Last night i saw Wilco at the IU Auditorium. i was able to trade the nosebleed seat for an 8th row seat woo-hoo.

Before Wilco hit stage, local yocals The Impossible Shapes were up. Lead singer sounds kinda like Donovan (the 60s folkie) and the music is borderline psych rock, sometimes like the Smithereens. They took way too long to tune up, and they are a veteran band on the local scene so the best get the act togather if they wanna get up the foodchain.

Yay, Wilco rocks! Tweedy & company never let up once they appeared. Guitarist Nels Cline attacked- i say attacked- his guitar like Ali used to beat up on some po' fool in the boxing ring. Some of the great songs played: "Airline to Heaven", "Kingpin", "Hell is Chrome", "Handshake Drugs", "Jesus, Etc", "A Shot in the Arm" and my favorite- the one that sends chills down me spine- "Theologians".

Tweedy joked how the audience wasn't the rowdy kind he'd been warned about at IU. He said we was a "mild mannered audience". Guess he didn't see xc in his straightjacket in the 8th row still drooling over that blonde usherette who led xc to his seat. It was a great show, music was fantastic, acoustics were pretty good, the crowd gathered steam slow but it was a Monday. Now i've seen both Wilco and Son Volt, the two halves of my beloved Uncle Tupelo, so i guess i can be satisfied til there's an Uncie Tupelo reunion (hint, hint to Mr.Tweedy & Mr.Farrar).

Hey - great review!

Exactly what I would expect Wilco to be. Never seen 'em myself, so I'm jealous.

Last nite i saw three bands at a small theatre. First up was a local band, Murder By Death,whose newest album, In Bocca al Lupo, is picking up great reviews and becoming at least a big regional hit- and it's one of my top faves this year. I was surprised and somewhat disappointed that MBD opened the show and their set was way too short. But they were excellent. This band can go far (out of Indhickiana that's fer sure). Great songwriting, a good singer and cellist who's not only a babe but she's a Hendrix on that cello of hers.

Next up was Veda, a band I'd never heard of, and I guess they're from around here. The singer- Kristen May- has this very sweet voice, she can sound like Nelly Furtado, Neko Case or Debbie Harry at times but darnnit- her band plays so loud and so contrary to her singing style that it's a shame to waste her voice behind those instruments. Unless it was just poor acoustics for a little theatre, i hope the lead singer either goes solo or tones her band down.

Last band was a southern US group called Lucero. While the vocalist reminded me of Jeff Tweedy a little in the voice department, the music was a harder style alt-country/indie rock. i've heard their Nobody's Darlings cd which is okay to fine on some songs. i suppose this is an acquired taste but not a taste i can relate to.

The line-up for the show was backasswards. Murder By Death should have headlined and dug deep into their songlists for a longe eve's worth of playing. Lucero should have opened & played no more than 4 songs (lol). i spoke with the lead singers of MDB and Veda in between shows and they were pretty cool. Kristen May has this tender li'l voice and i could feel my heart go thumpidy-thump. She seems to know her music industry stuff & hopefully won't get jaded by a money hungry music industry. Adam Turla of MDB seems destined for the bigger things and has this eerie sense of history about him. Best of luck to both bands.

Caught another 3 act show recently. These were all local bands but very good. The show took place at a record store that's starting to show acts and book not just local artists but national groups too.

the Hollows (aka Kate & Alex) is an alt-country duo. They're pretty good, Kate sounds a little like Laura Cantrell. I couldn't find anything on them online & don't think they have any albums out yet.

The 2nd and best act were Gentleman Caller who's latest cd, Until We Are Missing is my 2nd fave album of '06 so far. This band has a great live show presence, the band members are all very well versed with their instruments and the lead singer is an excellent vocalist. The songs may be Spoon-lite but the lyric subject is better than Spoon, more like Margot & the Nuclear So & So's- personal crisis, relationships, state of the world. They gave me a copy of their out-of-print first cd after the show and we talked music for awhile. Here's their myspace locale for some samples- Gentleman Caller

i think Richard Swift is California born but moved to Indhickiana in the last decade. He was the head liner. His songs are like Radiohead/Andrew Bird meets Neil Diamond. Some nice stuff, definately worth checking out his cd The Novelist/Walking Without Effort, which is a collection of his ep releases. His show wasn't as exciting as Gentleman Caller, still it was upbeat and fun.

