asbury Park, NJ
1. New Goodbye
2. Yer Spring
3. New Glass
4. Bricks
5. Another Pilot
6. There’s an Arc
7. Seeds
8. Red Heart
1. New Goodbye
2. Yer Spring
3. New Glass
4. Bricks
5. Another Pilot
6. There’s an Arc
7. Welcome
8. Red Song
9. We Made a Pact
10. Seeds
11. Red Heart
12. A Thousand Suns*
*’Bandages’ is on the setlist in the 12 spot, but ‘A Thousand Suns’ was played.
Manhattan, NY
1. Lions For Scottie
2. Welcome
3. Yer Spring
4. New Glass
5. Yer Fall
6. There’s an Arc
7. I’ve Been Asleep For a Long, Long Time
8. Holy Shit
9. New Sum
10. Seeds
11. New Goodbye
Encore:
1. Bandages
2. Red Heart
And now, for the record, the sum total of Hey Rosetta! songs I’ve seen, including the two acoustic shows I saw last year:
1. Red Heart–5 times
2. Bricks–4 times
3. I’ve Been Asleep For a Long, Long Time–3 times
4. Lions for Scottie–3 times
5. Bandages–3 times
6. New Goodbye–3 times
7. Yer Spring–3 times
8. New Glass–3 times
9. There’s an Arc–3 times
10. Seeds–3 times
11. Seventeen–2 times
12. Red Song–2 times
13. We Made a Pact–2 times
14. Another Pilot–2 times
15. Welcome–2 times
16. A Thousand Suns–1 time
17. Yer Fall–1 time
18. Holy Shit–1 time
19. New Sum–1 time
Mom’s/ Sisters
So my mom now lives with my sister, which makes visiting everybody much easier! It was quite nice to see everybody all at once! In the same breath, however, I must admit it made me feel as though I did a poor job of paying ample attention to everyone. When you are seeing a gaggle of loved ones all at once for the first time in a long time, it can be a strain to give equal time. I think specifically of the nephews, who I love uncontrollably but whom I was not able to give the sort of attention they are accustomed to receiving from me. When it came down to it, my mom and my sister were the center of my focus (not to mention the antics of Pumpkin Latte). Don’t get me wrong, I had a lovely time! I guess I’m just feeling some guilt, cause those boys worked up a good amount of anticipation for my arrival and I almost certainly dissapointed. That being said, the time with Momma and Sis was marvelous. LOTS of laughs, and a new momma/ son tradition: I claim her and I are going to do the Jumble together, and then I end up freaking out over how amazing she is at it, while I add absolutely nothing to the process (she really is amazing at the Jumble). Also, I “T”d my sister, which always rules. A brief but incredibly heartwarming time. Some select pics:
Sister and Pumpkin Latte, as she was taking their picture
Sis, Me, Mom
New York
The New York trip is another thing I shall have to gloss over, or I’ll be writing this blog entry until next week. I did what I typically do: I drive right into the city, pay a thousand dollars to park, and just walk around. I usually have very little plan other than one or two fairly simple goals. This trip’s goals: see sunrise from inside Central Park, and buy a New York Times from a newsstand and read the whole thing from inside a midtown Manhattan Starbucks during the morning commute hours. I’m not sure why I wanted to do these things, but once the goals were in my mind, I could not seem to let them go. I accomplished both, and although being in Central Park during sunrise was magical, it was not easy to get any great pictures of the event, due to the vast amount of:
a) Tall trees, and
b) skyscrapers
These things blocked the view of the actual sunrise rather effectively, but feeling the world come alive from within the park was quite joyous. Here is the best picture I got of the sunrise:
I spent almost two hours in the Starbucks, enjoying my latte and an incredible issue of the NYT. I suppose for a moment I felt as hip as I’ve always suspected I am. It was a quality time.
I spent the rest of the day wandering around, taking pictures, eating, even napping briefly in the tranquil section of Central Park known as the Woodlands. I also visited, for the first time, the Central Park Zoo, which was a lovely treat. Here is some video I took of the Sea Lions being fed (and putting on a little show) followed by some pictures:
Sunset, Brooklyn
Me in Central Park
Some Things I Learned
1. 8 months is not long enough to forget how to get around (but it IS long enough to cause some occasional navigation confusion)
2. When you are a single man in your 30s who moves away from everyone he knows and doesn’t visit home for 8 months, a surprising amount of people from all demographics will just straight-up ask you about your sex life. This is fodder for an entire blog entry at some point that will be in the form of a “rant”. FYI, nobody need worry about my sex life, mkay?
3. You may think where you live is boring, but leave it for a little while and then come back; you may just find it’s really cool.
4. There are really hot ladies everywhere.
5. Don’t tell people you got fat. You may think it will make your fatness less awkward, but it makes it moreso.
6. Things change. Buildings get knocked down, businesses change their name, streets get re-directed. Accept these things as a natural course of existence. (reminds me of a Hey Rosetta! song: “The schools that we went to have all been closed./ And all of my teachers are dead, I suppose.”)
7. You can walk further than you think you can.
8. If you move and your sports allegiances change a little bit, you can just kinda keep that to yourself on your first few visits home.
9. As you leave places you have stayed for just a day or two, remember to gather all your various “chargers”. We have a lot of chargers in this day and age.
10. Family and friends really are the best things in the world, even if saying so sounds cheesy and cliche. Fuck it, it’s true!
I Almost Forgot…
Today is my 8 year sobriety anniversary! The original purpose of this vacation was for me to have off and see my loved ones leading up to the big day. (I just have to complete my anniversary tradition of watching “Dark Days” on the anniversary itself) So…yay me! But also…yay you! Thanks everybody for putting up with my horribleness when I was horrible, and then helping me live such a satisfying and fantastic life in my sobriety! What a treat, to be able to celebrate the week leading up to it in the way I did. And how neat is it that I almost forgot today was the day??? That must mean life is pretty good. I love you, everybody!
The Hey Rosetta! show in Asbury Park, NJ with Paul was a truly thrilling experience (so much so that I am locked in an intense internal debate over whether to go see them again in Manhattan sometime Monday or Tuesday…I guess you’ll find out via blog post eventually!) I’d type a longer entry about Paul andI’s experience, but I’m on my sister’s laptop and this keyboard and mouse are confounding me. This time, the band was fully electric (you may remember the first two times I saw them, they were acoustic) and it was MINDBLOWING. Paul and I once again got to thank the band and shake their hands, and we both got handwritten copies of the setlist off the stage (I’ll be scanning mine in when I get home). A ball-to-the-wall awesome time. The setlist was:
1. New Goodbye
2. Yer Spring
3. New Glass
4. Bricks
5. Another Pilot
6. There’s an Arc
7. Seeds
8. Red Heart
Hello folks!!! As you may or may not have heard, I am writing you from the ol’ homestead of central Pennsylvania (and New Jersey and maybe New York or Philadelphia, at some point). I didn’t give any forewarning on this develppment, as I desperately wanted to avoid having an “appointment” vacation, where I make so many plans with people I no longer seem to posses free will. I want to visit home but also have an actual vacation. I mean…I work real hard.
