alfacinha in nyc

New (Old) Things Are Coming Very Soon!

noreply@blogger.com (alfacinha.in.nyc) — Mon, 15 Jul 2019 20:12:00 +0000

This blog has been in a bit of a dormant stage for a while.

First because I had a kid and didn't have the time to go to many shows.

Then because I moved to another country and there weren't that many shows (locally) to go to - plus I was a bit broke.

And lastly because I got saddled with a couple of chronic illnesses that make it hard for me to go to shows.

But that doesn't mean that there isn't content to be had.

I read a music blog today called Tinnitus Tracker suggested by the great as always kottke.org and I was suitably inspired.

Soo, here's a thing I don't think I've ever mentioned before.

I am a lover of ephemera.
I love all the little bits and bobs that come along with our daily living, like train tickets, and museum handouts and well, concert tickets.

One of my first world complaints is that there's almost no paper tickets to be had anymore as many venues either only do electronic tickets or do print at home abominations - Ack!

And i've been collecting all of this stuff, i.e. concert tickets, since the first concert I ever went to - spoiler! Depeche Mode @ Giants' Stadium, NJ 6.16.1990 - and have even organized them chronologically like the nerd that I am.

Seeing that I have this treasure trove of stuff - plus lots of photos (analog *and* digital) that have never made it to this blog - I thought I'd try to put all of my gigs online. Some entries might have tickets, others might have a memory or two, but the goal is to have an entry for each and every show I've ever gone to, because well, why the hell not?

I hope to get started this week and will update as I can until I run out of shows - it'll be a while 😉

“Meet me in the bathroom: Rebirth and Rock and Roll in New York City 2001-2011” by Lizzy Goodman

noreply@blogger.com (alfacinha.in.nyc) — Wed, 28 Nov 2018 21:29:00 +0000

This probably seems like a weird place to write about a book, seeing as it’s a live music blog, but considering the subject matter, I just had to make an exception.

Also it’s my blog, so really I can write whatever the hell I want 😉

I first heard of this book - as with many thing nowadays - through Facebook, through a friend’s post about working on it. I used to work in publishing, yonks ago, and still have friends that work in the industry. I had no idea this book had been in the works, so I was very excited to hear about it.

This is pretty much the first cultural history book that I could directly relate to. As in, I was there. I got the CD, I bought the concert ticket, I picked up the badge - the whole works.

I expected good things from it. A good record of what it was like to be in New York City during the early aughts and to be a rock and roll fan.

What I got instead was a far too wordy detailing of near-overdoses, enough cocaine to bury the Empire State Building, strange feuds between people I’d barely ever heard of, the word cool being waay overused, and oh yes, a biography of The Strokes.

Maybe this book was just trying to do too much. A ten-year span about rock and roll in New York City? That’s a sizable chunk of time. But that’s another weird thing about it. It doesn’t really talk about the second half of that time. Most everything happened before 2006. It should really be subtitled, “…in New York City 2001-2006”.

The Strokes were important. They kind of showed up first and after that everyone was looking for the next Strokes. That is true. But they were never as huge even in NYC as the book implies.

And as far as all the platitudes about their amazing and cool performances? Total BS. I was there. They would stand around and act bored out of their minds…though having read this book, I guess many times they’d be high as a kite.

But hey, that’s just my opinion. You think that their live performances are great and always enjoy yourself tremendously? Hurrah for you. But don’t try to pull the wool over the readers’ eyes by claiming they were great live performers.

Even the cover of this book is misleading, trying to entice people to buy it. The back cover has a cornucopia of band names…most of whom have at best a brief mention in the book, like The National or The Libertines. I don’t think three sentences in passing about a band merits it being featured on the back cover of a 622 pp. book.

As I’ve said earlier, this is mainly a book about The Strokes. With quite a bit about James Murphy from LCD Soundsystem thrown in as well. It is not a comprehensive account of this particular music scene.

And then the format of this book…

What exactly did Ms. Goodman write? She interviewed all this plethora of people. And I do mean plethora. Soo many people. So many non-musicians and hangers-on interviewed.

But we never see any of the questions. And there’s no real context about any of this. People just talk. Presumably not in the same room, so it’s a collating of disparate chats into some sort of narrative. Half the time I had no idea who was saying what and it just became a chore to constantly flip back to the “Cast of Characters” at the beginning, to only find out that it was some random publicist. And I just didn’t think it really worked in the end.

Most everyone came off so badly. They say you should never meet your idols, if you don’t want to be disappointed. Well, there should be an addendum about never reading an oral history about them either. Geesh.

Everyone (almost) is either a huge coke head, or a huge meth-head, or a junkie, incredibly shallow, and/or just unpleasant to be around. And sure, it’s all rock and roll, what did I expect? But I guess I’m just not really interested in reading all about Albert Hammond Jr.’s injecting himself with heroin 20 times in a day (side note: How is he still alive?? Must have some of those Keith Richards’ genes).

I wanted to know about what it was like for these bands to come together, not about what hipster bar they and their hanger-ons frequented. And about their inspiration and drive, not to find out how many full figured ladies Carlos D from Interpol bedded (which btw, was a weird thing. The fact that he liked “bigger” ladies was mentioned a bunch of times, as if that was such an oddity).

There is one thing this book did get right and that’s how few women would actually go to these live shows. Once The Strokes were playing Radio City Music Hall with The White Stripes, there was more of a mix, with a lot more women in the midst. But before then, and subsequently for every other band that wasn’t The Strokes - aka all the non-model looking ones - the female to male ratio was always really, really low. I went to a lot of shows during these years - a ridiculous amount of shows - where my female friend and I would be two out of maybe ten women in the whole place. It was just one of those weird things that we didn’t even notice after a while.

So, in summary, if you’re interested in finding out what this era was like musically, I’d recommend actually listening to the music, searching out reviews of shows of that time, reading old music blogs (ahem ;o) ), and the internet in general.

On the other hand, if you want to catch up on how many crazy drugs everyone was doing, what “cool” bars they were getting their drugs from, and all the strange, undecipherable feuds they were having with each other, then maybe this book is for you after all.

Hidden Door Festival 2017 - Day 6, May 31st @ Leith Theatre

noreply@blogger.com (alfacinha.in.nyc) — Mon, 12 Jun 2017 15:48:00 +0000

Hello!
Welcome!
It’s been a while since I’ve posted on here, so if you’re new, feel free to look around and get in deep into the archive. If you’re into modern rock circa early 2000s, you’re likely to find something here you might like.

I’m also planning on releasing loads of well, unreleased photos very soon. I have loads of images (and gasp! even short videos) of shows I never reviewed, so I’ll be attempting a bit of a dump-a-thon over the next couple of months.

But now back to the matter at hand…

Today’s post is a bit unusual in that it’s not a straightforward music review. It’s of a local festival I attended featuring theater and spoken word…but there was a tiny bit of music, so I figure I’d still include it. Also, it’s my blog, so I figured I’d include it :D

I was able - through the generosity of my friend L., who won tixs through a Facebook contest - to attend the Hidden Door Festival over in Leith, Edinburgh. Now this was dead-handy, as I happen to pretty much live in Leith… Well, maybe literally on the border of the neighborhoods, but the point is, I live nearby. In fact, the festival was held in a quasi-abandoned theater, right behind my local library.

The Leith Theatre used to host big name acts like AC/DC, Thin Lizzy, and Mott the Hoople. Sadly, it closed its doors back in 1988 and has stood empty ever since. But The Hidden Door Festival specializes in hosting great events in formerly derelict places and took over the theatre this Spring to host this great festival. The festival took place over ten days, from the 26th of May to June 4th.

Welcome!

My friend and I attended on May 31st. I didn’t exactly know what to expect as I’d never been to such a mixed use festival. It turned out to be much more fun than I could’ve anticipated.

The theatre hasn’t yet been renovated. There’s paint peeling from the walls and ceiling - so much so in places that it looks like it’s rained paint chips - and there’s a feeling of decay and neglect everywhere one goes. But there’s also a sense of fun and adventure and creativity everywhere. Go up some stairs and spot a little drawing of an imp. Walk down a corridor and spot a brilliant light installation.

Work by Tracy McGovern and John Hall, amongst others.

It keeps on surprising you and enchanting you, even as you’re simply wondering around looking for the loo.

Wandering the halls.

Our first performance stop was a play put on by the company Grid Iron, called South Bend. We came in a bit late and so were seated upstairs in the balcony. The balcony wasn’t quite set up for the type of performance - intimate - that this play turned out to be. If you weren’t tall or bendy, it was pretty painful trying to watch the two actors on stage.

But the performance itself was very passionate. The basic story concerns a Scottish boy who falls in love with a California girl and who flies over to see her when she’s involved in an accident… Except now she’s back in Indiana, thereby the title of the piece.

All the parts were played by two actors - a young man and woman - who did a stellar job of inhabiting (and differentiating) the characters. I’ll admit to sometimes not understanding the young man’s lines - my ears are still adjusting to Scottish tones - but it didn’t deter me from enjoying the performance.

Grid iron on stage (Apologies for all the super brightness 😎)

I thought the play dealt deftly with what it means to fall in love with someone who lives far away, the expectations therein, and the sometimes inevitable disappointments.

We then went wandering around and saw that a spoken word performance was taking place in the venue next door to the theatre. The place is filled with nooks and crannies and all sorts of extra performance places.

Another venue? Yes!

I came into a largeish hall with a stage at the end. Instead of regular rows of seats facing the stage, couches and cafe tables and chairs had been spread throughout the floor, making the space very welcoming and downright cozy.

The performance was organized by Andrew Blair and was titled The R-Pattz Factz.
It was already in progress by the time I came in, so I’m unsure of how many performers there were. I didn’t quite know what I’d gotten myself into at first.

The first performer I caught was Andrew Blair himself, reading a Sparksnote version of Gilgamesh…if Gilgamesh was Robert Pattinson, he of all the vampire/werewolf films 😉

Andrew Blair reciting Gilgamesh...sort of.

It was tremendous.

Then other performers came on stage, and quickly we realized the connection, and the name of the piece. All of the work was based on Robert Pattinson!

