San Francisco Bay Area Concerts

Zoe Keating & Loop!station @ the SF MoMa (1/16/10)

2010-01-17T10:52:00.000-08:00

It's been a few months since I've had the time to catch a new show, but last night I was able to catch Zoe Keating and Loop!station perform at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art as part of the museum's 75th anniversary celebration.

Zoe Keating started the show off at about 10 minutes after 7pm and played for roughly 30 minutes. She opened her set with 'Tetrishead' which you can see here:

Other treats included a few new songs off her upcoming album called 'Into the Trees', which is scheduled for a March 1st release.

If you haven't already, be sure to check out one of my favorites, One Cello X 16: Natoma

Loop!station took the stage promptly at 8pm and played for about 45 minutes. Two of the songs were compositions specifically written for separate pieces of art within the museum. Although impressive, there were a few points in the set where the songs seem to go off the rails, and the duo were forced to end the songs abruptly -- or at least not as they had planned.

Anyway, here are a couple of videos from their performance last night:

My personal favorite CD of theirs is Obey Your Signal, but their newest CD is Love Vs. Love if you're interested.

Previews reviews can be found here and here. Enjoy.

Nine Inch Nails @ the Wiltern in LA (9/10/09)

2009-09-11T20:16:00.001-07:00

For those of you tired of reading about Nine Inch Nails on this site, you can sleep easy tonight knowing that this show at the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles was the very last NIN (and non-Bay Area) show for the foreseeable future. And for those of you who are still looking for a fix, check out this link for past reviews of the NIN shows I've seen since starting this site.

As for the show this past Thursday night, it was truly epic.

Expectations were extremely high for this one. Just a week prior, Trent was forced to cancel the Henry Fonda Theater show, and then this concert at the Wiltern which was originally scheduled for 9/5. The concert at the Echoplex on Sunday, 9/6 was originally meant to be the final show of the tour. And at first, it looked as if the Echoplex would remain as the last show. As word spread that the two shows were being canceled, there were little other details available at the time to know if they'd be rescheduled.

A fan, who was obviously upset that he might miss the Henry Fonda theater concert put this video together:

Luckily, both the Fonda and Wiltern were rescheduled. And I was one of the 2200 people who had a pair of tickets for the Wiltern show -- which due to the rescheduling was now the last NIN concert (ever?).

I took a big risk booking a United flight late in the afternoon that if everything went well, would allow me to get to the theater by 8pm. And as I took my seat as we boarded the plane, my heart sank as a maintenance crew member boarded the plane. Thank God however, when a flight attendant informed him that whatever got him down to the plane to begin with had been fixed without his help! 5 minutes later, we were airborne and things were looking good. We touched down at LAX at about 6.45 and I still had to catch a shuttle to the rental car place, and then deal with traffic on the 30 minute drive over to the Wiltern. Again, if there was any hitch with the shuttle or bad traffic, my night could have started off on the wrong foot. But luckily, things were going my way so far.

The drive was easy over to the Wiltern and I drove up two blocks before finding free street parking. Everything was going according to plan.

Now at this point, I still had an extra ticket to get rid of, so I started at the front of a line that had probably about 75-100 people in it who were all hoping tickets were released for sale at the box office. It seemed the majority of people in the front needed pairs of tickets, but a guy about 6-10 people back jumped at the chance to be my 'plus one'. Now that I found someone to take my extra, we headed over to a different line that had about 25-40 people in it and who were all waiting to pick-up their tickets from the nin.com will-call booth.

While we inched our way up towards the front of the line, we spoke with a few others who had traveled from all over the US to get there that night. Besides myself, a guy directly behind us had flown down from Sacramento, CA; and a guy in front of us had bought a plane ticket that same day from Ohio after he was able to buy a ticket online that morning. I didn't ask how much his flight was, but I could guess it was a bundle. It was a pretty cool experience to be surrounded by other nin-nuts like me.

For those of you in the Bay Area, the Wiltern is nearly identical to the Warfield Theater in San Francisco. There's a large standing-room only floor, with a seated balcony. However, the downstairs was being broken into at least two different areas. Certain people were given 'gray' wristbands and others 'blue' wristbands. The gray-colored wristbands got those ticket-holders down into the orchestra pit, right against the stage. The blue wristbands were for the remainder of the floor area.