Anyway, you won’t (probably) be hearing from me much in the interim, although before I left Erie I set up a few blogs to post automatically (mostly the recurring blogs with days in their names…Monday’s Song, etc) so we won’t feel my absence entirely. I just wanted to put that out there in case you happen to know I’m in the middle of a 5 hour drive and an Audio Poem posts, you know I’m not doing that shit from my car!
I had a perfect day yesterday, seeing my dad in the morning, some terrific friends (Michael and Kate) in the afternoon, and then having a near-flawless road trip with Paul to see a mind-blowing Hey Rosetta! (not to mention getting to meet Paul’s precious brand-new son, Parker). Paul: we somehow seem to have more to talk about with each other than we did as younger men, plus we laugh even more. What a rare quaility. You’re a gem, sir.
I’m off to New Jersey now (I know…I was just there yesterday, but I promise, it’s not the same town) to see my mother, my sister, my nephews, and Pumpkin Latte.
Also, it’s really sunny, and 42 degrees (right now that feels like 70!)
And just wait till you see the pictures I’ve been getting!
Like…OMG. I was just surfing around Ticketmaster.com, trying to find something cheap and easy to go see or do in the next week or so. I happened to come across a listing for a band called Gifts From Enola. I was intrigued, as there is a town called Enola near Harrisburg. They are playing in the same venue I saw Deerhunter at a few months ago in Cleveland. So I looked them up. And they are a small post rock band. (post rock is the genre of rock that is super-serious instrumental stuff. There are not a lot of post rock bands, and seeing one live—even a smaller one—is a rare event. A few of my most favoritest bands are post rock, such as Explosions in the Sky and Godspeed You! Black Emperor). It’s on a day I have off (and I work midnight the next night) and tickets are six dollars. So even if it snows, I can just not go and I won’t be out a big loss. This is a tremendous find. And there are two opening bands listed who I haven’t even looked up yet! This is major! Check out the video for their song “Dime and Suture”, posted below. It is certainly not for everybody, but it is like whoa for me.
So after raving and annoying everyone for the better part of a year about Hey Rosetta!, I finally saw them twice over the weekend, and boy howdy, it did not disappoint! I’ll sum everything up lickety-split: had an awesome time seeing Paul and Davey, saw two great sets of music, met and had conversations with two members of the band (Tim Baker, lead singer and main songwriter, and Romesh Thavanathan, cellist), had those two members sign one of their vinyl albums, spent a relaxing and spiritually fulfilling day on my own leisurely driving from Ithaca to Buffalo then meandering around Buffalo, eating lots of food and taking artsy pictures, then had an even longer conversation with Tim Baker the second night (he came over to me after their set while they were still tearing their equipment down and talked to me from the stage, then asked me to stop by their merchandise booth and talk to him before I left! Then we had a 5 minute conversation before I left which bordered insanely on “friend-like”. It was like walking in a dream. Granted, I’ve only been a fan for a few years, it’s not like this is a major band from my history like Pearl Jam or 7m3, but I don’t think I can deny they’ve vaulted to “favorite band” status, so it was beyond cool!). So there’s a really quick rundown of the weekend.
There was, I suppose, a minor dissapointment. Because Hey Rosetta! was opening for a schmaltzy singer-songwriter lady named Sarah Harmer whose fans aren’t really hard rockers, Hey Rosetta! opted to play sort of “Unplugged” sets on this mini-tour. Parts of this were really cool—the arrangements of these songs like this are actually really, really cool and coupled with the fact that these shows are now very unique in the Hey Rosetta! universe gave these shows a very special and intimate feel (and probably gave Tim Baker much more reason to ask me questions about the show than he normally would have; it was quite clear he wasn’t exactly sure how the whole thing was coming off). However, I can’t deny that there were parts when I wished I could have jumped around and lost my mind. A few of these songs are real blood-pumpers and even though the slow, quiet versions were beautiful, I wanted some loudness! Here is an example of the changes. This first video is the studio version of one of my favorite songs of their, “I’ve Been Asleep For a Long, Long Time”. You just have to hear the first 30 seconds or so to get an idea of how it goes:
Now here is video I took at the Buffalo show of the “unplugged” version of the same song. I have no idea why it’s so damn dark, it wasn’t that dark in person! Also my damn batteries ran out halfway through the song (did you read that, Mom?) so you don’t get to see the extremely interesting way they end this version. But still, you can see the extreme difference in the arrangements:
So, you can see it’s a very cool version. I feel pretty special having seen these versions, but now I just need to see the electric set! here are the setlists:
Ithaca setlist
1. 17 (new song)
2. Red Song
3. Brick (new song)
4. I’ve Been Asleep for a Long, Long Time
5. Lions for Scottie
6. Red Heart
7. Bandages (new song)
Buffalo setlist
1. 17 (new song)
2. I’ve Been Asleep For a Long, Long Time
3. Brick (new song)
4. Red Song
5. Lions For Scottie
6. We Made a Pact
7. Bandages (new song)
Here is video I took of “Red Song” in Ithaca. This is not a different version of the song; this is the studio version:
I need to thank my buddies Paul and Davey for making the weekend so special; we’ve agreed to have a similar outing once every 6 months. It’s good to rekindle things. Anyone else want to rekindle? Oh and I now have a new codename. It’s no longer Wise Guy in the Backseat, but M.R. Science. That’s not mister science, but the letter M and R, like the M.R. Ducks t-shirt. I dig it.
Anyway, I had a much more artisitic and heartfelt blog entry in mind, but I am just burnt out, so this will have to do. Here are a bunch of pictures from all phases of the weekend. (I originally posted about 3 times as many photos but WordPress is being weird. This will have to suffice; also a few of the captions are acting weird, my apologies.)
Me with Tim Baker at Castaways in Ithaca, NY.
Paul with Tim Paul and Davey at Castaways in Ithaca
First attempt to get a picture of all three of us. My head looks like a peanut.
Success! My head looks like a peanut.
The vinyl that Tim and Romesh signed for me. That's Tim who wrote the sentence.
Here’s some pictures from my big Hey Rosetta! weekend. It was a totally freakin amazing weekend in lots of ways. I’ll have a bigger blog about it tomorrow but thought I’d put some pics up now. *yawn* I am so totally sleeping 14 hours!
Me with Tim Baker, lead singer!
Oh yeah, I got all artsy when I had time to kill in Buffalo
Found some interestng sights on the drive from Ithaca to Buffalo
First picture of me, Paul, and Davey together at the same time in many years. My head looks like a peanut.
I know most of you are probably sick of hearing me blather on about the incredible amazing fantastic band Hey Rosetta! And it looks like, very soon, I may be able to rein in the salivating.