This made for an incredibly fun performance by all, with a special mention going to Harry Giles for his piece Trump/Pattison. He used @realDonaldTrump’s tweets from February 2017 and replaced all the proper nouns with “Robert Pattinson”. It was absurd, it was political, it was funny, and it was damn brilliant.

Harry Giles and his Trump/Pattinson Sonnets (©Harry Giles).

And this is where the music comes into play…

One of the performers sang “Born Slippy”, very apropos given its’ fame from the Trainspotting soundtrack, which is mainly set in Leith. He did this though, while wearing a Robert Pattinson mask.

It was all silly, camp, ridiculous, and probably the best time I’ve ever had at a spoken word performance.

After hearing the words “Robert Pattinson” repeated twelve-hundred times, it was hard to move on. But we knew there was another theater piece so we hurried back to the main venue to see Love performed by Ludens Ensemble.

There were three performers playing three separate characters, with one foot in Elizabethan England and one foot in modernity.

Some paper crafting going on.

The piece was a mix of dance, performance art, theater, crafting, puppetry, almost everything but the kitchen sink. It was all a bit messy and fun and kooky and a bit hard to describe.

A living ladder.

It was definitely engaging and not really the type of performance I’d usually go see but I was so glad to have had the chance to be there and experience it all.

Some very sexy gyrations.

It was a fantastic evening with great and surprising performances. Many thanks again to L. for the invite and I can’t wait for next year’s edition of the Hidden Door Festival.

P.S. Oh and I've moved to Scotland... Blog name notwithstanding. 😀

Belle & Sebastian @ Radio City Music Hall - 6.10.2015

noreply@blogger.com (alfacinha.in.nyc) — Fri, 12 Jun 2015 16:10:00 +0000

If you used to follow this blog - eons and eons ago - you’ve probably long ago gave up hope that it would ever be updated. It has been 5 years after all since my last post.

I have actually left the house in the intervening years, but I’d never get around to writing. But I was inspired by my last show to write again, at least for this one.

I hadn’t seen Belle & Sebastian since their show over at the Nokia Theater in Times Square back in 2006. They put on a good show then, but the audience was dreadful, no enthusiasm, no joy, just a bunch of shoe gazers and meanies - someone actually boasted on their way out about having bullied someone into not singing along. I remember thinking that these people really didn’t seem to have realized what Belle & Sebastian are all about and that the band deserved a better crowd.

Well, that better crowd came along last Wednesday. Belle & Sebastian played a sold-out Radio City Music Hall, and were welcomed with open arms and much loud whooping...a lot of it from me :D

The opener was a band called Real Estate, whose band members hail (w/one exception) from New Jersey. They were sweet - calling out their parents from the stage - and played some very catchy songs, at least one of which had a definite Belle & Sebastian vibe to it. Not too surprising as they mentioned seeing B&S as teenagers and how wowed they were to now be opening for them. Lots of people were still slowly drifting in during their set, but by the time Real Estate finished playing they’d managed to get half the orchestra to give them a standing ovation. Not bad for some boys from Jersey.

Real Estate in action.

After a bit of a wait between the two bands, we were treated to a giant projection of one of the cover girls from the new album “Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance” introducing the band.

Ladies and Gentlemen...Belle & Sebastian!

There would be other giant video projections during the show which I think greatly added to the show. I’m not usually one for fancy graphics, since only a few bands know how to use it properly - U2 and Radiohead come to mind - but these really worked well. They weren’t distracting but complimented the songs very well.

No, not an iPod commercial ;)

The first song - Nobody’s Empire - was a bit of a slow starter, with some of the crowd, at least in the orchestra in front of me, remaining seated. But as soon as ‘I’m a Cuckoo’ began all hell broke loose…well, it was still a Belle & Sebastian show, but all hell within the context, i.e. everyone got up and started to move their little booties. Even some of the older booties got into it - shout out to the older lady in front of me grooving along :)

Stuart and Stevie front stage.

Very creepy monk and creature :)

I think I had that telly! And those antelope!

‘Perfect Couples’ had the perfect blend of graphics and song, featuring an elaborate choreography of various young folk entering and leaving a tastefully decorated living room, projected behind the band.

Let's Dance!

Stuart spoke a bit about how he usually didn’t write songs for specific people but that he had done so for the following one, Piazza, New York Catcher, and how it had been written for his now wife, while they were falling in love all over the world.

If You’re Feeling Sinister and Dear Catastrophe Waitress pretty much brought the house down.

Back Up Dancers return! Much to everyone's delight - they were great :)

I think Belle & Sebastian have been channeling some Di Chirico mayhaps...

"Dance my pretties, dance!"

And then the band brought on some lucky audience members - pre-chosen as they had badges around their necks - to the stage where they danced alongside the band for two songs, one of which was ‘I Didn’t See it Coming’.

Do not adjust your sets. This is only an optical illusion. ;)

Lucky...

I want to dance up there...bwahhhhhhh!

They took a ‘break’ and then came back for a two-song encore, ‘Lazy Line Painter Jane’ featuring a duet with Dee Dee of Dum Dum Girls and culminating with an amazing performance of ‘Judy and the Dream of Horses’.

It wouldn't be a Scottish rock show without some fine bag-piping in action.

The end.

I’d come to the show with friends but ended up walking back to my train station on my own - about 20 blocks or so, around midnight - and felt light as air humming all the songs I’d just heard that night.

I came to a realization that evening. I’ve long been a fan of Belle and Sebastian but there’s no band out there right now that makes me as happy as they do on a regular basis. This is not a diss on other bands, many of whom I’ve followed and been a huge fan of at various points of my life, but right now my go-to band of choice is a little band from Glasgow that’s out to conquer the world with their infectious dance tunes :)
Setlist

Nobody's Empire
I'm a Cuckoo
The Party Line
The State I Am In
Dirty Dream Number Two
Perfect Couples
Piazza, New York Catcher
Allie
The Cat With the Cream
If You're Feeling Sinister
The Wrong Girl
Dear Catastrophe Waitress
If You Find Yourself Caught in Love
The Boy with the Arab Strap
I Didn't See It Coming
Sleep the Clock Around

Encore:
Lazy Line Painter Jane (with Dee Dee of Dum Dum Girls)
Judy and the Dream of Horses

Deolinda @ Joe's Pub - 10.4.10

noreply@blogger.com (alfacinha.in.nyc) — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 06:13:00 +0000

I almost didn't make it to this show. Been sick a lot lately and started to get really ill right before moi and the boy had to head out to meet our friend Soft-Spoken Feisty Lady. But I got a burst of 'I'm-not-going-to-let-a-random-illness-keep-me-from-yet-another-show' rage and with the help of probably too many meds provided by our fine friends at McNeil Pharmaceuticals, I stumbled out into the rainy cold evening and rushed to the city.

We'd booked a table, b/c that's the only guaranteed way of getting a seat at Joe's Pub. Little aside: they have a good racket going there. Book great acts to come play at their venue and then make everyone buy at least $12 worth of food in order for them to get a seat. Doesn't seem so bad in theory. Twelve dollars, that's nothing surely...unless the food is a bit oh, let's say abysmal. Particularly for someone with any sort of dietary restriction, aka 'must-everything-in-the-menu-have-cheese-in-it-for-crissake's!'

But enough griping about the food...except for one more thing. I thought most money in establishments was made from drinks. Soo why not just have a $12 minimum which includes drinks? Wouldn't that be more profitable? Ok, rant over ;o)

The boy and myself managed to just make our reservation and met up with SSFL inside - who by the way was let in to Joe's Pub even though she didn't have her ticket - very classy Joe's Pub! Thankee kindly for your er, kindness :o)

We snuggled into our teeny table...which was center stage! Right up against the stage! Very cool! I'd been to Joe's Pub before but had either had a table further back or had had to stand over by the bar because I hadn't snagged a reservation (not so great btw, to have to stand over by the bar - don't really recommend it. If you remember nothing else from this review, remember to make a reservation as soon as you get a tix. Heck, have a friend call for a reservation while you're getting tixs!). This was the first time I'd managed such a great spot. I had the boy sit the closest to the stage, so I could sit a bit further back to better enjoy the show. Hey, I was the main fan in the party, so I got the better seat ;o)

We still hadn't quite managed to finish our food when Deolinda came on stage. Ana Bacalhau - the lead singer - told us (in great English) a little bit about the tour - how it was their first time playing in New York City and talked a little about the first song.

Deolinda - Luis Jose Martins, Ana Bacalhau, Ze Pedro Leitao and Pedro da Silva Martins

She also kindly named each song before performing it, which made my life a lot easier since I never seem to manage to note down the set list. They started out with Se Uma Onda Invertesse a Marcha (If a Wave Inverted the March) and proceeded to put on an amazing show.

I really liked her storytelling - she'd make sure to set the stage for each song, telling us a little bit about what it was about. And she hoped that by her gestures and body language, those that didn't speak English would come to understand what she was singing about.

Ana introduced Patinho de Borracha (Rubber Duckie), by saying it was about 'people who like to talk about themselves, but pardon my French, they're full of it'.

About halfway through she moved a bit to the back of the stage and explained that the two following songs were the closest Deolinda had that were like classical Fado. And for Fado, the fadista (or fado singer) always stands next to the guitar player while singing). She then proceeded to belt into Cancao da Tal Guitarra (Song of that Guitar) and O Fado Nao E Mau (Fado Isn't Bad) and gave a rousing performance worthy of the best Fadistas.

'Ah Grande Fadista!'

She then told us a little bit about 'Marchas Populares' (Popular Marches), a Portuguese tradition which most famously takes place in Lisbon during the month of June honoring the city's patron saint, Santo Antonio. Each neighborhood will come up with their own choreography, music, song and costumes, and parade down the city streets in a competition to determine the best 'marcha' each year. Deolinda has come up with their own version of a 'marcha' - A Problemática Colocação De Um Mastro (The Problematic Placement of a Mast). It was very rousing, very patriotic, until the little twist in the end - all in all a very funny and entertaining rendition.

There had been singing along all throughout, due to the 50-50 ratio of Portuguese to English speakers in the room. But when Fon Fon Fon or in English, Fon Fon Fon ;o) started, that's when everyone really joined in. This is a song about a girl who loves a tuba player in a philarmonic band. All her friends say that the sound of a tuba isn't romantic and her parents disapprove, but she's fallen for the fon fon fon that her namorado makes. Wonderfully fun performance with lots of audience participation.

