Waves and Wires

I’ll be honest, I’m not that familiar with anything but the most popular songs by The Verve. However, my girlfriend Danielle (who is also the one who recorded this fine show) is a big fan. I’m not real sure why I never got into them back when they were super popular for the first time, but I just didn’t. Maybe it was because when they got popular in the US, I’d moved on from rock to electronic music for a while, I’m not sure. I’m not even going to try to write anything up about them, I figure if you like them you don’t need any encouragement, and if you don’t you were probably sick of Bitter Sweet Symphony being everywhere and you’re not really interested right? Yeah. However, they’re a really good band, and very entertaining for a band I only recognized 3 songs from. I can’t really say much about the new songs, because out of the show almost all of it was new to me!

For the band, this was a warmup for Coachella. You could tell a few times that they were working out some kinks, there were equipment troubles and all sorts of stuff. However, you couldn’t tell that they’d taken an 8 year hiatus. They looked to me entirely like a band that has been ready to rock for a long time and I have to believe that anyone who’s been waiting 10 years for the band to come back to the US left the show happy.

Before playing Bittersweet Symphony, Richard told the crowd to go home and google Rolling Stones Staple Singers. I had a vague idea of what he was talking about (not a Stones fan, sorry) in that the Rolling Stones sued them for royalties based on the sample used in the song that was from an orchestral version of a song based on a Rolling Stones song… which I’ll be honest sounds pretty much nothing like the original version. But, copyright is copyright and the Stones of course won that fight. However, their younger past is full of the same sort of behavior with reworking of gospel songs to their own ends, but doing it with “traditional” songs that aren’t owned by anyone so they don’t have to pay anyone anything at all…. even though they’re basically ripping off another artist that had done the song before. (lets think David Cooke or Chris Daughtry on American Idol who are neither new nor original AT ALL but if you’re clueless about existing derivations of a song, it sure sounds new to you despite being nothing much beyond a straight up karaoke version of an existing cover. Anyway. )

Right anyway, long story short I enjoyed the show despite only knowing 3 songs. If you’re lucky enough to be seeing them on one of their 5 shows in the US, I hope you enjoyed it too! If not, I hope this recording is enough to tide you over until they do a proper US tour at some point and come around to your area. Big thanks of course go to Danielle for the recording. Enjoy!

Setlist:

1. (Intro Music)
2. A New Decade
3. (technical difficulties)
4. Sonnet
5. This is Music
6. Space and Time
7. Life’s An Ocean
8. On Your Own
9. Weeping Willow
10. Sit and Wonder
11. The Rolling People
12. Velvet Morning
13. The Drugs Don’t Work
14. Lucky Man
15. Come On
16. (encore break)
17. Bitter Sweet Symphony
18. Modern Times

• Download this show as a .zip file
• Download lossless 24-bit FLAC of this show (registration required)

This was my favorite show of 2007, without a doubt. There’s really no description I can muster that does it any justice at all. Beirut’s albums may be done primarily by Zach Condon on his own, but the live shows are chock full of other people. Where a lot of artists might employ backing tracks of some sorts, loops, or other gimmicks to make the album sound in a live setting, Beirut is a fully live and stage-packed show.

I was completely blown away. It’s like the band geeks in college or high school were given free reign to make something really amazing. Someone handed them a box full of stuff, told them to go nuts and have a blast on stage and that’s the vibe I got the entire time. 5-6 people on stage at any given time playing multiple instruments each, sometimes in the same song… and Zach even played his own instruments as well. And singing. It’s beyond anything I’d expected. Beirut’s music is fairly unique in the first place, and it’s never easy to describe to anyone. Eastern European folk mixed with a whole lot of contemporary elements? I don’t know, it’s never been easy to put them into any category. Their show was no exception to say the least. To top it all off, the Herbst Theatre is an amazing venue with great acoustics. The sound was fantastic and might be the best recording I’ve ever made. However, I’ll let you decide that of course.

setlist:

1. Cocek
2. Brandenburg
3. Cherbourg
4. A Sunday Smile
5. Forks and Knives (La Fete)
6. Scenic World
7. Elephant Gun
8. Nantes
9. Mount Wroclai (Idle Days)
10. Carousels
11. In the Mausoleum
12. After the Curtain
13. Le Moribond
14. The Flying Club Cup
15. The Gulag Orkestar
16. Postcards from Italy
17. Closing Song
18. The Penalty
19. Siki Siki Baba

download the whole show as a .zip file

Links:

• Official Site
• MySpace: Beirut

Again, sorry for not posting stuff in even semi-frequent amounts. I had a lot of plans for this thing back when I decided to put it up, and other things just get in the way. I’ve been broke as a joke lately, I just started a second job and I’m really just not seeing a ton of shows. (not because I don’t want to!)