Barring any unforeseen craziness, (read: snow) I should be seeing the band live TWICE this coming weekend: Friday in Albion, NY and Saturday in Buffalo, NY. They’re opening for a singer/ songwriter named Sarah Harmer who I haven’t heard of before and who I still haven’t been able to really familiarize myself with, although most of her music seems to sound like this (click ‘preview track’). In short–not bad, but not exciting. Having read her wikipedia page, it seems she may in fact be rather famous in some circles. I just aint in dem circles.
ANYWAY, the mondo super exciting element of this New York excursion is the fact that the first concert, in Ithaca, will be being attended not only my myself but by two of my longest-held dudefriends, Paul (codename: Mr. Turnpike) and Davey (codename: Nature Boy). It’s been yeeeaaaarrrs since the 3 of us hung out at the same time, and even longer than that since we went on an exciting road trip together (it should be noted that the three of us essentially invented the “exciting road trip”, so this is really like a comeback tour for us.) Paul and I will be spending Friday night in a hotel in a town close to Ithaca (the town of Painted Post, NY), with Paul leaving early the next morning to head back to PA to play in a championship game in his flag football league (Davey will just be going home Friday after the show, as he lives in upstate NY and Painted Post is the opposite direction from his house.) While Paul drives home to play in his football game, I’ll be driving to Buffalo, NY, to see Hey Rosetta! a second time on Saturday night, this time by myself! If this all seems confusing (and you for some reason give a crap) I am prepared to provide you with maps of all three of our movements.
First, on Friday afternoon, I will be driving from Erie to Painted Post, NY, to meet Paul at our hotel. Here’s what that looks like.
Likewise, Friday afternoon, Paul will leave from central PA to Painted Post, NY, to meet me at the hotel. At the moment I can’t remember where his work is located, so I’ve got him leaving from Carlisle.
Around this same time, Nature Boy Christopher Davey will be leaving his home in the city of Oswego, NY and heading to the town the concert is in–Ithaca, NY. This is Davey’s trip.
After meeting at the hotel, Paul and I will travel together from Painted Post to Ithaca.
Then the three of us are meeting, having dinner, and going to the show, which will look kind of amazing, like this:
That might sound overly complicated to you, but I think maybe I’ve just over-explained it. The point is that I am really, really excited about this trip. I am more excited to see Hey Rosetta! than I have been to see a band since the first time I saw Pearl Jam in 2000. Add to that an excursion with two lifelong pals–well, it might be awesome, but it also sounds like the beginning of a movie…
So, barring it turning into “Judgment Night” (and if it meant we got to hang out with Jeremy Piven, I might even be OK with that), it’s gonna be a great two days!!
(for the record, my codename is Wise Guy in the Back Seat OR Wise Man in the Back Seat, depending which one of them you ask. You can imagine this is the kind of nickname an alcoholic comes by. Luckily it’s too damn long for anyone to ever really call me it!)
I’m going to see the band Deerhunter on Thursday!!!! This is super exciting to me, but not to any of you. Not only do none of you know them, I think it’s a fair wager that not a single person I know in the whole world could even be swayed to like this band. Hence, I’m not even going to really write up a pre-show blog about the band, but trust me, this band is incredibly interesting, and here’s just a few reasons why (aside from their music):
1. Active since only 2001, they have about twice as many ex-members as current members. They are, to put it lightly, a band with much drama within the ranks.
2. Lead singer/ founder/ songwriter/ bossman Bradford Cox suffers from Marfan Syndrome, describes himself as asexual, claims to write all of his lyrics improvised in the studio (there’s no way this is true) and fires just about everyone he convinces to join his band.
3. For a brief time, they had a smokin-hot female guitar player who could play the shit out of her guitar (Whitney Petty). Unfortunately, she got fired before I could ever see them live. I do not mention this out of an entitled sense of patriarchy; but rather, simply because at this level of rock, the only women you usually find are singers in gimmick bands; a legitimately awesome guitar player of THIS kind of rock is a notable rarity (especially when she’s hot).
I could go on and on, and I haven’t even started with talking about the music yet! (also, I will be seeing two very interesting opening acts: Casino vs. Japan and Real Estate, two noteworthy indie acts in themselves.)
I’ll just post two links on the outside chance that you are interested. First, here is my personal favorite song off their brand new album. The song is “Desire Lines”, the album is Halcyon Digest:
And here is a live performance (featuring now-fired sexy guitarist Whitney Petty) of my favorite song off their last album. The song is “Nothing Ever Happened” off their album Microcastles. Some of you may know this song, as it was the lead track on my “Best of 2008” CD that I sent some of you:
We all know I have a habit of writing a preparatory blog about artists I am about to see in concert a few days before I see them; I do this because most of the bands I like are completely unheard-of, and maybe partly because I’ve run out of truly interesting things to write about, but whatever, you’re here, and that’s all that counts. I’ll try to keep it short.
Band of Horses is one of those indie bands that is super, super hip inside the indie rock community but will probably never break through to the mainstream, as their music is simply not commercial (though they do have a song, “The Funeral”, that has been used in a few car commercials). Although, they are quite reminiscent of My Morning Jacket, a band that, despite never having a song on the radio, now plays to sold-out stadiums, so I suppose there’s hope for a large audience for Band of Horses.
They’re actually a fairly new band. I’m too lazy to look it up but I wanna say they’ve been around since 2005. A little over a year ago, I put them at #80 on my list of 100 Favorite Bands. Now, after a third album has been released, I’m sure they’d enter my top 30.
Here’s their only moderately “famous” song, “The Funeral”. Lyrics are on the video:
They’re a difficult band to amply describe. Like My Morning Jacket, they seem to draw equal influence from country, rock, and seventies standards, melding all the sounds into something so cool it’s almost corny, or so corny it’s almost cool. (“The Funeral” is much more “rock-y” than their typical song). Witness this song, “Factory”, which seems to meld Big Band, Americana (think The Band or Gov’t Mule) and freak-era Bowie.
Band of Horses also contains one of the more interesting figures in Indie Rock–Ben Bridwell, lead singer/songwriter. Much in the way The Lemonheads were not a very famous band, but their lead singer Evan Dando was a major spokesman for the music of their time, Bridwell fronts a laregly ignored band but is one of the more interesting figures in indie rock at the current time. Couple that with the fact that the band doesn’t tour very much and their tours are very brief, and it does in fact feel very special that I’ll be seeing them next week.
Also, opening for them is a band called Brad. I do not know Brad’s music very much, but I do know that Brad is a side project of a man named Stone Gossard. Stone is the rhythm guitarist for Pearl Jam!!! He’s also my third favorite member of Pearl Jam and my favorite guy named Stone, as well as my favorite guy to ever wear an all-orange outfit! So even though I don’t know the band’s music very well, it’ll be awesome to see Stone up close and see him playing music in a small venue.
Back to Band of Horses: this is my favorite song of theirs. I simply cannot get enough of it!
So I had a really, really amazing time seeing (and, yes, meeting) Emily Wells last night! My heart is still all sorts of aflutter!
First, although you may percieve my fandom of Ms. Wells as being brand new, allow me to direct you to my 100 favorite bands post from January of this year, where I list “the Emily Wells trio” at #43 (I even linked to a video!). Of course, this is kinda a cheat—the trio is only a touring band, Emily records as a solo artist, but I really wanted to get her in there!