They then said their goodbyes and we all started to clap wildly to have them return. Ana thanked us and said she would be playing a more melancholic song - Clandestino (Clandestine) and then insisted that we all sing along during the 'last' song Movimento Perpétuo Associativo (Perpetual Associative Movement). She said that this song was about those people who always got very excited about things, about revolutions, that got everyone riled up. But then when it was time to act, they'd say 'Vai sem mim, que eu vou la ter', or 'go without me, i'll catch up', i.e. yeah, i'm not going. She then spoke in Portuguese for the first time (minus the time she sang of course) to the audience and asked how many Portuguese were there. And if we'd sing the refrain extra loudly to make sure that the English-only speakers around us would be able to follow along. And surely we did! The audience proceeded to sang its little heart out and sang the band off the stage as they took their goodbyes.

But we weren't ready to say our goodbye yet. The audience kept on singing the refrain of the last song until the band came back on stage for a third time and finally sang their last song Eu Tenho um Melro (I Have a Blackbird).

Great performance, full of life and joy and fun. I hope they'll come back soon to NYC and get ever more popular in the US. I'll certainly do my best to spread the gospel :o)

P.S. They were super friendly to their fans and stayed on after the show to sign autographs and take photos. That's where I got the 'stolen' set-list (thanks to the help of my boy) signed by all 4 of them. Thanks so much Deolinda!

'Stolen' and Signed Set-List :o)

P.P.S. Just had to point out a fun little detail that I noticed - the singer's built in pocket on her dress to house her mike transmitter. Soo clever :o)

Gogol Bordello @ McCarren Park Pool - 6.20.08

noreply@blogger.com (alfacinha.in.nyc) — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 08:39:00 +0000

So I went to this show oh, about 2 years ago...

And somehow never got around to writing anything about it.

Well, it's too fucking late now ;o)

But I do have some pics and videos of the evening that I thought I might share with all of my readers - all two of you ;o)

Without further ado....

My photographic essay entitled:

Gogol Bordello Rocks Brooklyn

Yes, yes, i know, the title is incredibly creative - what do you want, it's been two years :p

The insanity just beginning :o)

I think this gig security was rethinking having come in to work today ;o)


The littlest Gogol Bordello fan

More and more fun :o)


No, it isn't just Eugene Hutz in the band :p


What's that accordion player doing blocking my view of Eugene?!

'Now with crazy coloring' ;o)

Supertheory of Supereverything - Gogol Bordello @ McCarren Park Pool
(my apologies for the quality)

Eugene in top form

Crazy finale...well, a bit of it ;o)

Amazing finale featuring a samba troupe

Art Brut @ Mercury Lounge - 6.2.09 (pics & vids to come)

noreply@blogger.com (alfacinha.in.nyc) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 20:37:00 +0000

Art Brut is in town!...or at least will be until this Friday, June 5th :o) So you should run (it’s ok, I’ll wait) and get yourself some tickets for their gigs at Mercury Lounge. You’ll probably have to look in craigslist since I think all nights are sold out, but it’ll be worth it – you won’t have a funner time at a rock show this year.

…the above paragraph has pretty much ruined any suspense this blog entry might have had, seeing as I’ve just instructed you all - all two of you: thank you loyal readers ;o) – to head out to see them. Dammit! I need to build up to it like my 12th grade high school teacher instructed.

But they were great all around. The audience started hooting before they’d even made the stage…which wasn’t so hard seeing as they all had to walk through the audience in order to make it on to the stage – for those who haven’t been, Mercury Lounge is pretty small.

Eddie Argos, the lead singer, takes the mike wearing his long trench coat and his fabulous eyebrows and starts by telling us all about where we could find more info on Art Brut.

H – t – t – p - : - / - / - w – w – w . - m – y – s – p – a – c – e -. – c – o – m - / – a – r – t – b – r – u – t

Yep, he spelled it all out, complete with hand gestures for the dashes and all. And then he started to spell it out again, but stopped after a couple of letters ;o)

They started out with their new single Alcoholics Anonymous which was just a blast of fun to begin with.

And of course the energy only increased through the night, along with the size of my hair – it was a very humid night ;o)

The crowd was an interesting mix and I was glad to see some ‘oldies’as my concert buddy of yore affectionately refers to them, i.e. anyone over 45, really enjoying themselves and getting into it. Just as sometimes the younger NYC crowds can be a bit apoplectic, so can the oldie contingent in an audience – the whole ‘I’m-going-to-just-stand-as-still-as-humanly-possible-and-not-even-acknowledge-that-I’m-in-a-rock-venue-surrounded-by-sweaty-people’ vibe. But not this group – pretty much everyone around me was getting into Art Brut. And how could they not? They’re freaking infectious ;o)

Eddie introduced Moving to LA by dedicating it to his cousin who’s a pilot (who was supposedly at the show)…and who lives in Palo Alto, which was the closest Eddie could get in a song ;o) He tried to point in the right direction – LA’s direction – and got mixed responses as to what the correct direction would be. Decided to stick with the direction he had chosen and said that for the following night he’d change it.

During Modern Art, Eddie decided to come out and meet us plebes, which isn’t that hard to do in a venue like the Mercury Lounge – ‘oh, look,let me just step off this wee stage, and there I am in the audience’. He came out and told us a rambling story about going to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam [alfacinha heartily recommends it btw – kick ass place] , all whilst moving about within us…well, as well as he could giving the short leash he was on, i.e. his mike cord. At some point the mike gave out (as it had earlier in the evening, when Ed their poor sound guy had gone through a few malfunctioning mikes and eventually had to tape the wire to the mike stand just to get it to work), and Eddie tried in vain to yell out the remaining bit of the explanation. He ended up getting back on the stage and yelling out the rest from there, with so-so results – I imagine the people in the back didn’t quite manage to get the gist of it ;o)

And if they didn’t already appeal enough to all us geeky folk…before introducing DC Comics and Chocolate Milkshake, Eddie mentioned how he’d visited the actual offices of DC Comics and had had a great time. When I sent this song’s lyrics to a good friend, he remarked that itwas his new anthem…except it’d be Marvel Comics instead ;o)

Eddie extolled the joys of transport and introduced The Passenger -‘like the Iggy Pop one’ - by saying how rubbish LA mass transit is and how much better the ‘NY tube or metro or whatever it’s called’ is.

He also ended up introducing quite a few songs by saying how most of them were about him being naked - ‘Here’s another song about me taking off my clothes’.

Earlier in the evening, one of the opening bands – Mystery Murder - had spotted a guy who had come to the previous night's show as well. At some point during the gig, Eddie turns to this same guy and lets him know ‘that the set list for every night was going to be the same – the songs were just going to get louder.’ :o)

They also played at least one cover, the Ramones’ The KKK Took My Baby Away, although they introduced it as a little song they had just written up that day, so they might be a little off in playing it ;o) It was a blasting cover, full of energy and fun.

They also played Direct Hit, Pump Up the Volume, My Little Brother,Twist and Shout, Emily Kane, Bang Bang Rock and Roll, Bad Weekend, Nag Nag Nag Nag, Formed a Band, and Demons Out. I’m surely missing quite a few songs, but these were the ones both me and my boy could remember afterwards.

As has become customary during Formed a Band, Eddie told all of us to, well, to go form a band. He also told some of us that we were now in a band, and a very select individual few that they were a band.

I had an amazing time and my boy was doubly excited about now being in a band ;o)

P.S. I have to mention how much I liked the first opening band's last song – Les Sans Culottes’ cover of My Sharona (in French!). I was really sorry to have missed the beginning of their act.

P.P.S. Murder Mystery, the second opener, started out really well with a couple of lovely songs which reminded me a bit of Andrew Bird, but then quickly fell into some more bland ‘American rock’ sounds, reminiscent of some warmed-up Beach Boys stuff. I was really disappointed, given their great beginning. But they redeemed themselves in the end, first by bringing out a cello player as well as a couple of violinists and a trumpet player for a lovely song – at that point, they looked like an American version of Belle and Sebastian on stage :) But their final song was even lovelier, with the singer’s sister (and resident band drummer) taking the lead mike and singing a great ditty.

Bat for Lashes @ Bowery Ballroom - 4.30.09

noreply@blogger.com (alfacinha.in.nyc) — Sun, 03 May 2009 17:00:00 +0000

The ever kooky, ever lovely Natasha Khan , better known as Bat for Lashes, came to town yesterday and brought along her coterie of musicians, unusual instruments, taxidermied animals and bric-a-brac.

My concert buddy for the evening, the lovely L., and I, arrived at the Bowery with…let’s say, plenty of time to spare. So we hung out in the downstairs lounge, chit-chatting away until about 9 when we figured the opening act might come on. We found a nice left of center spot, about 5 people away from the stage, and settled in awaiting the first set. The musicians came on stage and suddenly there was an eerie silence. It became very church like, that time right before the service is about to begin. The venue was far from full at that point, but those that were there gave all of their attention to the musicians on stage…and then they started to play. And unfortunately quickly lost the crowd.

They were called Lewis and Clarke and hailed from Pennsylvania. The band was made up of a cello player, a viola player, a guitarist that occasionally played his guitar with a bow (who also did double duty on a keyboard) and the lead singer who played acoustic guitar. Their songs were very plaintive and seemed to be about living in economically depressed towns (I could be completely wrong about that – it’s just what jumped to my mind while I was listening to them). Their music reminded me of the best kind of atmospheric music – the kind that rather than being obtrusive, just drifts you off into another realm. The lyrics were alright, but I honestly enjoyed the instrumental intros to the songs much more. I felt like they could stand in their own right, rather than as a piece of a lyrical song. Although I enjoyed it and it seemed as if those right around me enjoyed it as well, the rest of the crowd started to get quite noisy and well, disruptive to the performance which was mostly a quiet sort of musicianship.

