The four Joyce Manor guys took the Amoeba stage in the most casual way, and right away started playing their punk anthems in front of an ecstatic crowd; it’s simple, the bunch of dark-haired girls behind me instantaneously morphed themselves into a choir of chanting-screaming females as soon as the band played the first note
a mix of old and new songs and this acoustic setting was perfectly suited for these new ones, whose quiet music could evoke still wilderness, forests covered by untouched snow or calm lakes,… I mean any kind of similar imagery would match Church’s nostalgic soundscape
t is 11pm on a Wednesday night at Best Buy and while it doesn’t say “Sold Out” for the third annual Peter Palooza, I have never seen the club busier. Peter Palooza is Hut 97’s Sunday night new rap DJ Peter Rosenberg and the birthday celebration is his, but the people want Action Bronson.
I spotted a few people who were already at Corners’ first week residency, and even talked to two of them,… this wasn’t a surprise, I was certain people would come back to experience Corners’ awesome sound. This time, I didn’t dropped my camera, but the Echo was as crowded and as rowdy as ever
Keith was unhappy with the first take on “Till Summer Comes Round” (off Defying Gravity) and played it again, killing the momentum further, though the second version had a much much better ending and it took until that end, 20 minutes into the 80 minute second set, for Keith to get the set back on track.
Underlying whatever you might think Tom Clark is doing at the Treehouse every Sunday, with free concert at a lovely loft like space with windows looking down on the East Village like it is Lincoln Center’s Allen Room gone downtown what he is doing is managing the flux of time
She was bringing something fresh to the game, and managed to captivate the audience with her adorable personality, her uplifting and ascending tunes and her high-pitched voice dolling up over the pedal steel and layered guitars.
When Ngaujah removed his vest, then removed his shirt toward the end of the show, he almost got back into Fela’s skin, and soon more and more women stood up and shook their bodies with more or less success… it was difficult to compete with the three queens though
At best the evening (and Mercury substitute) put Queen on life support. Adam Lambert fulfills a dream and the musicians can continue making love to their instruments and bring the larger than life deceased Freddie Mercury back from the dead. “After all these years who would have thought we would have the chance to be rock gods again?”
Never before have so few done so much with so little. Queen are simply not a very good band saved from obscurity by the ashtrays of emotion that was Freddie Mercury and a firm grasp on maybe half a dozen indelible songs. Queen was what you got when Mercury added Liberace to Elvis Presley.
They launched straight into “Now I’m Here” and it was rocking. Adam’s voice and energy were excellent, everything I’d hoped they would be. “Stone Cold Crazy” and “Another One Bites the Dust” had the crowd going, having fun, Adam’s vocals in good form. Yeah, he’s not Freddie, but I was okay with that (for now).
They have a story coming with them, a story about zombie-like creatures ‘formed out of the murky Louisiana Swamp’, which were a ‘former backing band to Motown’s greats’ but ‘abandoned at a routine gas stop in Baton Rouge in August 1965’.
What a difference seeing an entertainer like JT up close and personal! His dance moves, his expressions, I can see everything and the music … I can feel everything. It’s as though the bass and percussion are my life support, if left without the music my heart would stop beating.
Our Supermodel mural must come down by July 14th. This news has come as a surprise and disappointment to me and everyone else that collaborated on making this project happen. This mural was our contribution to the city of Los Angeles – our kiss of color to the city we love.
A few of my own personal favorites of an overall brilliant set were the absolutely on fire Smokestack Lightning toward the end (this is where TD broke his second string) and a medley he did of some songs from a forthcoming record, co-written by Pulitzer Prize winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa, as well as the aforementioned David Barnes harp solo
Every Time I Die deserves to be playing better shows than Warped. They didn’t have nearly enough people watching their set, which was disappointing, because they truly gave it their all. Warped is taxing and exhausting, and the guys in ETID didn’t miss a beat. Be sure to catch them at your Warped date, and check out their new album.
Listen’, he said many times to the crowd, managing to get people fully involved even during the metaphysical ruminating poetry of ‘Higgs Boson Blues’, repeating many times ‘Can you feel my heartbeat?… no no no….. yeah yeah yeah’, while looking right into the eyes of the happy pit people
A couple of hours later the stoically bemused Dinosaur Jr would be wowing the crowd on the same stage, and a little earlier the angular wit of Mac Demarcos and indie classicism of Speedy Ortiz would have their moment, but for right now the day belongs to the aggravated garage bang of Those Darlins. A quintessentially New York rock and roll moment the day after Tommy Ramone died.