Anyway, she’s been circling around the periphery of my favorites for a few years now, and has really been climbing over the past year as more and more new songs started to hit YouTube (a new album is coming soon). Also, I follow her more closely than a lot of artists because her Facebook is actually HER, and she responds to comments and actually interacts with you.
In short, I am totally in love with her, which is very rare for me. I’m not the kind of guy who goes gaga for women he hasn’t met and/or famous women. But Ms. Wells is just amazingly talented, adorable, cool as shit, and has a huuuuuuge sex appeal. So when I saw she was coming to within a few hours of me, I jumped at the chance to see her live.
The show was at an on-campus “coffee shop” at Oberlin College. It was a nice drive there–it took me right through downtown Cleveland. I’ve been to Cleveland before but not for many years, and never sober or by myself, so it was a cool experience. Then I arrived at the coffee shop, called The Cat in the Cream. The doors were locked, as I could hear Emily and her trio still soundchecking inside (I arrived at 7, show was slated for 8:30). What I found interesting was not just a lack of anyone else milling about waiting for the doors, but the generally deserted nature of the campus in general. After wandering around for awhile, I overheard some students mentioning that this was the first Friday evening since classes started; no one was really into hanging around campus, and despite Oberlin’s reputation as a hip arts and music school, Emily Wells just might not be famous enough yet to keep kids from going to off-campus keg parties.
So around 7:45 I went back to the Cat in the Cream. I could still hear Emily soundchecking, but I tried the door anyway, and it opened. Inside was a tiny coffee shop with about 20 tables and a stage that was clearly built for singer-songwriter open mic nights. The trio was soundchecking a song I’d never heard, but I didn’t look at them right away–for some reason I was “playing it cool”. I walked to the counter and bought a coffee (they didn’t have espresso drinks; some coffee shop!), walked to a table in the front, center stage, and experienced my first ever bout of star-struckness at a female (I’ve been star-struck a few times at male artists, but this female thing was very very new to me).
The first thing I noticed was she was short; at least as short as me if not shorter. This rules. And she is just so, SO adorable. No pics or videos properly convey her level of adorablness. Here is some video I took of her talking to the sound guy during the soundcheck:
At this point, it was just myself and 5 other people in the coffee shop. The trio ended their soundcheck and left. The lights went down as we waited about 20 minutes for the show to start. During those 20 minutes, the number of attendees swelled from 5 to approximately 30–most of them on a few couches in the back. As bad as I feel for artists playing to half-empty rooms, this is even more cool for me, as I get more eye-contact time from the artists.
The trio came in and opened with a song I’ve never heard (Emily kept telling us they were playing mostly new stuff, and she was right. I only knew about 5 of the probably 15 songs they played, but it was all really incredible). Anyway, here is video I took of the show opening:
In all seriousness, I am not just in love with Emily’s personality and looks. Her music is fucking incredible, and I honestly can’t imagine a more talented single musician I’ve ever seen live. What she does with looping and multi-instrumental songs is beyond anything you’ve ever seen. If she were a man, I’d be just as into him. This is addictive music that takes a few listens to completely fall in love with. The fact that I think her and I are perfectly matched as a couple only adds to the allure. :) Here is some video I took of some between-song banter of hers:
As I said, most of the songs were new but incredible, but they did play the best of the already established songs, all of which I was way too into to spend any time shooting video. Of the “symphonies”, they played 1, 2 and 6, and they were OUT OF THIS WORLD. Especially notable was “Symphony 2: The Click Boom Boom”, which was one of the most satisfying live experiences I’ve ever witnessed. There appears to only be one video in all of YouTube-land of this song being performed live, and the quality os not great, but here it is (NOT from the show I was at):
So, after the show, most everybody just filed out of the coffee shop. After seeing a truly incredibly performance from an incredible woman, my usual fearlessness had been replaced by a tiny amount of nervousness, but I did approach Emily as she was packing her stuff up. “Emily!” I said, and she looked up from the wires she was…doing something with. “Great show!” I extended my hand and shook hers, which was miraculously smaller than mine! “Thanks for all the great music.” She smiled and said I was welcome, and thanked me for coming. I wanted to gush more and perhaps ask for a picture with her, but I was not getting a “say more” vibe. I also wasn’t getting a “leave me alone” vibe, but I was pretty content with the interaction I’d gotten. I also told the drummer, who was right next to her, that he was amazing (he was, too).
After meeting 7 Mary 3 last year, and now the incredible Ms. Wells, I am fully addicted to meeting and thanking my favorite musicians. And it’s that thanking part that’s key; I have rarely been as happy in my life as I am when I get to tell the artists who bring me joy how important that is to me.
I’m going to see Emily Wells play at Oberlin College on Friday. This is incredibly exciting to me!!! Let me just give you a really quick rundown: Emily Wells makes music that’s a bit uncategorizable; she uses mostly violin, and uses loops to create full-bodied songs all by her lonesome (though she often tours with her “trio” which is her and a bassist and drummer). It’s got a bit of rock and a bit of hip-hop and a bit of classical in it. And her voice is just haunting. Also, she’s the first female musical artist that I’ve gotten into whose music really moves me, and whom is not a lesbian, and whom I am kinda sorta totally in love with. This is a totally new element to music for me, and seeing her in person is gonna be doubly thrilling because of it.. Anyway, check this video out, it’ll give you a good idea of what she does. She’s creating loops of sound, gradually building the song by herself. She does most of the work with her feet (using pedals to loop the sound) so you don’t even really notice her doing it. This takes a tremendous amount of talent:
Then, if you liked that, watch this (this is her with the Trio):
While I’d love nothing more than to write a lengthy, detailed narrative of said awesome day, I don’t really have time, so I’m just gonna tell you about one moment that was a really knockout moment for me.
I was in Buffalo, NY to see an Ed Kowalczyk show (he’s the former lead singer of LIVE). The show was a free show in a small park in a square in downtown. I arrived around noon (first openng act was to go on at 5) and parked about 20 feet from the park. I spent awhile scoping out the venue (the stage was up and there was ‘staff’ milling about, but the park was otherwise empty) and then I commenced wandering around the city for a bit.
(quick side note: I love Buffalo. Why? It’s the most pedestrian-centric city I’ve ever been in. Wider sidewalks than Manhattan, soft music piped EVERYWHERE. You can’t even see the speakers, they must be hidden in planters, etc…just a great city to walk around in. I’ll post a full entry about this sometime)
Anyway, after about two hours of wandering I ended up just a block from the stage a Lafayette Square, sitting at an outdoor table at a coffee shop, drinking a really delicious, piping hot caramel latte. The sun was shining, it was about 80 degrees with a gentle lake breeze, I had nowhere to go, the quiet light jazz was being piped onto the street from somewhere, and life was just really freaking nice. (this was when I Facebook-statused “LML”). It was an incredibly simple, beautiful moment, and it’s magnificence was not lost on me.