The lead singer was a bit too quiet and the viola player looked terrified to be on stage. But they completely came through with a louder song towards the end that rallied the crowd a bit. My main complaint (and my friend’s as well) was that they didn’t really allow a song to end before starting another one, missing out on quite a bit of applause b/c of it. I ended up being confused about whether a song had actually finished and held my applause, only to realize too late that they had started a new song and had meanwhile received zero applause. I know that’s not why they play – solely for the applause – but I’m guessing that it’s a good thing and musicians enjoy being acclaimed. Instead they received some confused stares from audience members like me ;o)

I had been told, when I called up the box office during the day, that the headliner would come on at 10 pm…well, 10 pm came and went and still no Natasha. The roadies seemed to be having the hardest time with setting up all the various instruments and mikes. Some in the crowd (maybe not realizing what was going on) started yelling out ‘Bring her out!’. Yeah, that’d be great. She’ll now sing for us a capella w/o any instruments or amplification ;o)
So everything eventually gets set up and she comes out to many cheers and whistles and generally lustful yells from the crowd ;o) And well, she just looked darling, looking like a cross between a Pierrot, a super hero and a 70’s disco girl.

They’d staged the stage much as one would think a quirky (and dark) young girl might have her bedroom arranged. A stuffed crow perching on one of the keyboards, a dancing girl’s legs as the base for a lamp and her corset as the shade, two creepy looking twin angel dolls (complete with pulsatingly glowing wings), a largish statue of Jesus, a collection of small madonnas – you know, the usual sort of stuff ;o) I’m sure I probably missed some stuff. I ended up way over to the left of the stage, leaning over on the first band’s amps and instrument cases, so I might have missed out on some stuff directly to my left.

She came on very confident and just started belting out her wonders of songs. I’d seen her before, at this same venue coincidentally, and this time she seemed a lot more sure of herself, very confident, like she’d grown up quite a bit since the last show. Natasha started out with a couple of the new songs, which sounded great live, before getting into her first album’s work.

She seemed really happy to be there and her new back up band seem to match her exuberance, particularly the lone male in the band, who played keyboards and whatever that instrument was inside the antiquey-looking box with forged iron handles.

The crowd was definitely appreciative, possibly a little too much, yelling out whoops and hollers even during quieter moments within the first few songs. I actually had to put some tissue paper inside my right ear to keep my ear drum from oh, popping out due to the enthusiasm of the girl next to me ;o) Otherwise the sound was pretty dead on – no problems with it being too loud and I could actually understand most of what was being said by her, in contrast to the show I went to the night before at Webster Hall, where I understood practically nothing of what they said…then again they were Swedish so maybe that’s why I couldn’t understand them ;o)

Bat for Lashes played about 30 or 40 minutes and then said ‘Good night New York. Thank you’…or something to that effect :o) And then b/c of my extreme left stage point of view, I was able to see them exiting out the stage and just staying with inches of the doorway, ready to jump back to the stage within a minute or so…which they did.

They played another 30 minutes or so, mixing in the new ditties with the slightly older ones. She enchanted the crowd with her rendition of favorites: The Wizard, Priscilla, Sarah.

She introduced What’s a Girl to Do by saying that we might know this next song and of course the crowd went mad. She and her guitar player dueted on Horse and I (I think), sitting side by side at Natasha’s keyboard and it was just beautiful to watch.

I wish I remembered more song names as it would make it a whole lot easier to post on this show. But I’m forever bad about that sort of thing.

They finished off the show and were leaving for the night, but the crowd kept on asking for one more song. Natasha obliged and came out and thanked us and said that there was only really one more song they could play and finished out the set.

I thought she was amazing and I loved that she seemed to be enjoying herself so much.
Great show :o)

Rhett Miller @ Maxwell's - 12.12.08

noreply@blogger.com (alfacinha.in.nyc) — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 04:05:00 +0000

So I made this big to-do about how I was going to change my ways come the New Year...and then crickets.

I don’t post for months.

I don’t catch up and write about the couple of shows I actually managed to go to during the latter part of the year, nor do I show signs of life of any sort.

My bad.

Well, any of you lot that actually check my blog know that I’m not the promptest of persons. But I’m forever trying to improve – you gotta give me credit for that ;o)

But back to the music catch up.

I couldn’t post on any new shows without mentioning some kick ass relatively recent ones I’d been to such as the great show put on my Mr. Rhett Miller, he of The Old 97's.

He came to the little burb of Hoboken to a place called Maxwell’s, who for those not in the know is a bar/restaurant with a space out back for shows...the size of most people’s family rooms. It’s teeny.

I’ve only had the chance to catch a couple of acts there so far, but it’s always fun – the sheer proximity to the artists is a blast.

So I saw that Rhett would be playing and I managed to drag a Brooklyn friend along with me – thanks L! – to Hoboken.

It was an early show, so we just trekked on over from the PATH after work and got there on time for Rhett to take the stage.

He was lovely as always – a total charmer and funny to boot. Oh and he’s pretty too :o)

As always at a Miller show there were funny bits galore. After singing a Christmas song, he said that ‘Christians are mean, Jews are nebbish and Atheists are verbose – which pretty much encapsulates Western Civilization’.

There was an old Steve Martin joke that completely bombed – bless him – and then this one that I liked:

He got himself some hostages, put them in a gunny sack and ran them up a flagpole. He then asked for 3 demands.

1. A million dollars
2. A getaway car
3. To remove the letter M from the alphabet.

‘Cause you should always have one crazy demand, so that later on you can claim insanity (laughter all around)...Getaway car – nuts. :o)

At one point he also told us that he couldn’t chat too much, since his was the early show. And so that at the end, we should leave and then pay again to come back in and that’d be the most rock’n’roll thing to do this season ;o)

He talked about how he’d made someone’s grandma into his fictionalized girlfriend for a song...and how that was just a bit wrong.

Rhett’s great at salesmanship – he said that after the show he’d be signing stuff at the merchandise booth, mainly b/c they made great Christmas presents...in that we’d pay him money and then he’d exchange that for gifts for his kids.

The encore exemplified all that is ridiculous about encores b/c of the venue’s smallness. He stepped down and stepped back up – there’s no back stage at Maxwell’s and he’d have to come through the packed crowd in order to actually go off and back.

After the rocking show during which he treated us to quite a few faves as well as some great new songs (apologies for the lack of song names – I didn’t write them down and my memory doesn’t reach back that far), he did stick around for autographs. And he was kind enough to sign my CD as well as a CD for my friend M. Even flirted a teeny bit with my concert date for the evening :o)

All around excellent gig – if only all of them could be like this. Can’t wait to see him again :o)

Morrissey @ Webster Hall - 03.25.09

noreply@blogger.com (alfacinha.in.nyc) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 19:16:00 +0000

I’m forever amazed at all of the various subcultures that co-exist on a daily basis. One goes about one’s day without ever encountering another fan of a particular band one likes and thinking you’re the only sad fuck who thinks they’re great and then BAM! they come to town and you’re awash with fans selling out multiple venues. And so it was with Moz. Now don’t get me wrong. I’m fully aware that the Smiths were a phenomenon and that there are tons and tons of fans out there. It’s just that I don’t tend to run into any of them in an everyday situation…well, apart from my friend, the uber-fan. So it was with a warm fuzzy feeling that I turned the corner from where we’d been eating a not so great cheapie Chinese meal and encountered the never-ending line.

The line that went down the block, around the corner and then around yet another corner. It was long.

Longest line ever...ok, maybe not, but it was very long :o)

And even though it was surprisingly chilly (damn you springtime, when will you come to us! (springtime rant over)) and I was tired from having been ill, it still made me feel good to get to a gig and have to line up.

I’d gotten tired of getting to gigs either right when the main act began or even a few songs into their act, so this was refreshing. Made me feel like it was 8 years ago when I was in the throes of my live gigs overload.

Getting closer, can almost make out marquee...almost.

But back to the show.

Well, we still have a bit more to let out before the show begins. Please indulge me.

Ok, this next bit is to the staff of Webster Hall. Your bouncers, i.e. guys who check IDs and such are lovely. Sweet, friendly guys. Thanks for hiring people who know how to deal with the public.

Your General Manager? An ass. Actually I take it back as I’d be insulting asses all over the world. He’s just a jerk.

Why am I maligning this guy?...

So my concert buddy and I enter the venue after having lined up outside for a bit and it’s still early, so we don’t pop upstairs right away. Instead we walk around the t-shirt stand and do some browsing. She’s just walking along, about a foot away from the wall when suddenly a door opens (from said wall) and hits her full on on her right arm. I should point out that this door was painted the same color as the wall and there was no warning that it was opening. She winces, the guy gets out and sort of grabs her arm in the most ‘hey look how I seem concerned yet haven’t apologized’ way. She just backs away and I guess gives him a dirty look...which hey people do when they’ve just been hurt. This gentleman of gentlemen then barks ‘You should watch where you’re going’. Great. Now it’s our fault that we didn’t anticipate that a seemingly permanently shut door would suddenly pop open with full force.

So my friend, not very surprisingly, called him an asshole. She didn’t yell at him, didn’t chase him, didn’t touch him – she just called him an asshole. Ok, I’m thinking that’s it. He’s fucked up, she’s barked at him, that would’ve been the end of it with most normal people. But no. Because this guy apparently had power trip issues.

He (all 6 foot plus of him) comes back at my friend and starts threatening to evict her. ‘Would you like to continue this outside?’ er… what’s going to happen then? Was he planning on physically assaulting my friend? ‘I’m the general manager here. You know I can have you thrown out.’ Meanwhile my friend is just saying, ‘You hurt my arm.’ And he’s continuing to just belittle us, using the fact that we obviously want to see the show to just abuse his power.

First off – way to go you jerk. You successfully managed to intimidate two short women. I wonder if you would’ve done the same if we had had our boyfriends/husbands with us. And really, what the hell were you going to do if she took you up on the offer to go outside? Were you seriously contemplating assaulting a woman who called you a bad word? A woman who was more than a foot shorter than you? Wow – you’re quite the man. So thanks so much for just being a despotic jerk with delusions of grandeur (and a really thin skin).

But it wouldn’t be a gig at the Emmanuel Lewis Hall (as an acquaintance put it) if some shitty thing didn’t happen. Have I mentioned before how much I loathe Webster? Bah. But musicians I love, choose to play there so I trek on over thinking the next time will be better. Sigh. When will I learn?