I have zero doubt it is difficult to do much but rub your audiences noses in the flash of funds at a Stadium extravaganza but like Bono and Bruce, Jay Z seemed capable of it and this show, not unlike the entire on the run concept, was forced.
His voice had the rumbling power of a train in the still of night roaring through a small town. And while he slammed every song hard, some might claim too hard, his guitar playing could be very nimble indeed, letting a couple of smartly placed notes replace a solo before playing fast runs near the neck of the guitar.
Katy and uber-producer Dr. Luke simply ruled and three years later the Katy Perry reign continued. And while sure, it wasn’t much, a mix of fair pop hits and iffy dance slams while Katy moved away from her Dorothy in Candyland 2011 persona to still embrace her inner 13 year old but through the eyes of a blasé 29 year old writing a self-help manual, it pleased those it was meant to please
Frontman Brandon Robert had this super low baritone voice, and he efficiently used it, singing on a very monotonous-monochord tone, which accentuated even more the goth imagery. The ambiance, like the light, was dark and dim, but it didn’t mean everything was only about shoegazing and new wavy soundscapes.
They may have invented a new genre, self-described as killwave/Cholo goth, Prayers find their territory where the new-wave/goth scene meets hip hop culture and it totally works! ‘This song goes to the motherfuckers that imitate us’ declared frontman Rafael Reyes… he was saying this with a menacing tone and enough swagger to make Kanye West die of jealousy, and it was certainly funny
Corners is a band that I had the pleasure to see a few times before, I saw them first during a Monday residency in April, then at Lolipalooza, and I had immediately noticed their invigorating sound, a sound which was so familiar and new at the same time. So, I was not surprised to learn that the quartet had a July residency at the Echo, and I may actually go to a few of them
The strength of the evening… actually, it was just a great set. Crenshaw was in fine voice, the band sounded terrific, the song selections very strong, and the wooliness of the set up allowed Crenshaw to go off on tangents. Mishearing a song request, he decided to play Five Man Electrical Band’s 1971 “Signs”.
Six bands total, CTers from all around the state flocked down to the Pulaski to pay homage to the guys who’ve made us all think that maybe our state isn’t too lame. Though incredibly bittersweet, there was too much good going on for it to have been anything less than the best night of the summer.
There are reasons why Michael Buble is the biggest cabaret star in the works: he wears a tux well,he pushes classic rock and soul with the same fervor as the American Songbook, he’s a funny charmer. But it soon becomes very clear that the man is a lightweight.
Apparently the performance will be visible, but inaudible to spectators. Which is silly, because isn’t the point to hear them play? Unfathomable Ruination commented, saying, “According to the medical professionals who read The Independent, we’re all going to die… Challenge Accepted.”
Unlike Ethiopian music, there is no r&b influence, the music sways but doesn’t stomp and Noura’s delivery is rock emphatic; it’s a declarative, rich and very inviting sound. Her hour long set mined the debut album, Tzenni, released in June
At the Bootleg on the 4th, an all-evening-long psych fest, bringing a dozen of psychedelic bands on two different stages. Since I don’t really like following traditions, I went to the Warlocks’ Smokeout, and spent more than 5 hours inside the darkest club in LA, while having a great time
Stubhub for sold out gigs we know, but it is also a place where people unload tickets they don’t want or speculators go to dump the excess tickets in their world. Helen Bach is such an expert she will wait till the last minute and pick em up as the prices topple, I got burnt on Fiona Apple that way once so tend not to have the stomach for it but this is really the open market at its best.
At the top of the usual shows at Amoeba (always free), at the Echo, Echoplex, Satellite, Bootleg, Silverlake Lounge, El Rey, Henry Fonda to name just a few clubs and theaters where I go the most, there are a series of free outdoor shows all over the city, and choices are gonna be difficult again this season!
Turbogoth are Sarah Gaugler (on lead vocals) and Paolo Peralta (on guitar/electronic sampler), an electronic power pop mood enhanced duo with a pretty good debut album 2011’s awesomely named Destroy Us All, which includes the, well maybe a little Goth-y, more ambient with a back beat “Bbm” .