Upon entering the venue, I had my first celebrity sighting of the night. None other than Ron Jeremy was standing in a line, which I think was providing another wristband for those over 21. For those of you who don't know who Ron Jeremy is, do a google search of his name in the privacy of your own home... The results will definitely be NSFW (not safe for work).

Further into the lobby, a massive crowd of I'm guessing around 150-200 people had surrounded the lone merchandise table. For these last club shows in New York, Chicago and LA, each venue had unique t-shirts and posters that were only available at each of those respective venues. The t-shirts were the ones in extreme limited supply and up until this point, there wasn't a limit to how many any individual could buy. So at each of the previous shows, those limited edition shirts were selling out almost instantly to a handful of people who were then turning them around on ebay for about $250 each. Finally, at the last show of the tour, the band got wise and instituted a strict limit of one t-shirt per person. At the time I arrived, there were still a few shirts available, but I didn't expect they'd still be there by the time I would've gotten to the front of the line so I didn't even bother trying.

I didn't really have any interest in catching the opening band, IO Echo, who was on stage at the time I entered the lobby, so I hung out for a bit chatting and trading NIN stories with some of the people I had just met in the line outside.

About 30 minutes later, IO Echo had finished their set and the stage was being prepared for the main event of the night... Nine Inch Nails!

I made my way onto the floor and found a decent spot with good visibility directly behind the front-of-house sound and light boards. Coincidentally, also there behind the board was a couple that I met before the Sunday night show at the Echoplex. It's definitely a small world, and again, it was pretty cool to be surrounded by die-hard NIN fans.

As we waited for the stage to get ready, my second and last celebrity sighting of the night happened when Tony Hawk decided to hang out behind the sound boards too. From what I could tell, he would stay in that spot throughout the majority of the show. Someone asked him what his favorite NIN album was, and I thought I overheard him say that he liked Pretty Hate Machine and The Fragile. Later on, I noticed him bobbing his head during "Head Like a Hole" but besides that, at least from what I noticed, he kept his cool throughout the show.

Finally, as the clock got closer to 9.15 and then 9.20, the fog machine started to spew and at just about 9.25, the droning guitar that starts the song 'Home' started to blare as Robin Finck, Nail's lead guitarist strolled onstage. The beginning of the end had begun... And the crowd went nuts. This is what I expected out of the crowd at the Echoplex just days before. The raw energy was just intense and when Trent took the stage, we all erupted into a frenzy.

Songs that immediately followed didn't differ all that much from previous shows, but the band seemed to feed off the energy from the crowd.

Check out this video of "Somewhat Damaged" which followed the opener, "Home" -- which has a slow build until both the band and crowd erupts. This video was shot from Synthetikz, a nin.com forum member:

Later on in the set, David Bowie's pianist, Mike Garson, joined the band on stage to perform "Just Like You Imagined" off The Fragile album. Although it's hard to say that I actually have a favorite NIN song since there are so many, this one is definitely in the top-5. It's an absolutely beautiful track that combines Garson's gorgeous piano playing with a beating bass and drum line and more of Robin's trademark droning guitar. Continuously building until Trent's pained vocals join the mix. All combined with the harsh electronic white noise that's seamlessly blended into the mix. Here's the video I shot with my Sony Cybershot:

Beautiful...

Moving on, Garson continued with the band for another 3 songs before being joined onstage with Gary Numan. The collective now launched into a fantastic version of Gary Numan's 1979 hit single, "Down In the Park". Garson then left the stage and let Numan continue on with the band for versions of Numan's "Metal" and "I Die; You Die".

At this point, the band had played for about an hour and a half, and little did any of us know that they weren't even close to finishing yet! Gary left the stage and the core band launched into a few of their more recent tunes before turning the clock back to 1991 with a rendition of the Pigface classic (co-written by Reznor), "Suck". Here's the video I shot of "Suck":

To give you an idea of the intensity of the crowd, check out this clip of "Head Like a Hole" below. I'm telling you, the place was rocking! Simply incredible!