After we recoup a bit from the jerk-in-authority from hell, we make our way upstairs. It’s not quite a packed house yet as Morrissey is only due to go on at 10 pm and it was only about 8:30, but it’s still pretty full. We made our way over to the right side of the stage, near the archway to the bar...yeah, that wasn’t a good spot ;o)

Moz is not due to start for ages and yet people are already being really rowdy and disruptive – ‘Whoa! You’re stoned man.’ Actual words said by those behind us. And hey, if you feel like getting stoned at a Morrissey show more power to you. I don’t quite see the appeal, but then again, I guess I’ve always been a square ;o) when it comes to things like that. But my tolerance stops when you keep on bumping/hitting me and my friend repeatedly because you’re doing some sort of crazy ‘high’ dance with your pals. Sigh.

So before the show even begins we’ve already had to move due to annoying people. But hey such is the life of a concert goer :o)

Around 9ish, the opening band went on – The Courteeners – who all had fab haircuts (lead singer resembled god knows how many different singers – cross between Liam Gallagher and oh, about 15 different indie bands’ lead singer) and all well, sounded like 15 other bands. They played well and the singer’s banter was nice enough – the one thing I completely understood was ‘We’re from Manchester and it’s an honor to be supporting Morrissey.’ Oh and that the Webster Hall was only their 3rd gig in NYC, and their 2nd with Morrissey.

They were capable enough, but honestly, after about 15 minutes, I was mentally willing them to leave the stage. It just all sounded like a pastiche of every band that’s come out of the UK for the last couple of years. Catchy, bouncy music, but awfully derivative.

I spent most of the time they were on stage staring at their backdrop cloth where they’d had their name projected on, trying to figure out how the lettering had been done…I don’t think that’s a particular good sign vis-à-vis one’s interest in the band that’s playing ;o)

Fascinating lettering that had me enthralled...yeah, i might have ADD or something ;o)

They stop playing around 9:40ish and then we wait for a bit for Morrissey to come on. Gave me and the concert buddy a chance to look around – Webster Hall has had a face lift since we were there last. The zodiac signs and bas reliefs are gone, replaced with the more tasteful (?) non-descript gold decorations…oh, and a whole south of France cabana vibe, complete with an awning in the balcony.

And now that the backdrop cloth to the opening band is gone, we get to see Morrissey’s backdrop – a gigantor b+w photo of a young sailor flexing his muscles while munching on a cigar. I heart Morrissey :o)

'This backdrop will be muy macho, right?' ;o)

Anywho, pretty much at 10 on the spot (which the bouncers had announced would be his start time) Morrissey comes on to the screams of the crowd. Started out strong with one of the three Smiths’ songs he was to play that evening, This Charming Man, which had everyone happily singing along. The other two he played were Ask and How Soon is Now. I was happy with the mix of songs, some new, some older, some Smiths, but then again I’m only a fan-Lite ;o) unlike my friend who, has I mentioned, is the uber fan. She thought he overlooked far too many albums and felt that he should’ve had at least one song from each solo outing.

He went on to play some great songs from the new album - I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris - as well as two of my new favorites, Shame Is the Name, and damn-this-song-is-good, Something Is Squeezing My Skull, which addresses the peddling of and overmedication of us all by the lovely folks at the pharmaceutical companies.

He addressed the crowd quite a few times, but I didn’t quite catch everything he said, for one, I had to have my ears all plugged up with tissue paper, to avoid having my eardrums being blown out by the ridiculously loud shriekers/screamers right next to me, and two, well, he doesn’t always enunciate ;o)

One of Morrissey's many costume changes...ok, shirt changes.

I did catch one thing towards the end of the gig. He came out and introduced the band by their, well, names, and then when he came to himself he said ‘And well, I’m a myth.’ :o)

In between all this, there were quite a few costume changes, i.e. stripping of the very sweaty button down shirts, which left the women and young men behind me in quite a tizzy. I believe there was quite some talk about Morrissey’s sweaty titties and what could be done to alleviate it, i.e. wear a lighter colored shirt, etc. Yes, mental giants all behind me.

He also played Irish Blood, English Heart which has become a big fave of mine, particularly b/c of his mention of disowning Oliver Cromwell, as I’ve been reading up on British history of late...so now I get what he’s talking about there :o)

Yes, Morrissey, i too am touched by your music :o)

They finished up and came back for the encore – The Last of the Gang to Die - which my friend spookily predicted… Ok, not so spookily since she’d seen him already at the Welmont Theater in Montclair – apparently he’s not really changing the set at all.

All in all, notwithstanding the boorish behavior of some crowd members (but such is always the way at Webster) and the really inexcusable behavior of certain staff members which will remain nameless - only b/c I don’t know their name - I’m talking to you, Webster Hall General Manager ;o) – this was quite a good show. Morrissey is still coming out with great new material, topical and catchy. I certainly hope to see him again soon...just not at Webster Hall ;o)

Another year....

noreply@blogger.com (alfacinha.in.nyc) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 19:25:00 +0000

New Year's Resolutions…are always crap. You make all these silly promises to yourself on 12/31 and then comes the new year, which is just a Thursday like any other, and you don't follow through and then Bam!, you feel bad, which stresses you out, which leads to chest pain, which gives you a heart attack and then there you are dead before the first week of January is even over….Ok so maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but resolutions are still pretty bad and even BBC news agrees with me ;o)

Having said all that (and by now you might be wondering what the hell this has to do with live music blogging), if I was going to have any New Year's resolutions, they would be pretty much wholly related to this blog, i.e. actually post on shows within a few days of seeing them, instead of waiting upwards of two months before finally getting around to writing up anything. And then the other closely following resolution would be to actually go to more shows. There was once a time that if I went to 3 shows a month I'd be disappointed. Heck, I sometimes went to 3 shows a week! I'm hoping that last year was an anomaly and that I'll be soon heading out to shows a few times a month once again.

But don't quote me on that ;o)

So, back to the music…

I have a few shows I never did post about and at least a whopping 2 or 3 readers that would like to read about them, so I'm going to do my best to catch up this week. Stay tuned for individual posts on British India - a young upstart band from Australia that kicks ass, We are Scientists show over at Irving Plaza (lalalalala, I refuse to call it by it's new name – Fillmore my ass!), and the wonderful Rhett Miller's set at Maxwell's.

p.s. British India and We are Scientists posts will probably show up on the blog before this one, so look backwards for them :o)

British India @ The Borderline - 9.19.08

noreply@blogger.com (alfacinha.in.nyc) — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 03:46:00 +0000

British India – I didn't unfortunately make any notes when I saw them back in September (damn I'm late!), but I wanted to make sure I wrote a little something about them, as well as posted a few photos and hopefully (if the blogger gods of video uploading acquiesce) a bit of video as well.

They played a smallish venue in London (alfacinha's first international gig – Whoo-hoo!), of comparable size to NYC's Mercury Lounge. The boy and I got there uber early. He'd checked out the starting times, but I guess London gigs work like Bowery gigs, times are only a mere suggestion, and nowhere close to reality. We hung about for an hour or so and managed a pretty sweet spot a few people away from the stage.

The crowd seemed to be made up of quite a few friends, possibly of the band. Everyone seemed to know each other, except for us and some people behind us. The band is made up of some very young guys from Australia. Really young :o)

dig me the great young River Phoenix tee - brought back some teenage memories :o)

They were great though. Really threw themselves into their craft and played their hearts out…unfortunately their amps didn't follow along. They'd played maybe a third of their set, when they realize that one of the amps didn't work at all. They tried to cope and hung about on stage for a bit, but eventually the lead singer went offstage to leave their roadie to figure things out. Have I mentioned that this was their first London gig? :o) But hey, it's rock'n'roll. It wouldn't be much fun if everything always went right. We were left to stare at broken amps and the people who care for them for quite a bit - probably almost an hour or so if I recall correctly.

But they eventually managed to jerryrig something together and continued playing. Their energy was fucking amazing. To compare them to the Sex Pistols and the Clash is a bit trite, but they've certainly got that early punk sensibility. Songs were incredibly catchy, they were very passionate, and unlike other bands I could think of (but won't name), they didn't just pussy out when something went wrong. They did the best they could with what was available and kept on going, not wanting to disappoint their fans.

I'd recently fallen for them through my boy's advice, but seeing them live and watching how much they put of themselves into their performance, I became a complete convert and try to push them on to anyone who'll listen. Thanks for a great show guys and I hope to see you in NYC very soon!

Revenge of the Bookeaters @ Town Hall - 10.7.08

noreply@blogger.com (alfacinha.in.nyc) — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 12:22:00 +0000

Another year, another strange line-up for Revenge of the Bookeaters :o)

It’s become a bit of a tradition for me by now, to each year go to this quirky benefit for 826nyc - for those who live near Brooklyn and are even remotely talented with words, do yourself a favor and volunteer to help the kiddies, would’ya? (public service announcement over). I’ve also continued the tradition of having to find myself a date at the last minute. I always think everyone’s going to fall over themselves to want to come along…and then I hear crickets after sending out feelers. But my trusty friend a.k.a. Feisty Lady, came through in the end and graciously accepted to come along with moi.

If anyone who’s reading this post bothers to read last year’s thoughts on the show, they’ll quickly surmise that it wasn’t exactly an ideal situation. Lots of aggravation and well, not a very good time was had.

But that was all to change with this year… hopefully.

It started a little late, no doubt to accommodate some last minute stragglers. At one point Feisty Lady and I concurred that it seemed a bit empty up in the balcony – where us cheapskates were - hey, tixs were expensive! I didn’t see you donate any money to the cause. ;o). But it pretty much filled out by the time the lights dimmed (for the gazillionth time. It’s like they were trying to give us all seizures really, really slowly) and stayed dimmed. Well, maybe not downstairs in the orchestra section, but at least our area was nicely full.

I’m not sure if I’d have chosen the particular order of the lineup that was employed. It would’ve made more sense to me to open it up with either Dave Eggers talking about the organization, or with John Oliver (the brilliant host – I heart you John!), but instead we had Ira Glass (from NPR’s This American Life) walk unto the stage, no introduction, nothing. I mean, I knew who he was, but my friend didn’t, and I’m guessing maybe a few other people didn’t either – he is on the radio after all (and yes, I know he’s also done a tv show based on the radio series, but my logic still holds – we shouldn’t necessarily recognize him immediately on sight, seeing as he’s from (and stay with me now) radio).

But I digress.