After sitting and enjoying the moment for a few minutes, I was jarred to reality by the thought that an Ed Kowalczyk song was playing down at the square (this was still only about 3pm). I thought, It’s quite odd they’d play an Ed song on the day of an Ed show, as I thought they had simply started playing music through the massive speakers set up for the concert. but after a few minutes I realized the sound was too “live”. Ed was soundchecking! I got up and walked (did not run) down the block to the park. Ed and his band were playing one of the new songs off Ed’s solo album (which I did not hear any of until I bought it at the merch table after the show, so I fear I’ll never know what song I hear them soundcheck). There were about 6 people in the park watching Ed’s soundcheck, and I suspect all of them just happened to be in the park. I’m pretty sure I was the only Ed fan there. I stood in the center of the park and watched Ed Kowalczyk play a song just for me, while still sipping my latte and enjoying the sunshine and breeze. This was an incredible moment.
After they were done playing, I took this video of Ed talking into the mic to prove how alone I was in the park:
Just a few more notes on the 7mary3 show last night, for the few of my readers who do care.
I just CANNOT piece the setlist together, and no one over on the message board is posting about the show. So. I can tell you how it began:
1. Last Kiss
2. Settle Up
3. RockCrown
4. Was a Ghost
5. Roderigo
6. Headstrong
That’s as far as I can get in sequence. The rest of the songs played were:
Sleepwalking, Dislocated, Over Your Shoulder, My My, Out For Blood, Cumbersome, Honey of Generation, Blue Letter, Water’s Edge, Wait, Laughing Out Loud, Big Bird. There may be a few others I can’t quite remember.
“Out For Blood” is the new song. It’s good. It’s rock-alt-country-blues. Think thi bonus song on Orange Ave. It’s like that.
“Big Bird” is a cover they’ve been doing for quite some time. It’s by a guy named Eddie Floyd. It rules. It was their show closer. Here is a video of Seven Mary Three playing the song (though not at the Allentown show):
Turnout for this show was much, much better than the Reading show I went to a few months ago. It was still fairly sad. There were perhaps 50 people watching 7m3, but after the (literally) fifteen people at the Reading show, it felt like freakin’ Madison Square Garden. And there were GOOD fans. They weren’t “Cumberfucks”, as they are called on the 7m3 message boards. These fans knew all the albums. And they cheered and sang along. Made me feel good!
Immediately after the applause had died down after the opening song, a really drunk guy yelled “Jason Ross! You are STILL the shit!” I winced, unsure how the famously moody Ross would react. He loved it! Exchanging grins with guitarist Thomas Juliano, Ross said “Thank you. Every day I wake up and I say to myself…’Am I still the shit?’ And some days, somebody tells me.” *Long pause* “And some days, they don’t.” GOOD STUFF.
This band was in a terrific mood all night. You could see Jason Ross’s smile clear as day through his ridiculous beard. Juliano was jumping around the stage like a 19 year old. Even Casey Daniel was moving around, grinning ear-to-ear.
Thomas Juliano
Sometime during the first few songs, somebody yelled out “Roderigo”, a song from their first album that is a major concert rarity. Next song, they played it! (it wasn’t on the setlist, I could see the setlist from where I was standing. Songs removed from the setlist: “Upside Down” and “Dreaming Against Me”.). Anyway, this must have made the crowd basically think the band was going to continue taking requests. The rest of the night, in between songs, seemingly everyone was shouting out song names (even I, once, shouted for “Where Are You Calling From?”…more of a longshot than ‘Roderigo’!). You might think this woul dpiss off some bands, but they just kept laughing. At one point Ross turned to Juliano and in a very funny voice said “They’re all screaming at me!”. Later, he made a ‘calm down’ motion with his hands and whispered “I’ve got a list.” You had to be there, but trust me, very funny stuff.
After seeing them twice touring on their new album, I can say with certainty that at this point in my life, “Was a Ghost” is my favorite part of a 7m3 show. It’s not a huge rocker, but it’s just really freakin good, and it gets a whole lot better in the live setting. These guys really know how to play this song!
After the show, Burke and I were leaving the pit in front of the stage when I saw that Jason Ross was hanging out down in the actual club, talking to fans, signing things, etc. So I gave Burke my camera and waited my turn. Now, I’ve spoken to Ross once before (and you can read that blog entry here), but Ross was NOT in a good mood that day, so I just shook his hand and said thank you. THIS time, though, I emoted a bit, telling him the music had “meant alot to me” and had “gotten me through some tough times”. He probably hears stuff like that alot, but it felt good to say it anyway, even if it is cheesy and cliche. Because it’s also true. Oh, and the picture:
What a show! I’m not sure if I’ll ever get the setlist up (I have a really good feeling no one else is going to post it for me to copy it and I have very little faith I can do it from memory). but highlights:
–“Roderigo”. Period. I had never seen it live and I don’t expect to ever again.
–A re-tooled “Dislocated” with an AMAZING jam session in the middle.
–“Sleepwalking”!!!!!!! my first time ever seeing it!!! LOVELOVELOVE!!!
–“Cumbersome” in the middle of the set! Craziness!
–They debuted a new song called “Out For Blood”…great song!
I think I’ll probably have a full-length blog on the experience tomorrow. Oh, also, I got to talk to Jason after the show and get my pic with him:
I arrived at the 9:30 Club in Washington DC exactly on time; doors for The Cribs show were to open at 7; I showed up at 6, to insure a front row spot. I normally show up a tad earlier than one hour, but The Cribs haven’t really caught on in the states yet (they’re British, and seemingly, considerably more popular there). I gambled correctly—as I walked up to the door, I was the 7th person in line (and when doors opened, there were no more than 20 of us in line).
I was standing in line for no longer than 5 minutes when Johnny Marr walked out the door and directly past me. Chances are, you don’t know who Johnny Marr is, but in my insular little “Indie Rock” world, he’s our very own Eddie Van Halen.
Johnny Marr. I didn't take this pic, I stole it off the internet.
He was, most famously, a founding member of The Smiths. After they disbanded, he dabbled all over the place for years, making special appearances here, in one-off bands there, producing albums over here. Then, 2 years ago, he quite unexpectedly joined indie favorites Modest Mouse—being granted full member status— rounding out their sound in a quite marvelous way. Then, just last year, he joined The Cribs (which, you must realize, were a quite established band in Britain, and they were a band of three brothers—so Marr’s full membership is quite…strange). Once again, Marr’s addition really amped up that band’s sound, giving it a much less bare-bones feel and adding an “atmospheric” quality.
So now, Marr is an ex-Smith and a current member of one of the most-beloved American indie bands and one of the most beloved British indie bands. Wow. And here’s what really makes him so loved: he really is the epitome of cool. I mean, he’s just really cool! And to watch him play…most guitarists like to make what they’re doing look harder than it is, but Marr seems to try to make it look easier. He really seems like he is making a grocery list in his head while he’s playing, without being disengaged. AND—he’s short, probably no more than 4 inches taller than me. Badass.