I’ve got a handful of stuff just hanging around though, and I’m going to try and get to most of it in the next month or so. I’ve got tickets to a few things (one of which should be really awesome) and I’m looking at a lot of shows in May assuming I’ve got the $$ and can find tickets.

Shows I have yet to post but totally have waiting:

A Fine Frenzy @ Cafe Du Nord (2008)
Mum @ Palace of Fine Arts (2007)
Dressy Bessy @ Cafe Du Nord (from 2005)
Matt Nathanson @ Swedish-American Hall (2006)
Pretty Girls Make Graves @ Great American Music Hall (2007, next-to-last show ever)
Ryan Adams @ Herbst Theatre (2007)
Goldfrapp @ The Fillmore (2006)
Elbow @ The Independent (2006?)

and maybe a few more I have sitting around that I just haven’t processed yet. I don’t know. If anyone reading has any preferences for what I should post next leave me a comment.

I’m also going to try and re-design the semi-boring theme I’ve got going on here, so if anyone’s good at making header graphics and can come up with some interesting take on “waves” and “wires” (which I know in the Rilo Kiley song is telephone wires and ocean waves, but in my universe is sound waves and microphone wires…) then I’d be eternally grateful. I’m not great at this blog thing, but I’m trying!

More to come, including a Beirut show today!

I saw British Sea Power on their first US Tour (at least in the South) back in 2004. It was a really fantastic couple of weeks where I got to see Pretty Girls Make Graves, The Dresden Dolls and Vienna Teng all in 8 days. (lots and lots of driving happened). I saw them at a tiny place, my former favorite now long gone venue, Echo Lounge in Atlanta. Usually when you see a band 4 years later, they’ve moved up and on to bigger less intimate sorts of joints. Thank you Noise Pop! They’ve got a really good tendency to put bands in small venues that they’d otherwise have outgrown and this was one of those kinds of shows.

I said back then when I first saw them that it was difficult to really evaluate a band’s live performance when they only have on album of recorded material and handful of singles that you may or may not have heard. Generally they struggle to fill a full headlining set, and usually it’s just regurgitating the album in a random order and that’s that. The show I saw in 2004 was that sort of show, and I’ll be honest it wasn’t that great. I’d coerced a friend into going with me, under the premise that “oh they’re cool they’ve got a couple songs that sound like Coldplay but with some actual rock”. And of course I got a really weird show that bordered on schizophrenia I suppose with a lot of songs sounding very harsh and thrashy. I have a recording, but due to some equipment trouble it’ll never see the light of day.

Flash forward to now: I think their live show has matured quite a bit. They’ve got a lot more material, so they can put together a much better setlist with some variation but keeping a solid groove going. I really like their latest album, I think without a doubt it’s their best yet, so I was glad to see a lot of the songs from the album show up, especially The Great Skua which I think may be their best song. Waving Flags is a close second, because I’m a sucker for a drinking song I suppose. There’s just really a lot of good stuff and I’m happy to hear it in a show. I missed their Open Season tour also, so it’s double nice to see a good handful of those songs sprinkled in. What I didn’t necessarily enjoy, were some of the more “epic” songs. I’m willing to admit that it’s just me, and that other people really like it, but the downside of Noise Pop is that they fill the bill with a couple of local bands, and unfortunately a lot of those local bands are nowhere near the same kind of music you’re waiting to hear… and they’re not good at warming up the crowd and really it just wears you out. I really liked Colourmusic a lot. The other two opening bands, I’m sorry you just weren’t my bag. Unfortunately, the 3 opening bands meant I’d been standing roughly 4 hours before British Sea Power even got on stage, and by the time their set was halfway over I kinda wanted to go home and pass out. Kudos to Bottom of the Hill for running a tight ship and having a real quick 15 min set change between openers and a pretty short set from each of them, but really, after Carrion it was around 1AM and I was in the process of tuning out. I’m sorry, it’s me not you. The curse of Noise Pop I suppose. (true story: I bailed on Feist at Bimbo’s a couple of years ago in the same situation after there was some horrible equipment trouble and the speakers went out halfway through her set… I know I’m a wuss and this was before she got all itunes famous so I should have stayed and all that blah blah whatever).