It was regardless of introductions or no introductions, a very touching opening. He related how the best piece of theater he’d ever seen was performed by a group of young girls in Juvie. He had a recording of a song they’d done during a musical they’d put together for their families. And in case some of us hadn’t understood every word, he read it out. How all these girls who’d basically fucked up somewhere along their young lives, sang in unison to their mothers that they were sorry and how they were ready to come back home. Very touching and only slightly marred by the fact that someone up in the balcony decided to chuckle at one of the verses that Ira read. I think they sort of missed the point ;o)

He then read to us some more lighthearted fare, but I can’t remember…wait, it’s coming back to me…He read a great little story that a student at 826nyc had written about the world’s greatest food fight. The timing was impeccable, it was altogether silly, it was brilliant :o)

And then Mr. John Oliver, a.k.a. the father of my children should anything ever happen to my boy ;o) came on and did a bang up job. I do actually remember a few of his jokes which I might attempt to not mangle later in this post. He was a hit from the beginning though and had us all enthralled – he definitely killed last night :o)

(John Oliver starting the evening out)

A young performer called Thao Nguyen (at least she looked young), was next and she was all feisty and cool with her cowboy boot stomping and guitar drumming ways. After she finished the first song, she said she’d been stuck in writing new songs and that she was just going to have the kids at 826nyc do it ;o) And then she started on her second one and had the crowd clapping along enthusiastically to her acoustic guitar – all in all, very good.

(Thao Nguyen and her kick ass boots :))

Dept. of Eagles were next and they announced that it was only their second ever show, so we’d have to excuse them if they sounded a bit like a high school talent show. First song was a bit slow going, but the second one picked up the pace – liked it quite a bit – and then they did one more song, albeit without Fred. Daniel Rossen, the lead singer, said he was going to perform a song that his partner, the hereto mentioned Fred, had written, but oddly enough, he’d do it without Fred on stage…at which point Fred walks off with his head down looking very dejected :o)

(Second only performance ever by Department of Eagles)

At this point I lost track a little about who came next. So I’m going to guess and say that it was Dave Eggers and Sarah Vowell in a great bit explaining what the benefit was about and what 826nyc does - with Dave relating it in English and then Sarah translating it into Sarah Palin-ese. Not quite as funny as John, but very amusing.

Next up was Kip Malone from TV on the radio reading a story written by a visiting school – classes from local schools visit 826nyc on field trips and while there write a story cooperatively and then have their story printed up and bound, with the last chapter left up for each individual child to write in themselves – fucking brilliant :o)

He read a charming little story about Potato and her husband Sandy the monkey who if I can remember correctly, was bananas…about bananas.

Paul Simon, the biggest name of the evening (and surprisingly placed in the middle of the festivities) was next and was lovely. I’m not a huge fan, but I got a little sentimental during his performance. I could well remember being a young kid and watching the silly and very entertaining video for ‘You can call me Al’ on Mtv, and being so naïve that I thought Chevy Chase was the performer since he was the one lipsynching. And here I was 20 years or so later seeing this great performer (Simon, not Chase) live on stage. I sort of forget once in a while how bloody impressive my concert experiences would be to my 13-year-old self. How truly excited and over the moon my 13-year-old self would have been to know that I’d eventually get to see all of the people I enjoyed as a young kid :o) But back to Paul…

He came on stage with an accompanying musician who was great, but alas, I didn’t note his name. He had a great look though – amazing long locks tied back – and was a great player.

(Paul Simon and great-maned accompanist)

First song I think was a classic of his since the crowd clapped in recognition, but unfortunately my Simon knowledge is poor at best. But then he did Mrs. Robinson which was just as lovely as I’d remembered – he made sure to accentuate the bit about the debates, tweaking it a bit to reflect that Tuesday night were the second presidential debates.

He then performed a new song, only about 6 months old, that he said he’d never performed on stage. Started off a bit iffy like, with talk of god and his son coming down to earth and telling everyone they had to move on, there were more galaxies to go to, more creations to create, but then turned oddly sweeter with ‘I fell in love with her at first sight, I know that’s a songwriting cliché’ :o)

He performed a fourth song (the most of any of the performers) and I know that it’s one of his classics, but again, no clue as to what it’s called. I could hum it for you though if anyone’s interested – so if you know me, just ask me the next time I see you ;o)

(Paul Simon, who not very surprisingly is teeny in person :))

John comes back (he had been coming back in between most of the acts) and introduces Angelique Kidjo who’d come all the way from South Africa. I’ve wanted to see her for quite a few years now, so it was a lovely surprise to find out she’d be performing – I don’t remember having seen her name in the various announcements.

She comes out and does one song – amazing voice – and then speaks a little about why she’s there. B/c her family instilled in her a love for education and she wanted to show her support for 826nyc’s efforts. And then she asks us all to sing along a South African blessing song with her. As she put it, if she could sing in her language and speak in English, then we could all sing two words in hers. She has all of Town Hall singing ‘Ache mama Afrika’ – loads and loads of fun :o)

(Angelique Kidjo and her heavenly voice)

The last bit, which I thought was a bit odd to end on, was the reading of a play…which wasn’t really a play by Jonathan Safran Foer, part of a collection of stories, essays, comics, etc included in State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America, which was available for purchase at the lobby. Small side note: By the time Feisty Lady and myself made our way downstairs, there was a huge line to buy the book…but there was a volunteer hawking the book in the middle of the lobby. I just asked her if I could buy the copy she was holding up – which after hesitating for a bit, she agreed to :o)

So back to the play… Out came Parker Posey and Patricia Clarkson and Sarah Vowell and the author, as well as a few other people that I can’t really remember at the moment. It was quite fun, a cold reading apparently, and Sarah Vowell’s bit as ‘Jeremy’ the state historian, was particularly funny.

(From left to right: NY state, State Geologist, State historian, literary author, State Publicist, and State, er, interview question vetter?)

And that was it – the ending to a great, varied evening. John did an amazing job as host – he hit just the right notes and thankfully this year there were no yahoos around to ruin the fun for everyone (again: see my post for last year’s event).

(Everyone out for a final bow...except Simon who was m.i.a.)

But to end this post, I have to include at least one of his jokes, although I’m sure I won’t do it full justice. On why the British do not have firearms available to them as Americans do: Last time the Brits had full access to arms, they managed to conquer 2/3 of the world’s land mass and enslaved its’ people, so perhaps it’s best they don’t now :o)

The Enemy @ Bowery Ballroom - 8.11.08

noreply@blogger.com (alfacinha.in.nyc) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 04:29:00 +0000

I think the overall theme for this intimate show at the Bowery was pressure.

Pressure from me towards my friend (sort of bullied him into coming along), pressure from being pushed up against by the lively (and often thoroughly thrashed) crowd, pressure from the band to go out there and do something about the state our world is in – lousy economy, etc – and well, they also played their song ‘Pressure’ :o)

My bullied friend (thanks again D.!) and I managed to make our way to the Bowery not only on time, but (gasp! shudder!) actually a bit early. There were meant to be 2 opening bands, but D. noticed that there was some sort of notice on the poster out front, saying they wouldn’t be performing. Er, I can be less than observant at times. So we were treated to just the one opener…which was plenty enough really. The Photo Atlas was their name and quite a loud group of young’uns they were. First couple of songs were…well, boring. Derivative of every other loud punk-like young band out there at the moment – reminded me a bit of the likes of those Blink-182 side projects – Angels something or other. But about three songs in, they started to actually play pretty decent songs. Not much stage presence as D. pointed out, but they could play and some of the songs had me bouncing and even singing along…or rather, given my notorious inability to understand lyrics most of the time, hum along. There was one particular song towards the end of their set that I thought showed the tiniest Townsend-ish sound, which is never really a bad thing :o) As for the guys themselves, like I said earlier, not much stage presence. I don’t think any of them, besides the lead singer, even ever looked at the crowd. The drummer in particular, seemed to be infatuated with/hypnotized by one of his cymbals…or so it seemed at various points in the evening. Oh, and I must point out that he had the most unfortunate resemblance to Sonic the Hedgehog. Really. Hair was just a bit mad. But regardless of their ‘interesting’ looks, they did ‘bring it’ by the end of their set.

Sonic the hedgehog impersonator, alas, hidden from view in this group shot of The Photo Atlas.

And then there was a brief interlude, during which some of the most boisterous members of the audience went photo crazy. They had started during the opener’s set, taking pics of each other dancing goofily and then progressed to those group photos from arm’s length that everyone has at least one of in their collection. But then they just got more and more aggressive about the pics, seemingly needing almost the whole damn middle of the floor in order to set up them up. At which point bullied friend and I moved closer to the stage and away from the shenanigans. But they did make me smile a few minutes later. When they basically invited everyone on the floor to a group photo! I thought I was a bit jaded about shows, but I’d never seen that :o)

But on to the main event, the young lads from England. I was introduced to them by my boy and was hooked from the first riff. The music is loud, it’s hard and it’s actually got a conscience. It deals with youth dissatisfaction and the crappy economy that seems to be prevalent everywhere these days. They’ve got a bit of the Clash going on, as far as their class awareness which I just dug a lot. They did a blistering set – about 45 minutes or so. No stops, no breaks of any kind, no encores. I liked that. I’m sure it was mostly a ‘gee,-we’re-just-starting-out-and-don’t-have-that-much-material’ thing, but it worked. Left all of us wanting more even after the houselights came on.

Crowd starting to get excited about fighting for injustice - see the raised fist? ;o)

The boys have a good stage presence and took the time to speak to the crowd about what the songs were about…even if the accent was a bit hard to understand at times (oh, to have my british boy around to translate…) At one point, the lead singer mentioned how this was their last show of the US tour and how they’d been a bit worried before coming over, about whether the American crowds would get what they were about. But then he realized that our economy was in shambles as well, so we had no problems relating ;o)

Note the football club scarf draped over the speaker - not sure which team though.

Twelve-year-old drummer partially hidden by, well, by his drum kit.