Fans were asked to complete lab rat maze tests, attempt to master a Rubik’s cube, listen to random songs, honestly, I would have refused and left right there, but they went through the whole game, which didn’t stop there: a patient was declared contagious, people had to hurry into a dark corridor filling with dry ice
Elvis Costello – Carnegie Hall – June 25th, 2014 – The second of a two night stand but this is the one to have watched. A solo performance, started with half of My Aim Is True, ended with a brand new song, a good one, and “Peace Love And Understanding” and in between he spend two and half hours wandering round his future history with unvarying, unwavering and very thrilling results
The band had large inflatable letters spelling TFB, and broke out the wacky inflatable waving arm tube men as well. Their presence was great, and though Brian always says “uncomfortable”, they looked pretty comfortable to me.
They have been described as evoking ‘the summer of ‘75 while layering on a healthy dose of ‘90s shoegaze fuzz’, and I would say that, especially after a Beatle song, I was more concerned by the 70s than the 90s, as it was obvious these guys were revisiting an idea of American classic rock
Songs the Stones and the Who covered before Jahn, mix it up with the Temptations, Edwin Starr, Chuck Berry and the Coasters. I for one would pay cash money to have heard the Bowerytones wailing on “Young Blod”. Jahn is a big Who fan but I feel that the Bowerytones were channelling early Stones. That mix of rock and soul, very early 1960s.
The wail escalates, peaking as the threshold is torn apart. The guitar drone pours out, inundating the audience, and inducing a deafening stillness, the unwound vibrations channeled by the crowd at a speed such that all is centered
I’ve called em indie pop and I’ve called em emo and folk, but essentially they are just a rock band with a lead singer who taps into a sense of a dream which has become a part of American youth at least since the 1990s, maybe since the late 1960s, of a dream, both personally and politically diminished
Of all the ways to serve gay pride, this was a great one. Last year Summerstage did a similar thing for the 35th anniversary of the birth of hip hop -they just have the connects and the vision to put such wide and free ranging shows together. As the song goes, “I’m happy, I’m carefree and I’m gay”, and long may you be who you are.
Dave doesn’t really get angry, he gets bemused. He has a perpetual quizzical expression that is perhaps the only response to racial politics and personal politics left. He was fine, but he wasn’t Richard Pryor on Sunset Strip.
That Pentecostal fervor informs his music – he can sing a straightforward ballad, but on the uptempo numbers, he howls and screams and bellows and throws his entire body into the music. He is a naturally unique and gifted performer.
It is a real achievement, performing solo and invitingly and interesting so the audience isn’t dozing, for 165 minutes. The penultimate song of the evening found him strapping on his electric song for the first time all night for the new and excellent “The Last Days Of My Youth”. Perhaps it is, or perhaps he will never grow old.
For a girl who has declared ‘What’s going to make this band different is our live show’ it was an odd choice, but she probably knew she would not have to conquer anyone there, she was working with the devoted die-hard crowd.
Jamie was excellent but Amber left the entire audience slack jawed, she seemed to turn every corner of the song only to find somewhere else to reach. Jamie made her debut in 2009 and Amber in 2011 but their power, passion and professionalism was a great thing
‘We are not at a funeral, please!’ said Angelique Kidjo during her free concert at Grand Performances, It made me laugh and she was right, people had to get up! She was ‘commanding’ people to stand up and dance, whereas most of them had been sitting since the beginning of the performance.
No need for wheelchair access with Sir Cliff, at age 73 he is as youthful as he was at 23. Dressed very stylish and in his Skinny jeans he danced and sang as if he were still a teenybopper, I felt like I was in the audience of a taping of “Top of the Pop”. Cliff was soft spoken and polite and his fans just loved him.
The teenage Cliff of the late 1950’s, had a tender lushness about him, girls adored him, he wasn’t threatening but rather Mickey Rooney meets Elvis meets Dion . Any thoughts of juvenile delinquency disappeared as hit after hit after hit turned him pop.
I just hope that this time I will be able to keep these videos on YouTube a little bit longer than last time: I filmed them at the Echoplex back in February, and the video got more than 40,000 views!! I got in trouble with YouTube for ‘TOS violation’ as YouTube probably noticed some unusual large activity on the account
