I’ve got a couple of shows I keep meaning to post but I can’t ever remember to do it before I get distracted. I was going to post the Liz Phair show from a few weeks ago, but I screwed that one up. (typical story with my recording lately I guess) I’m going to see like 5 shows in the next few weeks, hopefully a few of them will turn out nice.
I have two requests in the meantime:
#1: please comment on this post if you’re reading (it’s quick and easy) just to let me know that comments are working on this thing. I’ve been told at times that they aren’t, but every time I check they work. I’m confused. Nobody said anything on my last few posts and that’s somewhat disturbing. Either nobody reads, nobody cares, or the site’s busted. (and it’s not like I go around promoting this blog and try to get people to read it so I wouldn’t be surprised if nobody regularly checks it, I’m not one of those quantity over quality sorts of people so I’m not going to make 10 posts a day with worthless crap if I don’t have anything substantial to post). If comments are busted for real, I’d really appreciate an email. dave @ (w&w.com) if you can’t comment but otherwise would like to do so, and I’ll have more proof that it’s busted.
#2: If you’re one of those 3-4 people with a big huge DSLR/SLR/etc camera at every single show that I see, can we please work something out so you let me use your pictures? I’m finding it harder to find pictures to use that weren’t taken on someone’s iphone, and I know there’s at least a few of you at every show in the front row snapping pictures. I know you can’t all be there from the Chron/SFWeekly (and if you are, I never ever see pictures of any show I go to in those things) and I know most of you are just using it as a vehicle to get into show for free (wish I could do it too) so it’d be super if you’d let me use a picture from every show I see that you’re at.
Thanks, and new stuff this week I promise!
Full circle! For the first time, I get to post an artist for the second time. Tilly and the Wall was the first band I posted here a couple years ago when I got the urge to make a blog just for the stuff I record. I missed their show earlier this year at the Rickshaw Stop because I’d seen the British Sea Power show the night before and I didn’t feel like going out again the next night since it was Noise Pop and inevitably they pack so many bands on the bill that you’re soooo tired before the headliner gets on. Oh well.
Tilly and the Wall’s new album “O” is definitely one of my favorites of the year. It doesn’t hold itself to anyone particular sound, they’re experimenting with a lot of stuff to great success and really bringing a more rock sound to their music while retaining that whole thing that made them awesome in the first place. I think a lot of the songs were definitely conceived with the live show in mind, and that they perhaps needed a few songs where there wasn’t as much focus on the novelty of someone in the band tap dancing out percussion. There’s still plenty of that, but at the show it seemed like at least a little less prominent than in the past. There was a real drummer, but I didn’t see him do a whole lot. I’m not terribly sure how I feel about Beat Control either, since it doesn’t really sound like anything else they’ve ever done and not necessarily in a way I like. I don’t think there was anything but a pre-made beat and keyboards on the song which is totally weird compared to 3 guitars, percussion, and keyboards. I’m glad they didn’t do a whole album like that because while I like their voices, I don’t like the 80’s style dance music revival thing going on. Maybe it’s because I had enough of it the first time and I’m just not in nostalgia mode yet or whatever, but it doesn’t work for me. I guess for the kids that weren’t born until ‘85 or later it’s awesome because it’s brand new to them, but really the song sounds way too much Miami Sound Machine to me and that’s just not my thing.
Anyway. It was a good show! They threw out balloons before the show and the hipsters tried to act like balloons are totally not cool. Seriously guys, have some fun every once in a while okay?
As an aside, I sorta got “busted” during the show. The band was cool with me taping their last show in SF, so I figured it was okay again this time and I didn’t REALLY try to do any sort of hiding of my equipment but I put it all under a hat to keep it out of the way from anyone who might set their drink down on or near my stuff. The security guy came around and asked what I had under the hat, turns out that there was a blinking light and a glow that made it real obvious that I was taping and they had no video/flash photo signs everywhere and he was making sure I wasn’t rolling on video I suppose. Luckily he didn’t shut me down and was totally cool with things.
Setlist:
- Intro
- Too Excited
- Alligator Skin
- Rainbows in the Dark
- Falling Without Knowing
- Bad Education
- Reckless
- Beat Control
- Cacophany
- Pot Kettle Black
- Tall Tall Grass
- The Ice Storm, Big Gust, And You
- Dust Me Off
- Sing Songs Along
- encore break
- Shake It Out
- Night of the Living Dead
download the whole show as a .zip file
download the show in lossless FLAC from Dimeadozen.org (registration required)
Okay, I originally wrote up a big negative thing about the show, because I honestly didn’t enjoy it a lot. I thought the band looked bored, it seemed like they were legitimately pained to play some of their older songs, despite only having played a single show at a tiny club in San Francisco before… and the show was rather short for a headliner. The first time I saw them, I chalked everything up to it being their first US tour. This time, I don’t really know. Maybe they were just tired and didn’t care by the time they got all the way to San Francisco, I’ve heard it happens to a lot of bands. Regardless for the price and the time and all that, not really a good show. Oh well. The recording is nice anyway, and without visuals it holds up a lot better, but honestly most of the band just had a “lets just get this done so we can go home” look on their faces the entire time. Kate was into it, but the rest of the band… not so much. And that’s kinda disappointing to me.
