Last week I went to the Tooth and Nail tour to see MXPX. There were a bunch of opening bands, and I really liked The Fold. They'll be on the 2nd leg of Warped Tour, so I'll get to see them some more. I couldn't wait for MXPX to go on, and when they did it was fantastic! The crowd was older, and a lot of guys, which was awesome because thats not ususally the case anymore. As soon as MXPX took the stage a very excited French boy spilled his beer all over my back due to his jumping around, and a couple minutes later I got another drink spilled all over my arm, but I didn't even care. I did move to the other side of the venue though. They were so good. I LOVE MXPX. Their new cd comes out July 17th I think, and they'll be back in the fall promoting it (yay!)
I also found that that Pier 40 on the west side has free rowing trips every Tuesday and Thursday evenings, and Sunday morning and holidays. I'm all over that.
Other than that I'm just babysitting until I leave for Warped Tour in 28 days. Wow, I just realized how close that is. I need to get a big suitcase...
The Town Hall is a great venue and it
also has a very interesting origin. Excuse me as I paraphrase/lift from
their web site. The theatre was commissioned as a meeting place by the
League for Political Education, a group whose purpose was to facilitate
passage of the19th Amendment- women’s right to vote. Town Hall was
designed to reflect the democratic principles of the League; box seats
were eliminated and no seats had an obstructed view - giving birth to
the phrase “not a bad seat in the house.” The Hall opened on January
12, 1921 (less than a year after the 19th Amendment was ratified) and
over the years the venue has hosted some of the best and most
controversial musicians and politicos.
I have never attended
a lecture there but it’s a wonderful place to see a show. The sound is
excellent and the crowd is (usually) there to pay attention. Not always
the case in this part of the world. Times Square (Town Hall is on 43rd
Street) is certainly a different animal some 86 years later- but we
braved the tourists this past Friday to catch the first evening of
Bright Eyes’ seven-night sold-out stand.
Gillian (pronounced
“Gill” ian, not “Jill” ian to my surprise) Welch and David Rawlings
opened the evening with an hour set that featured material from across
Gillians’ recordings including; “Orphan Girl,” “My First Lover,” “Elvis
Presley Blues,” and “Everything Is Free” – a song that according to
Welch IS what you think it’s about. Other highlights included “No One
Knows My Name” and “I Want To Sing That Rock And Roll” The two shared a
camaraderie that was confident and comfortable (try saying that three
times fast). There was plenty of great vocal harmonizing and lead
guitar parts that were smoothly complimentary, if slightly canned. The
duo closed with an admirable performance of the Johnny Cash/June Carter
classic “Jackson.”
Bright Eyes
took the stage as a massive band. In addition to the three permanent
members Mike Mogis, Nate Walcott and Conor Oberst the evening’s
ensemble also included two drummers (one being Janet Weiss), and a mini
orchestra featuring cellos, woodwinds and violins. There were probably
about 12 or 13 folks on stage. Oberst looked sharp in an all white
suit, as did the rest of his entourage, also dressed all in white. The
opening set leaned heavily on Bright Eyes’ most recent release Cassadaga
featuring “Clairaudients (Kill or Be Killed)”, “Hot Knives,”
“Middleman” and “Make a Plan to Love Me” which Oberst introduced as a
song about being in love with a workaholic. A rocking version of “Four
Winds,” the fiddle driven first single from the new record was probably
the highlight from the new material. A cool element to show were the
projected images being shown behind the band. An artist used several
different mediums including markers, paint, light, and even an Etch A
Sketch to create a live backdrop which was actually quite fun to watch.
As
promised there was a special guest, the room went crazy when Lou Reed
took the stage and joined the band for performances of “Dirty Blvd.”
and “Waiting For My Man”. It’s just about the most New York thing we
could think of commented Oberst. “First Day of My Life” was the lone
representitve from 2005’s excellent I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning
in the first set- but it was a cool revved up version fully utilizing
the whole band. Obrest also pulled out “The Calendar Hung Itself…” from
2003’s Fevers and Mirrors, dedicating the cut to only person
who ever broke his heart. The set concluded with “I Believe in
Symmetry” and a simple stripped down version of “Lime Tree” one of my
personal favorites from the new album.
The encore saw Welch
and Rawlings return to the stage for a cover of Gillian’s “Miss Ohio”
and the appropriate closer “Lua” – any New Yorker can relate to trying
to get home on a cold night and taxis that just keep turning their
lights off. Here’s to town hall and Conor Obrest for continuing the
tradition of compelling artistic content.
I LOVE Broadway. Let's not even get into how many times I've seen RENT (and I'll be going again soon since Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp are reprising their roles as Roger and Mark!!!). And Hairspray is excellent as well. Can't wait for the new movie to come out, but unfortunately I'll be on tour then and won't have a day off until August 5th or something crazy like that.
Anyways...last night I went to see Legally Blonde The Musical on Broadway, and it was fantastic! I still can't get the songs out of my head. The UPS man was my favorite. And they had real dogs too. I recommend it, especially since it was nominated for a bunch of TONY's, including best actress in a musical for Laura Bell Bundy ( who also originated Amber in Hairspray on Broadway).
About two weeks ago I went to see the musical Curtains starring the guy from Fraiser and George from Grey's Anatomy's Mom. That was good too, but Legally Blonde was better.
Wow, so now that you know how much of a nerd I am, I'll finish with this: I'm going to see MXPX tomorrow night and I'm so stoked! I'm going to have a picnic and frisbee in Central Park on Saturday, and then I'm going to see Cartel on Monday. And I saw Melee a week ago - fantastic. one of my top 5 live bands. Love those boys.
A week or so ago, I took the A train uptown - way uptown - to 175th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. A mere block from the station sits the United Palace Theatre, a beautiful old place that serves as a place of worship most of the time. Once in awhile, however, it houses some pretty kick butt concerts. Bjork and also the Stooges have both recently rocked it there. It was Montreal's Arcade Fire, though, that got me to spend a Monday night in Washington Heights.
If you're familiar with Arcade Fire's music, then you know that it is emotional, melodic and anthemic in the tradition of U2. It's music that's meant to be played in big places. On this tour, their biggest yet, the band performed on a stage filled with risers, circular monitors and neon (Neon Bible) um, rods, that were not-very-gracefully sticking up at the front. I found the stage props to be a bit awkward. They were meant to frame the band, but I found those rods (!) to be distracting.
The music, of course, was top notch. I'm not a huge fan of Arcade Fire's Neon Bible album; the reverb-drenched bombast is a bit much for me. Live, however, the music was engrossing. And by the time the hits from their debut Funeral came out, the crowd was floating.
I haven't been out to a show in awhile, so I thought that I might take a moment or two of your time to point your ears to one of the finest singles I've heard in awhile - Heart It Races by Architecture In Helsinki. Despite that Finn-recalling moniker, Architecture In Helsinki actually hail from Melbourne, Australia and, perhaps not surprisingly given their name, have a sound that is at once playful, complex and supremely tuneful. Their six person lineup allows for varied instrumentation. Varied instrumentation = tons of awesome sounds. For example, the lilting, lovely steel drums on Heart It Races.
Heart It Races is the first single from the new Architecture In Helsinki album, Places Like This, due out in August. For now, it's only streaming on their MySpace. Listen and dance.
Above pic of AiH taken by yours truly at the Gothic Theatre in Denver, Colorado on October 6, 2006.