So anyway, I’m standing in line and Johnny Marr walks past me. Without thinking I just yelled—yelled, and he was just a few feet away from me—“Johnny!” Damn. I sounded like some damn groupie! I had just been shocked by the sight of his shock-black hair. So he looks at me expectantly, as if I was going to say something of substance following my shout, like “Your mom’s on the phone!” or “There’s a piano falling toward you!” but all I managed was “Hi!” and he gave me a perky British “Hi!” back, and was on his way.
Turns out, my HI with Johnny Marr probably wasn’t worth it. Seems the woman in front of me in line had spoken to him earlier before I got there, and saw the fact that we both knew who he was as some sort of bond. I didn’t mind talking to her at first—she was, after all, very nice. But we had a crucial miscommunication that ruined everything.
The annoying woman
She quickly revealed to me that she knew nothing about Johnny Marr—she was there with her son, who knew who he was, she had “never heard of him”, to quote her. This was fine with me, of course, and then I said “He’s actually been in lots of bands”. But she must have thought I said “I’ve actually seen lots of bands.” Which would have been ridiculous of me to say at that point in the conversation, but she probably heard it because she was waiting to just pounce on someone and tell them her concert-going history, and this opened it up.
There’s one of these in every concert line, isn’t there? Why do they do this? I do not give a shit about what shows you’ve seen!!!! If it can come up in normal conversation, then fine, but the whole “Jaws scar” scene with concerts is just…gross. It grosses me out, personality-wise. And she would. not. stop. She talked straight to me for the whole hour in line, and even intimated I should stand with her and her son once we got in there. Unfortunately, when we got in there, they chose Johnny Marr’s side of the stage, so I had to settle for Gary Jarman’s side (not a bad compromise, really). Oh, and right before doors opened, she went over to the box office and bought 2 tickets for the Editors show in February, which I may be attending if work schedule permits. I’ll have to take someone with me in case I get stuck in line next to her again!
(some of you may ask what the difference is between these obnoxious concert-line braggers and me writing long blogs about each of my concert experiences. And you have a mild point, the difference is negligible, but here it is: you can’t click out of or minimize these line gabbers.)
The opening band (there were supposed to be 2 openers…not sure what happened) was so-so, I’m not going to waste and time talking about them.
So, after a long wait inside the club (I assume most of you have been to 9:30 at some point, but if not, it’s comparable to Electric Factory or Chameleon Club) The Cribs finally emerged. I found myself a bit more excited than I had expected. They did not enter to the prolonged classical music they have been using as entrance music for the European tour this year. It was sort of like a southern gothic funk….very dark and brooding and quite awesome. It only played for about one minute before they came out, and when Johnny Marr started playing the “We Were Aborted” riff, I absolutely lost my mind, even though I knew this would be their opener, and I’ve watched about 12 different live versions of this show opener on YouTube, but really, truly, I think “We Were Aborted” may be the BEST concert opener I’ve ever seen (and I’ve seen Pearl Jam open with “Wash”!). The music, the way Marr plays so casually, the way Ryan Jarman jumps facing the drum kit, the way Ross Jarman nearly comes off his stool while hitting the drums…just really, really, really good rock and roll. And then they immediately follow this with “Hey Scenesters!”, a rollicking indie anthem from an earlier album, and one of my absolute favorites. I was quite pleased with our crowd’s singalong to “Hey Scenesters!” (I’d estimate the 9:30 Club was at about half capacity for the show, but we were a lively bunch). There’s no YouTube from the show I was at, but here’s a video of a “We Were Aborted”—->”Hey Scenesters!” opener from a few months ago in Europe. It fairly accurately depicts the opening from last night:
Here’s the full setlist:
We Were Aborted
Hey Scenesters!
We Share the Same Skies
Hari Kari
Last Year’s Snow
What About Me
Cheat on Me
I’ve Tried Everything
Save Your Secrets
Mirror Kissers
Another Number
Our Bovine Public
Ignore the Ignorant
Be Safe
I’m a Realist
Girls Like Mystery
Men’s Needs
City of Bugs
–No encore
–“Hari Kari”—the end repetition part was ridiculously intense
–“Save Your Secrets” proves in a live setting that it is, unexpectedly, a moving cynical ballad
–I must have really, REALLY wanted to see “Mirror Kissers”, because I nearly jumped over the barrier when they started it. It had a prolonged, feedback-heavy intro. I sweated profusely.
–On a bad note (pun intended), “Our Bovine Public”—which I love–was almost unrecognizable. It was way too heavy and loud. I didn’t even know what song it was until the SECOND chorus. Not sure if this is a result of Marr’s added guitar (this is a song from before Marr joined the band, hence there’s one more guitar part in it when they play it). Even after I realized what it was, I couldn’t enjoy it.
–When either Gary or Ryan Jarman addressed the crowd (about 5 times total) it was damn near impossible to understand them. VERY thick accents. Makes you wonder why it’s so easy to understand them when they’re singing?
–“Be Safe” is an incredible and very unique song in The Cribs canon. I IMPLORE YOU TO CLICK THE FOLLOWING LINKS, YOU WILL LIKE THIS. Read what the song is here. Read the lyrics here. Here is the best video I can find of a performance of the song similar to how I saw it, however, at my show, the screen was directly behind the band:
–The crowd seemed most amped for “I’m a Realist”—there were many calls for it throughout the show, and the biggest cheer was for the song’s start—which I found odd, as it’s not their most dynamic song. It has somewhat silly, curse-infused lyrics at the beginning, though, which I suppose accounts for it’s popularity.
–“Girls Like Mystery” was a nice surprise, hadn’t seen it on any of the setlists I’d been following leading up to the show.
–I was at first disappointed when I realized “City of Bugs” would be the closer. It’s my least favorite song on the new album. But bada-bing! In the live setting I was convinced. I saw what they were going for. It was engaging, energizing, and intense. I could even finally forgive the lyric “I’m messed up, baby, like the Berlin Wall.” The guys left their guitars on the stage in a feedback loop, so we couldn’t rightfully cheer until a roadie unplugged the guitars, a few minutes after the band left the stage, but I was looking around, and nobody left that venue until we could cheer, and when we did, we did as though The Cribs were still on stage to hear us. Great band. Consider me hooked.
In one fashion, I am extremely unfortunate that this huge snowstorm came this weekend, as I had awesome—awesome—plans with my sister and mother to go to New York. It would have been GREAT! (we are totally rescheduling for January). In another fashion, however, I am extremely fortunate that it came this weekend, as I have off work, and I don’t have to get into my car until 11am Monday. In my line of work, where we work 3 out of every 4 weekends, this could only be seen as extremely fortunate.
The extremely sucky event of canceling my mom/sister trip did however lead to a fairly sweet event, in that I could now attend the Soulgrass Freedom Junction show that took place last night (friend Kate is the singer of the band, and she friggen rules), and a bizarre amount of people I knew ended up being there. Platonic soulmate Michael was also celebrating her graduation from graduate school (she’s gonna be a counselor!), so it was a pretty incredible night all around.