The band took a break after "Head Like a Hole" and by that point, I wouldn't have been surprised if they ended it there. But within minutes, Trent came back out onstage, this time joined by a new guest, who I couldn't immediately tell who it was. The duo broke into "Me, I'm Not" with Trent on keyboards and the mystery guest on what looked to be a turntable or small DJ-rig... It turns out that it was Atticus Ross, who is Trent's right-hand man when he's holed up in the recording studio since the late 1990's. To my knowledge, this was the first time he's ever taken the stage live with Trent or the band, so it was a pretty cool sight to behold.

You'll see from my next video, that Dave Navarro (of Jane's Addiction) came out to join the duo next on "The Warning" -- you'll also see that my camera has a tough time with red light. Dave is on the left, Trent center stage, and Atticus is still in front of his small rig on the center-right.

Navarro continued for a couple more songs before being replaced, this time by the Dillinger Escape Plan -- and these guys were there to create mayhem. Running, jumping, throwing light stands, mic stands, kick drums, just about anything they could get a hold of. One of the guys even launched his body into the Ilan's drumset -- as he was playing it! They were absolutely nuts. Here's my video of "Mr. Self Destruct" which doesn't really start until after the first minute of footage:

The Dillinger Escape Plan continued with the high-octane "Wish" before leaving the stage back to the core-NIN members for two classic covers by Joy Division, "Atmosphere" and "Dead Souls".

As the night continued to march forward, I knew we were getting close to the end when Trent took a minute to thank the band, the fans, and the crew. In fact, he forgot to thank the crew and stopped the next song, "The Day the World Went Away" (TDWWA), not once, but twice to thank the front of house crew -- which were the guys at the sound/light boards right in front of me, and the crew backstage as well. Check out the video which starts out pretty funny -- my memory card filled up, so I wasn't able to get the whole song:

TDWWA led into the similarly quiet "Hurt" which of course was turned into a 'Top 40' hit when Johnny Cash covered it right before his death a few years ago. And finally, and I do mean finally, NIN closed out the set and night with "In This Twilight". Although I was a *little* surprised that they didn't play "Closer" at all through the night, I couldn't have been happier to have been a part of this show. Again, although a bit cliche, it was an epic night.

Here's the complete setlist that I pulled from the nin.com forums. I've linked the names of the songs to my videos on YouTube, and also linked to (Synthetikz's) videos that he captured in HD. As you can see, he got most of the show from right towards the front of the venue.

1. Home (Synthetikz)
2. Somewhat Damaged (Synthetikz)
3. The Collector (Synthetikz)
4. Discipline (Synthetikz)
5. March of The Pigs (Synthetikz)
6. Something I Can Never Have (Synthetikz)
7. The Frail (Synthetikz)
8. The Wretched (Synthetikz)
9. Ruiner (Synthetikz)
10. Head Down (Synthetikz)
11. Burn (Synthetikz)
12. Just Like You Imagined (w Mike Garson) (Synthetikz)
13. La Mer (w Mike Garson) (Synthetikz)
14. Eraser (w Mike Garson) (Synthetikz)
15. The Becoming (Still) (w Mike Garson) (Synthetikz)
16. Down In The Park (w Gary Numan & Mike Garson intro) (Synthetikz)
17. Metal (w Gary Numan) (Synthetikz)
18. I Die: You Die (w Gary Numan) (Synthetikz)

19. 1,000,000 (Synthetikz)
20. Letting You (Synthetikz)
21. Survivalism (Synthetikz)
22. Suck (Synthetikz)
23. Down In It (Synthetikz)
24. The Hand That Feeds (Synthetikz)
25. Head Like A Hole (Synthetikz)

26. Me, I'm Not (w Atticus Ross) (Synthetikz)
27. The Warning (w Atticus Ross & Dave Navarro) (Synthetikz)
28. Piggy (Nothing Can Stop Me Now) (w Dave Navarro) (Synthetikz)
29. Gave Up (w Dave Navarro) (Synthetikz)