So yeah, long epic songs at the end of a set at the end of a long day and a longer night, was not a win for me. Still, on the merits of the rest of the show, A+. I really enjoyed it. They’re a fantastically entertaining band, and if the show had been 2 acts shorter I’m sure my attitude would have been better.

setlist:

1. Intro
2. No Lucifer
3. Remember Me
4. Oh Larsen B
5. Favours in the Beetroot Fields
6. Atom
7. Down on the Ground
8. Blackout
9. Waving Flags
10. The Great Skua
11. Lights Out For Darker Skies
12. Carrion
13. Canvey Island
14. True Adventures
15. A Trip Out
16. Spirit of St. Louis > The Scottish Wildlife Experience > Spirit of St. Louis
17. A Rock In > Ooby Dooby Doo > Rock In A

download the whole show as a .zip file
download the show in lossless FLAC (registration required)
Links:

• Official Site

Right, I haven’t done a whole lot with this lately. I’d like to say I’ve been busy and important and all that, but really I’ve just been lazy and preoccupied. (LOST IS BACK!)

Anyway. I’ve recently switched hosts (out with Dreamhost, in with something new) in order to consolidate all of the websites I host/run, and as soon as I get it all working like it should, I’ll have at least 2 or 3 new shows to post. The weather’s been crap in SF for a while and I actually haven’t been to any shows lately. Pretty sad situation. I have a few old shows from last year and maybe a handful of even older stuff though, I’ll get to that whenever I can. Hopefully I’ll get off my ass a lot more in the near future and get back to seeing some good shows!

So, long story short, if anything’s busted on the website starting now… I’m working on it, I promise, but I’m in the process of migrating 5 websites from 3 hosts into one monster package… so things are sketchy! It’ll only get better from here on out. (especially for me, only having to pay one bill and deal with one server!)

This is the third of three nights of Tori Amos at the Paramount in Oakland. (yes, slightly backwards, you’ll see the 1st and 2nd nights later, but they weren’t the best shows so this is good, trust me). If you’re following anything about Tori Amos at all, and I can’t blame you if you haven’t, you’ll know that she’s doing some sort of crazy multiple personality thing with “Dolls” based on Greek Gods and each Doll has a theme and that theme only performs certain songs… Yeah. It’s kinda weird. So, this is a “Clyde” show. I admit I have no idea what that REALLY means, but luckily I don’t really have to in order to enjoy the songs. It just means that Tori’s wearing a different wig and won’t be playing certain songs.

I’ll admit, I’m a bit of a Tori freak. This will have been my 25th time seeing Tori if I remember everything correctly, and that’s a lot of times to see a person. (there was this one tour in 2003… so many shows). I really like the Paramount usually, because I think it has a lot of potential for great sound. Unfortunately these shows I’m not sure the sound was great in the venue. There was a lot of bass. Overpowering most of the time, kinda drowned out the vocals and I swear I never heard the guitar on any of the songs. Thankfully, because technology is awesome, through some nice EQ work you can actually hear the clarity of most of the things. It’s one of those few times where the recording actually sounds better than the show did in person. I’m not sure why the sound was all muddy at the show (Tori’s husband is her sound guy…) but there you go. I’d been waiting a long time for Tori to start touring with the band again, and I unfortunately found myself thinking that this would be a lot better if they’d have tried to do it unplugged or just without the band or something.

So yeah, set-wise this is a pretty good show. The last two nights of Tori had been a little too “safe” due to a DVD taping, this show brought out a lot of variety. I’ll admit a lot of the songs aren’t necessarily my favorites but they’re not bad at all. I particularly like Landslide, one of my absolute favorite covers that Tori’s ever done. I absolutely dreaded hearing Beekeeper on the 2005 tour, but this has a new shortened version that’s actually not that bad. (still a bit boring to me, but it’s much improved I think). Anyway, a good show after a couple of not exactly awesome shows the two nights before. More to come, but here’s this for now:

Part I - Clyde
1. Bouncing Off Clouds
2. Little Earthquakes
3. Juarez
4. Rattlesnakes
5. Girl Disappearing
6. Beauty Of Speed
7. Professional Widow / Costume Change

Part II - Tori

8. Big Wheel
9. A Sorta Fairytale
10. The Power Of Orange Knickers
11. Cornflake Girl
12. Josephine
13. Siren

T&Bö

14. Baker Baker
15. Landslide

    Band returns

16. The Beekeeper3
17. Crucify
18. Code Red
19. Encore Break
20. Precious Things
21. Digital Ghost
22. Bliss