Duane, Burke, and Michael at the Soulgrass show
Kate belting out "White Rabbit"
So anyway, long story short, I didn’t get home and go to bed until 4am, which put my waking hours that day at 23–I had gotten up at 5am the previous day for work. Regardless of this really long day, I woke up with a shot at 6am, only 2 hours after falling asleep. I went to the window and saw a SHIT-TON of snow out there. I suppose it was the prospect of an entire weekend off with a major snowstorm happening that got me even more awake. I’m not sure why this was exciting to me, but it was. I was jazzed! So far, I’ve had an amazing day:
7am: I leave the apartment, dressed very inappropriately, with no plan whatsoever. I end up walking essentially all over town, ending up at Wal-Mart (all told, about 3 miles one way), as well as stopping for a nice breakfast at Fay’s Country Kitchen.
Breakfast at Fay's
What really amazed my about this trip was how absolutely desolate the world was. I mean, sure, there were some people around, but for the most part, all was silence (and it wasn’t 7am the whole time…all was silence at 9am, too). By the time I got home, I estimate my travel distance at 6.5 miles, on foot, in the snow…and I somehow had more energy than when I left?!?! This has been happening to me alot lately. I’m starting to get worried that I have bi-polar disorder, but I only suffer from the manic periods. I seem to have almost no need for rest. I’m not gonna complain until I end up in the hospital.
9am: Return home and finished watching The Orphan, which I had started when I got home from the show the night before. It sucks. Then watched the majority of Angels & Demons. It sucks too. Shower.
Noon: I leave the apartment again, walking back to Wal-Mart (that’s where the movie theater is, my destination wasn’t actually Wal-Mart). It was a little colder this time, and the snow seemed a bit more wet. There were more cars on the road than there were in the morning, but less pedestrians. I am still loving being in the snow and seemingly all alone in my town of Carlisle. I get to the movie theater around 1pm and watch Invictus (it sucks). There were 6 other people in the theater, which you might think is a lot of people for a blizzard day, but is actually very few people when you consider it’s 1pm on a Saturday. After the movie, I walked around the Wal-Mart plaza, quite blown away by the amount of businesses that had closed early (Applebees, Subway, Holiday Hair, Game Stop and even the Chinese Buffet were closed!!! Other than the big box stores, the only thing open was Panera Bread). Then I finally headed for home. Took this largely boring video on this leg of the journey:
The only really interesting part of this video is when I look at the ground, you can see how deep the snow is. Here’s another picture from this leg of the journey, looking at the ground. You can see my foot is entirely covered:
I stopped at Vinnie’s pizza (formerly Genova’s) and had a few slices. I was all alone and it seemed there hadn’t been anyone there pretty much all day. The guy behind the counter and I had a pretty good conversation about the storm and how many places were closed, and he ended up sitting with me while I ate. I must have been burning immense amounts of calories all day, because I ate the three (sizable) slices like they were jelly beans. I chugged the rest of my large Dr. Pepper, bid adieu to my temporary Vinnie’s friend, and set out to…um…find more food.
5pm: Arrive at the Hamilton. Devour two Hawchie Dogs and order a Blockbuster to-go, so I have something to eat later. As I leave, it’s getting dark and the snow—now very wet—is very unpleasant blowing directly into my face. Finally arrive home around 5:30. After about 10 minutes of rest, I find that I am now not tired at all, and in fact, am considering going back out soon.
Today, Mary and I went to New York to see the David Letterman show live and in person! And it was awesome! I’m not going to bog you all down with too many details, so I’ll just hit some of the main stuff:
Me in line outside the Ed Sullivan Theater, Mary's head behind me
There was some waiting in line, but in actuality, not as much as I’d expected. Mary and I showed up outside the Ed Sullivan Theater at the appointed time–1pm–waited through various ID checks and other checkpoints–and by 1:45 were given our tickets and told to be back in front of the theater by 2:45pm. We then meandered around Broadway for an hour and made it back to our appointed line at out appointed time. As we waited in line, some Late Show dudes–probably interns–came out to joke around with us and tell us the “rules”. The rules were thus: no photography, cell phones off, clap and laugh alot, and, strangely, no “woo”ing. You know that sound you make most frequently
Mary enjoying a frozen beverage outside the Ed Sullivan Theater
when you are in a crowd and you are cheering…. “woooooo!” Yes, well apparently, the mics in the Ed Sullivan Theater don’t like that.
So, by 3pm we were ushered into the theater. Unfortunately, we ended up getting seats in the balcony, which would greatly decrease our chances of being seen on television, but really, there isn’t a bad seat in the theater. It is MUCH smaller than it appears to be on TV. Even up in the balcony, we were no less than 30 yards from Dave, and even closer to the band and Paul Shaffer.
One of our tickets, which we unfortunately were not allowed to keep
Interesting tidbit: Dave infamously keeps the Ed Sullivan Theater quite chilly, but I was perfectly comfortable the whole time, not cold at all.
It was truly surreal seeing the set in person. I just couldn’t get over how much smaller it seemed in person. For instance, when you’re watching on TV it seems like Dave and Paul are really far apart, but really it’s no more than two people on opposite sides of a living room, and the audience is right up on Dave. Everything is just much more condensed than it looks on TV.
We weren’t in our seats for more than five minutes when warm-up comedian Eddie Brill came out to “warm us up”. He was a funny guy, but I was honestly surprised by how brief it was. He really just kinda talked to us for 3 or 4 minutes (though it truly was funny stuff), then we watched a “classic clip” from the show, probably a few years old, where Dave messes with people at a Taco Bell. This is the clip:
We were all laughing our asses off.
Then Eddie Brill introduced the announcer, Allen Caulter, who just sorta ran into the theater and then quickly out of our sight-line, and then he announced the band one-by-one (except Paul). The band then proceeded to play a horn-heavy rendition of The Rolling Stones’ “Brown Sugar”. After about five minutes of this, Eddie Brill announces Paul Shaffer, who comes out to thunderous applause and joins the band, who have now moved on to an instrumental version of some other song I couldn’t quite identify. After a few more minutes of that, Brill quite suddenly announces Dave, who actually sprints into the theater (notably, without his suit jacket on) and runs the whole way across the set. Then he gets a mic and talks to us for about 4 minutes, very funny off-the-cuff stuff about how groggy and weird he feels after the weekend and how one of these days a weekend isn’t going to “get away from” him. Then he says he’s gotta go, he walks behind the set, and immediately the band starts playing the theme song and Allen Caulter begins his introduction to the show, and then moments after he disappeared, Dave is introduced and re-appears, this time with his suit jacket on.
I don’t know if the monologue was an especially funny monologue, or if being there in person makes everything funnier, but Mary and I were laughing our asses off! Then after the monologue, Dave and Paul proceeded to have a very funny give-and-take about the usage of the word “douche” on network television. We were cracking up!!!