30. Mr. Self Destruct (w The Dillinger Escape Plan) (Synthetikz)
31. Wish (w The Dillinger Escape Plan) (Synthetikz)
32. Atmosphere (cover - Joy Division)
33. Dead Souls (cover - Joy Division)
34. The Good Soldier (Synthetikz)
35. The Day The World Went Away (Synthetikz)
36. Hurt (Synthetikz)
37. In This Twilight (Synthetikz)

Nine Inch Nails @ the Echoplex in LA (9/6/09)

2009-09-08T20:54:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago, this was one of the toughest tickets to come by. The September 6th show at the Echoplex club in Los Angeles, a club that only holds between 450-600 people, was meant to be the very last Nine Inch Nails concert for the foreseeable future due to Trent Reznor's previously announced plans to take a long break from touring. This from a guy who has spent the better part of the last 20 years either on the road around the world or holed up in a recording studio religiously tweaking every disparate bleep and scream that he could generate through his mountain of music gear. By this point, I don't blame the guy one bit. Presumably, he's seen friends and family settle down, start families and do all the things 'normal' people do while he's toiled away -- all to the benefit of us! He's put his life on hold to focus on the music that's hopefully meant so much to him, and that's also affected his fans possibly so much more. Lucky for me though, I've been fortunate enough to catch NIN play about 20 times over the past 15 or so years. For a few reviews of their more recent shows, click here.

Anyway, back to the Echoplex gig... Unfortunately, I wasn't able to buy tickets for this show when they went on sale. I got tickets to the show scheduled the night before at the Wiltern Theater -- a venue that holds about 2200 people -- but no dice for the Echoplex. And if you read my previous review of the LA Philharmonic concert, you would have already known that Trent came down with the flu a few days before the Wiltern show and was forced to cancel and reschedule the show. Suddenly, the Echoplex show was no longer the last Nine Inch Nails show ever. And as luck would have it, I suddenly found myself holding a ticket to the 'new' very last show! I just needed to arrange my travel plans and get back down to LA from the Bay Area!

Not to get off-topic, but forget about the Federal stimulus proposals and California budget crisis that have each been focused on so much over the past several months in the news, the state of California should issue a personal note of thanks for Trent unintentionally coming down with the flu and rescheduling his shows. The NIN forums are filled with fans making additional arrangements so they can either extend their LA-stay or travel back to LA for the two shows that were canceled and rescheduled (ie. the Henry Fonda and Wiltern Theaters on 9/8 and 9/10, respectively.) Obviously, I fall into that camp as well. That's not meant to come across as a complaint either. Sure, it's a little inconvenient, but luckily, my personal and professional situation at the moment allows for the travel flexibility. And considering I've been listening to NIN since the 1991 Lollapalooza tour and remember staying up late to watch and hope for 'Down In It' to be played on Dave Kendall's 120 Minutes on MTV, there wasn't any chance I was going to pass this up! For those of you who don't remember 120 Minutes either, the show was on at something like Midnight to 2am on Sunday nights. It was cool in that it played videos from all the alternative bands at the time when hair-metal was the only thing shown during the day alongside Boyz II Men and New Kids On the Block videos. The thing that sucked about it, was that the show would play one, or maybe two, industrial videos during the entire 2-hour block. So at the time, you'd be lucky to catch a NIN video, or Front 242, or KMFDM, or Ministry... But generally only one of the above during any given show. And this was pre-internet days, so you couldn't pull up YouTube for your fix either. I'm rambling again, sorry...

The Echoplex, where was I?

So because I was already in LA for the now canceled Wiltern show, I decided to take a leap of faith and swing by the Echoplex on the afternoon of the show. I kept my expectations low that I would be lucky enough to get a ticket, and indeed I did! By 3.30 or 4pm in the afternoon, there was already a line of at least a few hundred people outside the venue. And it may be hard to describe here, but there are actually two entrances to the Echo/Echoplex. The upstairs 'The Echo' has an entrance on Sunset and is more of a dance club, whereas the entrance downstairs on Glendale ave is to the Echoplex concert venue/club. The line of people were stretched out on Glendale ave, and what I found is that the VIP/Guestlist entrance was up on the Sunset entrance... And when I arrived, there were only a handful of people at this entrance, so I figured my chances of somehow getting in the door were exponentially higher outside this door instead of fighting the crowds down below.