They also introduced a new song, which as per usual, I didn’t get the name of. The singer mentioned how he’d seen the Sex Pistols at the Isle of Wight recently and how he’d gotten angry at some local promoter bloke (or possibly concert security, not sure) who’d stopped people from dancing. And how angry that made him, b/c ‘that geezer’ had missed what punk was all about. And how ‘dancing had never hurt anyone’. Well, I might have to argue with him on that last bit. I mean, I’ve certainly been present at many a show where ‘dancing’, aka moshing, got out of hand, and people did indeed get hurt. But I understood his sentiment. I’ve also been to shows where at the first sign of movement from the crowd, security steps up to break it up, which is just ridiculous. I think a nice compromise is usually reached, and for the most part that’s what we had yesterday. A bit of pushing, but nothing too crazy…although my friend might argue that with me.

After the singer finished his shpiel about dancing, all hell broke loose…or it could have, if it’d been more packed.

Cups of beer started to be thrown on stage (which D. was just horrified by), but after the Enemy’s oral manifesto on punk, it was to be expected – crowds aren’t known for their subtlety. You tell them they should dance and get ‘crazy’, well, they’re going to take it too far and not appreciate that it shouldn’t include throwing things at people.

But for the most part, the crowd did behave, with lots of energy and singing along…or maybe the singing was just me being extra loud ;o) I do tend to thoroughly enjoy myself at smaller shows like this. ‘Aggro’ was particularly rousing and ‘Technodanceaphobic’ was really, really good – as you can see from the teeny bit of video below.

Teeny video of my personal favorite 'Technodanceaphobic'

So, wrap-up of show? Great, great show. Hopefully the Enemy will be able to keep up their indignant anger towards injustice while not repeating themselves in their upcoming album. I for one, very much look forward to seeing what they’ll do next.

Jarvis Cocker @ Terminal 5 - 7.22.08: And now for the pictures...

noreply@blogger.com (alfacinha.in.nyc) — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 15:13:00 +0000

Well, there were going to be moving images as well, but blogger seems to hate me of late and refuses to let me upload any videos. I make sure they're under the maximum amount, they're of the same kind I've uploaded before, and yet after sometimes hours of tying up my desktop, I still get nothing. If anyone knows of a way to fix that, i'd be very grateful...and in recompense i'd go ahead and post a whole bunch of videos both from Jarvis and from the recent Gogol Bordello show in Brooklyn. Until then, here are some stills of the smartest and sexiest man in rock'n'roll today...

Dig me the spazzy Jarvis. I just had to include this fuzzy shot, since I didn't manage to upload the great video i got of him. He just dances away like mad - so entertaining and tres sexy...at least to this smitten girl...but then again, i seem to have a thing for tall, slender Brits :o)

The place wasn't packed, but the crowd was definitely enthusiastic and not the usual blase NYC base. People were dancing along and at the very least bopping their heads. Thanks Terminal 5 audience for making that night very enjoyable and trouble free.

Why yes, Jarvis, I will come with you to England. No need to beckon me from the stage in front of everyone ;o)

Once again, great music, wonderful and witty performer, good crowd - what more could a girl want?

Jarvis Cocker @ Terminal 5 - 7.22.08: First the words...

noreply@blogger.com (alfacinha.in.nyc) — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 18:33:00 +0000

No, no, you’re not seeing things. I am indeed posting on a show. And not an old show either. One that took place oh, only a few days ago ;o)

I’d have loved to have been prompter than a few days later, but hey, it just didn’t happen. Maybe for the next one – Yay! Can’t wait to see crazy Iggy again! - But I digress…

Saw Mr. Cocker for the second time in the space of a year or so, and he kicked ass. I could probably just leave the review at that I suppose… but you all know I’m just a tad wee verbose, so let’s get to it.

Let’s get some of the general stuff out of the way. Venue was ok, better than the last time I hung out in the main floor. Last time I’d seen a band while planted firmly downstairs (Art Brut – I heart you), the sound was tinny at best and it all proved a bit disappointing. Particularly since I’d seen Art Brut a few times before and knew what they were actually supposed to sound like. But this time that wasn’t really a problem – sound was fine. Didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. I still don’t love Terminal 5 and am a bit miffed that more and more of the acts I adore are choosing to play there (could you play at a slightly further off venue, you think? It’s so far west, they might as well play in Jersey), but at least for Jarvis there were no problems getting out etc. Last few times I’d been there, the place was overcrowded (not so for Jarvis) and getting out proved to be a pain in the ass. Felt a wee bit afraid to be honest – seemed a bit of a death trap with only one exit available. But this time it all went perfectly ok.

Oh, and in yet another surprise for those repeat readers, we actually got there on time. Yes, moi and my trusty long-time concert companion (you know who you are) actually made it there before Jarvis even sang one note. That was sooo refreshing. We missed the opener – Boy Crisis – but eh, that’s ok. Better to have gotten some yummy Ollie’s into our tummies :o)

Crowd managed to behave itself for the most part. One might think that a Jarvis crowd would automatically be well behaved, but you’d be wrong to assume. It’s been my past experience that the louder and wilder the band, the more polite and conscientious the audience and vice-versa. Also the more of an ‘it’ band it is, the more the assholes come out to play. Doesn’t apply every single time of course, but almost.

I did have to laugh in the beginning at a couple in front of us. Youngish – late 20s maybe – and he was very possessive of her. These two younger guys pass by and seem to have possibly brushed by her. Unintentionally though. Her partner decides to show that he is *the* alpha man by getting all up on their faces and ranting and raving. Meanwhile the young kids are just sort of flabbergasted as to why this guy is yelling at them. But the best part came later. They were both directly in front of me, so I couldn’t escape their goings-ons. This same guy that was soo damn protective of his woman, then decided to pretty much leave her alone while he chatted up some stranger for half an hour. Yeah, you’re such a great guy :p

And then some trucker-hat idiot - uhm, dude, as I’m sure that is your actual name, you do know that those things are hideous right? They were hideous about 3 years ago when every other hipster wore them and they’re *still* hideous now – proceeded to call out for his mommy while Jarvis was speaking to all of us. Oh, sorry, it was for some guy called Matthew. Uhm, it’s ok. You will eventually find your friend again. You looked old enough to no longer need to suckle anyone for survival, so I think you’ll be ok if you don’t immediately spot him after you’ve come back from your beer run. Particularly since the singer is speaking to us. Moron.

Jarvis as always was just damn lovely. I think he’s found the right mix of funny and soapbox pronouncements to keep his in between songs banter from being sanctimonious. And the songs (as previously mentioned) kicked ass! Particularly the new ones and those that aren’t on his first album. Let’s see how many of them I remember…

There was one that he introduced as a blues song. But what kind of blues song can we have nowadays, he pondered: I’ve got the blues about having forgotten to charge my phone? And then he started his ‘Caucasian Blues’ – great song, very funny. There’s a line in it (and forgive me if I mangle it, but I’m crap at remembering lyrics) – ‘I’ve heard you’re hung like a white man.’ Heehee :o)

Before another new one, he asked if there were any Angelas in the audience. One person responded and he said he didn’t believe him/her. And then a girl piped up and said it was her birthday. And a guy said his name was Angelo, which would seem close enough. He asked the birthday girl if she’d like a drink and then wondered if he’d be arrested for giving it to her. He then started in on Angela, having dedicated it to both the b-day girl and the similarly named guy. Great song – mentioned only getting paid a 4.50 wage as a lyric. After the song, Jarvis wondered whether that was a decent wage in the US and debated on whether he should switch the amount depending on what country he was in. And then said fuck it, it'd be too much trouble :o)

There was another one that he introduced by saying that although he'd like to, he couldn’t possibly fuck all of us, but that he could get inside our ears and our heads with the following. Not sure of the title, but a refrain was ‘This is only a fucking song.’ – again, great one.

My favorite one though was a really sad one at its core, although very rocking. He wondered what it would be like if you met someone and they were the one for you, but you’d gotten so drunk that you were unable to perform. And then the girl hated you forever and you’d lost out on your chance. It began in a paleontology museum when the protagonist spots his dream girl. I just adore him. Songs set, or at least begun, in museums in general? Love. Him.
Not sure of the title of this one either, but the refrain was ‘I wanna be your lover’. Lovely, lovely song. Adored it.

I think there was another new one called ‘Big Stuff’, but my memory banks aren’t serving me too well, so that’s all I remember of it at the moment.

He played a great version of ‘Cunts rule the world’ and dedicated it to Bush and his cronies and hoped, ‘That they all die a painful death.’

‘Black Magic’ was amazing as was ‘Fat Children’ and ‘I Will Kill Again’.

He also talked a bit about Obama’s current European tour and how disappointed he’d been not to have been invited to discuss foreign policy with him ;o)

Let’s see, what else?

At one point he mentioned how happy he was that he hadn’t seen cell phones up in the air during the show. And how they’ve become a barrier between the audience and the performer. How people can’t seem to be able to appreciate something unless they’re watching it on a little screen. That it’s better to remember things and even forget some, by the time you get home, rather than just record everything. Er, I agree about the cell phone thing, but uhm, I did record a bit of the show with my camera. Sorry Jarvis.

He and his band (which featured a very disaffected keyboardist btw – he seemed bored) came back not once, but twice and finished the show with of all things, a cover of some house music. Because they wanted to pay homage to their beginnings back in Sheffield.

Not usually my thing, but by the end of the song I was very close to nearing an approximation of dancing ;o)

Great, great gig. Thanks Jarvis.

The Hives @ Terminal 5 - 3.7.08

noreply@blogger.com (alfacinha.in.nyc) — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 05:50:00 +0000

Don't have time for a full wrap up of Friday's night show (spoiler: It was kick-ass!), but meanwhile how's about a bit of video - 34 + 31 seconds to be exact - of the Showmen from Sweden performing Main Offender?

Part I of Main Offender

Part II of Main Offender
(alas, i didn't get the whole thing)

Some oldies, but goodies: Part II

noreply@blogger.com (alfacinha.in.nyc) — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 07:32:00 +0000

And now for yet another great find from my mac's bowels. I'm actually quite proud of this one. No weird unfocused bits, pretty steady. I just wish it was a bit longer, but then again, blogger probably wouldn't let me upload it b/c of its' size. Damn blogger w/their great free service and their file limits ;o)

The next selection is by Badly Drawn Boy, he of the perpetual woolen caps - seriously, has anyone ever seen a pic of him w/o one? If so, do send it on - i'm curious :o)
This was on October 12, 2006 at the Hiro Ballroom, a bit of a strange NYC venue done up as if it was some Japanese temple...in the inside. There's a 'temple' gate above the stage and red lanterns throughout - very odd. Plus b/c it's also a dance lounge (i think) live shows end up having strange curfews - quite early ones too. But very intimate and really lovely to see bands in. Well, maybe not every band, but someone like BDB was great and so was Rhett Miller whom I saw there about 6 months later.