p!nk at the 9:30 club..
nice venue.. loved the show
and she was of course yummy

Saw Damien Rice and Fiona Apple on Monday night.
Damien is the man. It was weird to see/hear him in a big arena but he pulled it off. I would LOVE to catch one of his acoustic shows in a small venue.
Fiona Apple was...interesting. Unfortunately she had a little 'technical difficulty-induced psychosis' during this particular show. Here is a link to an article about what happened.

http://www.ctnow.com/music/reviews/hce-applerev.artjul26,0,2059530.story

Had great seats though. Here are a couple of pics from my crappy camera:

A couple of Damien Rice :

Concerts I've seen:

The Bee Gees in '79, Blondie/Elvis Costello/Robert Hazzard and the Heroes/Flock Of Seagulls/Genesis in the '82 Genesis Jam, Suicidal Tendencies/Queensryche in '91 (by far, my favorite), Metal Church/Metallica in '92 (my other fave, Faith No More/Circus Of Power in '90?, Roberta Flack in '95 at the Musikfest, and The Guess Who/Orleans in '96. I would love to see Styx, Foreigner, ELO and Journey if I could. I saw Blondie Live On Demand and Debbie Harry was 55 in this video. She still kicks @$$. I saw Queensryche too Live OD. They still kick butt, but not so much now. They kind of went downhill when Chris DeGarmo left the band and I hate seeing people I don't recognize in that band. Geoff Tate looks scary now with that cue ball head of his. Not very becoming on a man of his age. I can't believe I had a crush on him. Oy vey...

The Raconteurs 15 Sept in Grand Prairie TX

A friend of mine and I decided to use a sick day for this one. Jack White not in red & white...well not exclusively, lol. Great show, great energy and yes, the patentend wacky Jack White cover. Last night's treat was a performance of Bang, Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down). Highlights were Yellow Sun, Broken Boy Soldiers (the title track to the album), and Blue Veins. All in all, a nice way to spend one of my sick days. <cough, cough>

The venue was nice, but christ, it's expensive. $12 for parking---and there's plenty of goddamned parking. $8 for a beer. Ticketmaster also is still playing those games that cause Pearl Jam to declare war a decade ago. A pair of $30 tickets somehow wound up costing me $100.

So tonight...it's the Flaming Lips. I last saw them 11 years ago in a city park in North Tulsa. I imagine the show has evolved somewhat. *CCg*

Flaming Lips

It's all about audience participation at a FL show. There is no shoe-gazing allowed. Great energy and yes, a "She Don't Use Jelly" sing along. Bigger, rowdier crowd than last night's Raconteurs concert.

Odd, odd, odd opening act. Hebrew rapper named Matisyahu. It was strange to see so many rather conservative looking, orthodox Jewish parents at a Flaming Lips show-although, I think they all left though before the main act. Young teenage girls, in long skirts and long-sleeved shirts screaming for the dude with the beard and a yarmulka. Didn't see the appeal myself. Far more entertaining to watch the fans.

There's my concert budget blown for the foreseeable future.

quote:

Originally posted by Smirk Morgan:
The Raconteurs 15 Sept in Grand Prairie TX

Sounds like a great show, wish they'd show up round here and on a weekend night. Was there an opening act? Hmmm...Meg must've been home alone, wish i coulda kept her company hee-hee.

quote:

Originally posted by Smirk Morgan:
Flaming Lips

It's all about audience participation at a FL show. There is no shoe-gazing allowed. Great energy and yes, a "She Don't Use Jelly" sing along. Bigger, rowdier crowd than last night's Raconteurs concert.

Odd, odd, odd opening act. Hebrew rapper named Matisyahu. It was strange to see so many rather conservative looking, orthodox Jewish parents at a Flaming Lips show-although, I think they all left though before the main act. Young teenage girls, in long skirts and long-sleeved shirts screaming for the dude with the beard and a yarmulka. Didn't see the appeal myself. Far more entertaining to watch the fans.

i've always want to see the Lips live. The albums only hint at what fun they must be in concert. Is Wayne mellowing out from former days or does he still have that crazed thing about him?

Matisyahu is one of my favorite reggae artists. i don't know how he got involved with today's indie scene and i hope he gets away from it before it taints & ruins his music. Then again, having teen chicks screaming for ya has gotta be a plus.