Also, nobody on flickr took pictures and made them available to the public, so I can’t link a picture for this show. Double bummer eh?
setlist:
- Century
- Here Comes the Serious Bit
- Autonomy Boy
- The Couples
- You Could Have Both
- Round the Hairpin
- Once and Never Again
- I Liked the Boys
- Separated By Motorways
- Too Clever By Half
- Guilt
- Erin O’Connor
- I’m Going to Hell
- Giddy Stratospheres
- Weekend Without Makeup
- Lust in the Movies
download the whole show as a .zip file
download the show in lossless FLAC (registration required)
The Dolls are my 2nd favorite band in the world, second only to Tori. (sorry!). Their live shows are without comparison, and should not be missed unless you just hate going to awesome shows that are worth every penny. I promise there’s no way you can leave one without saying “that was fucking awesome”. I’m not joking at all. I think I’ve seen them 20something times, and it’s almost like they just get better every single time. They’re not your typical “we play the exact same show every single place we go and just mail it in” sort of band. The average band will fill their setlist with 9/10 staples and maybe (if you’re lucky!) give you a song or two that you weren’t expecting. The Dresden Dolls however follow what I can only call the Tori Amos style of setlists, where their entire catalog and plenty of stuff that most people in the audience have never even heard is completely fair game. Most bands are also not brave enough to play new, untested material at a show. The Dolls however have no fear and that’s a great testament to how much of a great band, and an especially great live band they are. Despite having seen a crap ton of Dolls shows, a lot of this setlist was new to me. Not “new” in the sense that I’d never heard the songs, but new in the sense that I’d just never heard them play it live. (technically I’ve seen Amanda by herself playing some of them, but it’s almost totally different when there’s a band too).
As for the show itself, it was a typical Dolls show. (keep in mind this makes it instantly twice as good as any other show you’ve seen this year). As they’re touring behind their new album (comes out Today) No, Virginia which is a b-sides/old material compilation that just basically rounds up all of the stuff they’ve done live and/or just didn’t record for the last 5 years, I mostly expected a show full of those songs. Zoe Keating (previously of Rasputina, now doing stuff on her own) joined in for a few songs, East Bay Ray (whaaaat?) from Dead Kennedys shows up for a couple of songs. Meredith Yayanos (who I think just needs to join the band full time because some of these songs SCREAM for a creepy violin part, so can we make that happen somehow?) was there too and that packs in an extra dimension of awesome.
Many people may try to dismiss a band like this as a gimmick since oh it’s just a drummer and a piano… but for those of you at home who didn’t go to the show, keep in mind… Brian plays the drums and the guitar on The Gardener at the same time for the entire song. Can you do that? Can the drummer (or guitarist) in your favorite band do that? No, I don’t think they can.
Anyway, go see The Dresden Dolls if you can. It might change your life. (and hey, if it doesn’t you still saw a really great show right?)
setlist:
- In the Flesh
- Girl Anachronism
- Night Reconnaissance
- Mrs. O
- Missed Me
- Ultima Esperanza
- The Lonesome Organist Rapes Page Turner
- компютриCoin-Operated Boy
- Moon Over Marin
- Guitar Hero
- The Gardener
- The Astronaut
- (post-war trade banter)
- (You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)
- Pierre
- Boston
- Half Jack
- War Pigs
- One of Us Cannot Be Wrong
download the whole show as a .zip file
download the show in lossless 24-bit FLAC (registration required)
download the show in lossless 16-bit FLAC (registration required)
Links:
Elbow is sometimes a difficult band to see. They write great songs, and Guy Garvey has a great voice, there’s no doubt. But, their songs are often slow ballads and not necessarily the stuff you can rock out with. This makes for a difficult live show I think, trying to keep the average crowd enthusiastic when for the most part if you give anyone a chance to hear themselves talk, they’ll take it as an opportunity to do so, even if the band is still on the stage and trying to perform. I was plagued at this particular show by a really coked up bunch of people who were trying really hard to be more impressive than the band. One guy couldn’t stop moving, maybe he wasn’t coked up and maybe he had Parkinson’s, I don’t know, but he couldn’t stop talking to everyone around him in such a distracting way that I personally found it really difficult to even concentrate on the band.
I personally like the long drawn out vocals and rather lush arrangement with the music. I don’t know what most people were expecting when they went to the show honestly. They did a lot of songs from their newest album, and a handful of older songs as well. It’s nothing I can complain about, but honestly it’s nothing that would have made me say “best concert ever”. The real highlight for me was One Day Like This where Guy got the crowd involved on the chorus. I guess I’m a sucker for that sort of thing, I don’t know. Good show, not great, but maybe it was the crowd and I was tired and this isn’t the sort of show for when you’re tired.
setlist:
- Starlings
- The Bones of You
- Leaders of the Free World
- Great Expectations
- Mirrorball
- Grounds for Divorce
- Mexican Standoff
- The Loneliness Of A Tower Crane Driver
- The Stops
- Newborn
- мебелиband intro / crowd lyrics
- One Day Like This
- encore break
- Puncture Repair
- Station Approach
- Scattered Black and Whites
download the whole show as a .zip file
download the show in lossless FLAC (registration required)
Links:
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:
- (Intro Music)
- A New Decade
- (technical difficulties)
- Sonnet
- This is Music
- Space and Time
- Life’s An Ocean
- On Your Own
- Weeping Willow
- Sit and Wonder
- The Rolling People
- Velvet Morning
- The Drugs Don’t Work
- Lucky Man
- Come On
- (encore break)
- Bitter Sweet Symphony
- Modern Times