During commercial breaks, the band played a long version of a song, while about 8 guys crowded around Dave’s desk, for Lord-knows-what purpose. Dave took his jacket off almost every break, and would often get up and walk around and talk to his staffers (while Dave was walking around, the crowd of men remained around his desk). I was also surprised to see that warm-up comedian Eddie Brill seems to play a large role in the show–throughout the show he stood directly in Dave’s eyeline (under the spiral staircase, if you’re familiar with the set) and was often the only man in the crowd of men around the desk that Dave seemed to be talking to.
I did see Biff Henderson briefly right after we took our seats…he was wandering around the set as Brill did his warm-up, but I never saw him after that.
I found it really strange when guests started coming on. Like, all of a sudden, Sharon Stone is in the room. WHAT?! I didn’t feel star-struck per se, just weird. By that point, it kinda felt like we were just haning out with Dave and Paul, and now here’s Sharon Stone?? Bi. Zarre.
I found it interesting that through most of the commercial break with Sharon Stone, Dave mostly ignored her and looked at the copy of the New York Times he had used during the douche discussion earlier. They only started to chat moments before they came back from break. Dave then showed the cover of a French magazine that Sharon Stone appears on topless. I just saw it on the broadcast and they of course blurred out her tit, but rest assured, it was clear as day to us in the audience!
I also thought Sharon Stone was a bit cold and bitchy.
Seth Myers was funny and him and Dave seemed to have a nice report. Seeing this in person kind of pointed out to me how truly brief these interviews are. No sooner was Seth Myers there than he was gone–4, 5 minutes? And how long do you suppose he spent getting ready for that? But I really did enjoy his interview, him and Dave were making Mary and I crack up again.
In the break between Myers and the musical act (Wyclef Jean featuring Cindy Lauper), stage hands miraculously pushed out a whole musical set-up for them in less than 4 minutes. Wyclef appeared early on and actually did some jammy vocals with the CBS Orchestra (that’s what Paul calls his band), which I thought was pretty neat. Cindy showed up a little later and her appearance got a decent round of applause. During this time, a camera cruised by us (though this footage would later be shown earlier in the show). The footage is used as background while Allen Caulter announces the guests coming up later in the week. Mary and I tried our hardest to get on that camera, but alas, it was not to be. :(
They came back from break and Wyclef and Cindy played their song, which I thought was “OK” but Mary liked it. Now that I’ve seen it again on the broadcast, I think it is a stupid song. But it was unique entertainment, for sure.
Mere moments after the recording of the show ended, Dave grabbed a mic, thanked us for being a good audience, and bid us adieu, and less than 3 minutes later, we were outside again. The show airs for an hour, and we spent just about an hour and 15 minutes inside the studio. They really don’t fuck around! They got us in and out lickety split!
It was a serious amount of fun. I can see getting addicted to attending television shows. It’s a strange, unique form of entertainment, and a cool look “behind the curtain”. If you’ve ever wondered anything about what goes on at shows, or The Late Show in particular, and I didn;t address it here, feel free to ask in a comment!
I made it to a few less concerts in 2009 than I do in most years, mostly due to my decision to see less bands multiple times. Despite the fact that I ended up missing epic, once-in-a-lifetime Pearl Jam shows, I stand by this decision. It allowed me the time and finances to see more unique bands in more distant locales, resulting in not just some incredible shows, but fantastic all-around experiences. My only big regret of the year is missing Kings of Leon on their first big arena tour; although I’ve seen them once before (opening for Pearl Jam in ’08), I’d have loved to see them on a grand scale. Without further ado:
5. LIVE, New Jersey
I saw two consecutive LIVE shows in New Jersey with a slew of awesome people, including my sister, Ron, Billhanna, and Bootney Lee Pharnsworth. (half of you were supposed to come to one of these shows with me, but you are bad, bad people who all bitched out at the last moment). I’ve seen LIVE lots of times now–I’m not even sure how many–but it never, ever stops being awesome. Both shows this year were identical setlists, though they both had great energy, and the band pulled out a few hum-dinger rarities (“Gas Hed Goes West”, “The Distance”) as well as playing scorching versions of old favorites like “Lakini’s Juice” and “I, Alone”. But the biggest deal, at least to my sister and I, were the opener and closer for each show. Opener=”Purifier”. Closer=“White, Discussion”.
Here are the final, amazing moments to the version of “White, Discussion” myself, Adrienne, and Ron saw the first night at the Starland Ballroom:
4. Silversun Pickups, Virginia
My first time seeing this band, one of the more recent additions to my “favorite bands” list, and the show did not disappoint at all!!! I had front row and was able to make pretty steady eye contact with lead singer Brian Aubert and bassist Nikki Monninger, as they played, basically, every single one of my favorite songs, essentially in the order I’d have asked for them to be played. I mean, c’mon,they opened with “Growing Old is Getting Old”–mind-blowing! A very tight, rehearsed band.
No YouTube exists of the the show I was at, but here’s a video from another show where they opened with “Growing Old”. It’s a song that requires some patience to really get to the payoff:
3. Seven Mary Three, Reading, PA
There is a huge blog entry about this show here. There’s not much more I can say about it that isn’t already there. I should just say that although it was clearly an amazing experience for me, concert-wise, nothing could possibly come close to touching the experiences I had with the #1 and 2 entries here.
2. Man Man, Washington D.C.
There is also a pre-existing entry for this concert here. But allow me to just re-iterate that I have never seen anything quite like this show. I have never felt so compelled to move, never felt so much energy in a room that my skin shimmered with the excitement, never smiled so big and wide for so long after a show. If you ever get a chance, you MUST see these guys. There’s no YouTube from our show, but watch this anyway:
1. Explosions in the Sky, Central Park, New York
Mary and I had a fantastic (yet I must say, truly adventurous) time getting to and seeing this show. (original blog viewable here) When I think back to this show, I still feel a spiritual uplifting, a true movement of my soul–whatever you think that means. This sort of feeling is what seeing live music is all about for me, and it happens all too infrequently. Do yourself a favor if you have an extra 20 minutes: listen to this song here, and then watch the YouTube video below. Once again, this is a band that requires patience, but your patience will pay incredible dividends.
Here’s the same song again, but from the Central Park show Mary and I were at. The first video I posted has such superior audio and visuals I couldn’t in good conscience post only the Central Park video:
The sky is falling like a
sock of cocaine in the
ministry of information.
Subway train’s derailing,
heads decapitating,
catch her reflection and it seems to sing to me,
and i say la-la-la-la.
She’s a warm bodega
high on Noriega
strung out in Brooklyn like it’s 1983!
She wears her legs around her
neck like a piece of ice,
her smile’s a neon marquee. Hipsters eat for free.
And i say la-la-la-la.
I am falling like a
sock of cocaine in the
ministry of information.
I’m a warm bodega
high on Noriega
strung out in Brooklyn cause i fell in love with her!
And I say la-la-la-la.
moon cut moon cuts tiny like eyelash
lonely cat nap whisper lonely cat nap whisper
and I walk around I whisper in her scalp
I whisper on the wind I whisper once again
Notes From the Fire 