Hey cuz lila - great pics above of Fiona & Damien. They've both played in Indy- but on weeknights dernitt. i guess Indhickiana is poison for newer acts on the weekends. *sigh*

quote:

Originally posted by xenacrazed:

quote:

Originally posted by Smirk Morgan:
The Raconteurs 15 Sept in Grand Prairie TX

Sounds like a great show, wish they'd show up round here and on a weekend night. Was there an opening act? Hmmm...Meg must've been home alone, wish i coulda kept her company hee-hee.

There was an opening act-the name escapes me, I'm afraid. Something about a dog...or not. We only caught one and a half songs, because we didn't get there til well after 8 o'clock. Vocally a little iffy, though they had the "wall of sound" down pretty good.

I'mgoingtoAmericanIdolLivetomorrownight.


Felt like I needed to confess.

Mea culpa!

seek treatment immediately

chris pics?

Does knowing that I am attending the above Concert That Shall Not Be Named with my friend's 8 and 10 year old daughters help redeem me?

no, but chris pics might

The Reverend Horton Heat at the Granada

Christ, that was fun. That was rock n'roll. Three acts who did a great live set, show started at 8pm and didn't end until 1 am. And it was under $20 to get in the door.

Opening act was the Weary Boys. We got there toward the end of the set--which means we got almost half an hour out of 'em. Bluegrass stuff mostly, but they've also got a gospel CD. We'll probably want to catch them the next time they come through the area.

Next band up was the Horrorpops. That explained all the Betty Page fetishists in the audience. Grrrrrl lead singer playing stand up bass. Great front woman. I didn't feel like running to the merch table for the CD, but I enjoyed the set.

The Reverend himself. For this set we actually managed to get pretty close to the stage-just behind the mosh pit (very well-behaved, btw). These guys really know what the hell they're doing. At one point they stopped the show and started taking requests. There was no, "we're scheduled for one hour and ten minutes, and we're off at the very second" shit here.

The venue was the Granada Theater in Dallas. This is an awesome venue with a balcony, full service bar and, most importantly, they aren't trying to screw you out of all your money like they are at Nokia. Real beer for half the price of the beer-colored water they let you have at Nokia. We're thinking that we'll just start hitting the venue whether we know the band or not. Maybe we'll discover some new artists.

Live at La Zona Rosa last night....
infreakingcredible.

as i suspected, very little from the new release and mostly old stuff. THE old stuff. and not just the greastest hits old stuff. esoteric songs like, yes...Run to the Water. if i had written the set list it wouldn't have been more perfect (well...i mikght have added one or maybe two other songs, but we can't have everything now can we...?). the crowd was small but entirely into it, and the band seemed equally enthused. they sounded great.

some of us who attended don't have to work today , so i suppose we'll hear what Shawn thought tomorrow...

OOOOoooo the Horror Pops! i loves their music. i keep missing the Rev when he shows up around here. Because- It's. Always. During. The. Week. Nerrrr! And like Neko Case, he always plays at the worst dive in town. Dbl nerrrr!

So, Zoomie, who'd you see live at La Zona Rosa?
hehee

i'm hoping to see Regina Spektor and Arlo Guthrie this month. They's actually playing on a Saturday(!!!!!!!!!!!) and at a half-way decent joint (!!!!!!!!).

live live .. and a day off
double no fair

By the second set they had to crank it up, seems the croud was singing over the band.

Was amazing! Absolutely amazing!

Alice in Chains 1 October

I was a bit dubious about going to this one, what with the Layne Staley being dead. The new guy William Duvall has the pipes to sing the songs--hell, he has better range. It was entertaining, they played the hits--although there were a couple of songs I don't think I would have done without the junkie himself singing. They broke in the middle of the set to do several acoustic arrangements including Down in a Hole and No Excuses.

During the performance of Heaven Beside You I realized why they had to get a new singer if they wanted to tour. Jerry Cantrell's voice just isn't strong enough for lead. Funny, because I always figured it was just as hard to sing back up. Or it could just be his voice just didn't age well.

Entertaining show, I missed some of L.S.'s vocal quirks, but I thought it was wiser for the new singer not to try and mimic. I was a bit disappointed that there was no new material, but over all I enjoyed myself--even if I'm already guilty of the nostalgia experience.

My buddy Adam will be seeing them here at Stubbs this week. If I wasn't already so strapped for the all mighty $ I'd try to pick up a ticket outside. Seeing LIVE has me itching for more. And now with the wether cooling down a bit, it's actually almost comfortable outside in the evenings.

Oh, just got The Essential AIC, gotta love that junkie grunge.