Without further delay, here are 32 seconds of heaven with Mr. Damon Gough, singing 'Thinking of You'.

Some oldies, but goodies: Part I

noreply@blogger.com (alfacinha.in.nyc) — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 06:52:00 +0000

So let me get it right out of the way. No, this is not a 'new' post. I haven't been to any shows lately so there's nothing new to report. But i have been looking through my macs and spotting some little files that i thought might prove somewhat interesting. I found some footage that i took at shows back in 2006, back before i had my wee blog. Most of it is pretty decent, although i'm not sure how great it'll look in blogger's teeny screen. We shall see.

Here goes nothing:

This was taken at a Snow Patrol gig at Roseland on September 8, 2006. That's why you can see some sort of shadow above the footage. I was stuck under the left side balcony, jam packed w/a whole lot of annoying, drunk frat-boy types. That one show almost put me off ever seeing a show at Roseland ever again....no wait, I am pretty much soured on ever seeing a show at Roseland ever again. Unless it's the *only* NYC area appearance by oh, let's say, the reunited Pulp, I don't think i'll be getting tixs for another gig there. I don't know what it is about that particular venue that just seems to attract the bottom feeders of the music world - i'm talking about the fans, not the artists. Blech. But the gig itself was really good - Snow Patrol always put on such a heartfelt show - Gary always seems to give his all to us. None of this 'I'm-so-much-cooler-than-you-and-i'm-just-going-to-stand-here-all-
disaffected-while-you-scream-out-my-name' bullshit. Yeah, i'm talking to you Julian Casablancas ;o)

Anyway, my apologies for the occasional unfocused stretch (i was still learning how to use the video function on my still camera) and huge heads in front of me...although that part I couldn't help.

Anyhoo, enjoy and I'll post again, either later or tomorrow, with another oldie but goodie from deep in the bowels of my iphoto files :o)

Updated old posts (now with talking pictures)

noreply@blogger.com (alfacinha.in.nyc) — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 03:45:00 +0000

Well, it's a new year and I'm already behind on posts. But since it's now been almost a month and 2 weeks respectively since my last two musical interludes and my memory's just not that great, i've decided to instead tweak the old blog a bit. So i went deep into the bowels of my macs (one of which at least is still working ok) and found some teeny gems that had been hiding away. Rather than let you all try to figure out where i've added the goodies, i thought i'd add the links right here, in this handy post, for all to quickly peruse my film-making abilities. The next Spielberg I'm not ;o)
There's been new video added to:

I've also tweaked those lists over on the right side of the screen, so you can now click directly on the gig review you'd like to read (i.e., Reviews of Shows I Graced with my Presence - 2007), rather than try and hunt it down in the Gig Archive.

Enjoy and a very belated Happy New Year to all! :o)

Gogol Bordello @ Terminal 5 - 12.31.07

noreply@blogger.com (alfacinha.in.nyc) — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 04:51:00 +0000

They say a picture's worth a thousand words.
Well, here go 25,000...

This last photo was at the end when everyone seemingly started to rush the stage (at the encouragement of Eugene and pals).

And a short video to round things off.
I do have a great video of GB performing Zina Marina in its entirety, but the mean people at blogger have capped my video limit at 200 mb and alas, it's a smidgeon larger than that. So you all will have to content yourself w/the above pics and this short clip below.

As for what i thought of the show, hey, it's Gogol Bordello, one is always guaranteed a good time. My only complaint - the venue. Terminal 5 is just not my favorite as far as sound goes...which considering none of us are going there for the visuals, is quite a problem. I don't know if it's something that can be fixed or if it's just a structural thing that we're stuck with, but I'll definitely have to have a good think on whether to see a band there again. If you stand in the balcony, the sound can be ok, but if you want to be part of the hoi polloi in the pit, the sound is just atrocious.

Art Brut @ Terminal 5 - 11.21.07

noreply@blogger.com (alfacinha.in.nyc) — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 21:21:00 +0000

Gogol Bordello @ Terminal 5 - 11.3.07

noreply@blogger.com (alfacinha.in.nyc) — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 05:37:00 +0000

Ah, it's that time of year again. When the weather turns a bit chilly and I dig out all my various scarves and even start longingly eying my winter hats, and most importantly for this blog, it just happens to be when the amazing Gogol Bordello are back in town. Hurrah!

Always an event, always a good time, I've been looking forward to this show for eons...well at least since i went to their last show back in July. B/c just like with chips, or heroin (so I hear), once you've had some Gogol you can never get enough.

They played Terminal 5 as can be deduced from the title of this post...just in case you, dear reader, hadn't been paying attention or thought they'd been reduced to playing some isolated spot at Penn Station....

Well, it is a bit isolated - 11th Avenue? Who even knew there was an 11th Avenue? - but it's a pretty sweet looking place. Not much on the outside, but hey i'm not superficial like that. Can't judge a book by its' cover and all that. But then once inside, it looks pretty good....well, it's set up pretty nicely.

The decor itself? Eh. I thought that all the whiteness - walls, etc, made it look dingy in the low lit periods before and in between acts. It just looked a bit dirty, but I really think it was just the lighting. The balcony railings are all industrial looking, but what's more important, looked pretty safe. Very sturdy. And i liked how there were various levels in each balcony. My friend and I managed to snag a primo spot dead center behind the low wall in the first balcony...which afforded an amazing view beyond the heads of the people in front of us by the railing...well over most people's heads. There's always the unnaturally tall people that i seem forever cursed to have in front of me, but otherwise, amazing view.

Great view of the crowd below as well, which would prove to be quite amusing as the evening progressed.

(More to come tomorrow, as I'm dead tired. But here are some teaser pics.)

The Hives @ Webster Hall - 10.10.07

noreply@blogger.com (alfacinha.in.nyc) — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 09:55:00 +0000

There was a while when it seemed I was going to see the Hives every other month. Those were good times. Getting the chance to be in the same room as Pelle and Nicholas and all the others was just about the most fun this girl could have in public. The energy they brought to a venue was intoxicating and contagious. But then they went away after touring almost non-stop for a few years. Not that I could blame them. If I remember correctly, at one point they'd been touring for 2 years straight. That's a whole lot of Swedish soap operas to catch up on.

And this girl was sad. And she filled her days by listening to other music (so as to not remind her of what she was missing) and going to lots of other shows. Sometimes these shows were great, almost comparably so to the Hives (Gogol Bordello comes to mind) but most times they were just ok. Pretty good shows even, but whose lead singers would pale in comparison when likened to the great Pelle Almqvist.

So it came to be that the Hives came back to the States...as the opener for Maroon 5. (!?!?) And much puzzlement was had by all. I'd hope that the teeny bopper fans of Maroon 5 (and their dragged along parents) would at first wonder at and then gradually be converted to the greatness that is the Hives...but I'm somehow doubting this. But hey, maybe I'm wrong. Moving on to Tuesday's show...

Regular readers of this blog - all 3 of you [wave] - will recognize the following sentence. As has by now become customary, my friend and i arrived after the show started. I'd had the opportunity to observe the youngsters coming in by standing under a doorway under the heavy pouring rain for about 45 minutes. That's always fun.

Thankfully we didn't miss too much. I think they'd probably played a couple of songs by the time we dragged our dripping selves upstairs. We had pretty good sight lines all the way in the back, by the bar, but if any of you know my friend, you know that's just not acceptable. So we politely, but firmly made our way through the crowd until we ended up maybe 10 people back from the right side of the stage. And my friend thoroughly redeemed herself (and her damn habitual lateness) by spotting a huge empty spot in front of a tall guy with shorties all in front. It was heaven indeed for this petite chick.

But enough about the preliminaries, how was the show?
Well, what to say about the Hives? Kicked ass to infinity. That seems like a pretty accurate description. Pelle was in top form, Nicholas looked fierce (and oh, so hot), Chris was doing freaking pirouettes with his drumsticks and...well, honestly i couldn't really see the other 2. I love them and their contribution, but my angle of view (although pretty good) did not manage to include them for the most part.

They mixed in quite a few of the new songs into the setlist, usually introducing them as such beforehand, even giving the name, which was pretty cool. A lot of bands won't bother with that. The new songs fit right in. Strong beats and fun, but still different enough from the older material. Pelle brought down the house with 'Supply and Demand', 'Aka I-D-I-O-T', 'Two-Timing Touch And Broken Bones' & 'Die, All Right!' I know there were more, obviously, but I never really manage to jot down the setlist - always having too much fun to get it all down. That and i suck at remembering song titles.

Pelle exalted the NYC crowd to be more responsive, to not be so 'cool' (I'm paraphrasing here). At times he claimed that they would stop if we didn't always make huge amounts of noise whenever they stopped. The audience didn't need much encouragement - there was a whole lot of whooping and hollering and whistling...and not all of it was coming from me.

They came back for the encore, when Pelle exclaimed 'And we're now following rock star protocol'. Played quite a few songs, went away seemingly for real this time, and then came back to do another song. Which was definitely appreciated by the crowd. As usual, there seemed to be a whole lot of VIPs up in the balcony, who Pelle always messes with.

There was a whole lot of jumping and screaming and general good time by one and all.

I hope they come back soon, this time sans the boys from Maroon 5 to limit their gig ability (the Hives usually do 2 or 3 shows in NYC). I'm really looking forward to the new album - Tick Tick Bomb is pretty sweet - and once again having tixs to a sold out Hives show.

P.S. And yes, I do have a thing for Mr. Larson...even if he happened to be sporting a bit of extra frizz, he was still a frizzy-haired dreamboat :o)
Oh, and I almost forgot. There were no actual incidents at Webster Hall. Everyone behaved themselves - crowd *and* staff. An anomaly for sure, but still appreciated.

Kaiser Chiefs @ the Beacon - 9.29.07

noreply@blogger.com (alfacinha.in.nyc) — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 04:09:00 +0000