So I waited with a few other pretty cool people, none of which had tickets either, but we were all hoping for a miracle. As the clock got closer to when the doors were supposed to open, more people started to show up to the Sunset entrance. Rumors from down below mentioned that extra tickets were going to be released for sale sometime soon -- at the box office, which was conveniently located at the entrance I had been parked at.

As it turns out, the bouncers organized the others who were without tickets from down below and led them upstairs to form a single file line now at exactly where i was standing. Chaos ensued, one bouncer told me to stay where I was and another was saying that I should go back to the end of the line. Within a matter of seconds, I realized that the crowd had been given wristbands downstairs and I didn't have one, so I decided to head back towards the end of the line and try and blend in with the others. As again luck would have it, a group of 3 behind me were in a frenzy over what they were going to do. It turns out that one of them had a pair of tickets, but she couldn't stay for the show and had to drive back to Sacramento (about 6 hours away) that night to get to work. The other pair of friends were going to try and buy tickets at the box office, or go drinking if they couldn't get in. To make things easier for them, I offered to take her +1 ticket off her hands -- and she accepted! I'm not exactly even sure I understand how this all transpired, but all I knew is that I suddenly had a realistic chance to get into the show. The problem was then that we were in the wrong line. We needed to be back down in the Glendale ave line that was meant for ticket holders...

The two of us, jumped out of the line on Sunset and headed down to Glendale ave and got into the back of a line that was still a couple hundred deep, but was starting to move as people were starting to stream inside.

About 15 minutes later, we made it to the front of the line where she handed over her ID and BAM!!, the tickets were handed over and I had my way in the door.

The club itself is designed in a way where the entrance has you come from behind the right side of the stage and into an opening directly in front of the stage that would comfortably fit about 200 or so people. About 20 feet back from the stage, the ceiling drops from about 30' high, to about 9' high and the room extends further back towards a bar along the back wall of the venue -- maybe another 50-60 feet back from the 'front' room. For those who ventured back into this 'back' room, they couldn't have had the best sound or view considering there were numerous columns, a low ceiling and worst of all, the stage only seemed to be raised by about a foot or two from the floor. Considering the options, I chose to stay towards the back of the 'front' room and over towards the side, near a column and the merch table which was only a few feet behind me.

The opening band (HEALTH) was rocking out with their noise-rock tunes as I settled in next to the column, and to my surprise, standing right beside me was none other than Robin Finck, the guitarist for NIN. He was hanging out catching the show before having to take off to prepare for the main event that was coming up within a matter of minutes.

HEALTH (all-caps is how they spell their name) absolutely kicked ass. I can only describe them as a combination of NIN and Radiohead with more electronic chirps and noise added into the mix. The sheer energy coming from the band as they bounced all over the stage made me tired just watching them. If I wasn't already catching the Thursday night NIN show in LA, I'd definitely head to SF to see these guys play at the Bottom of the Hill. To my SF readers, don't miss these guys tomorrow night! For everyone else, be sure to check out their tour schedule as they're just kicking off what looks to be a national tour! Shortly after Robin left to head backstage, Justin Meldal-Johnsen, the NIN bassist, walked right behind me. I turned and said 'you rock' as he gave me a big smile and said a sincere thanks before heading backstage as well.

Shortly thereafter, HEALTH wrapped up their set and the roadies came out to quickly clear the stage for the NIN equipment. As we waited, a group of cameramen started to stake out claims throughout the venue. One guy chose to take his life in his hands by parking himself right in the middle of the pit, just about 10 feet away from the dead center of the stage. Another happened to set-up shop right next to me. And after a few minutes, we struck up a conversation about his impressive camera, which I believe was a Sony HVRZ5U -- certainly orders of magnitude better than my whimpy Sony Cybershot! It turns out that for the Echoplex show, there were no less than 11 professional HD cameras recording the show. Stay tuned for what I'm assuming will be one of Trent and Rob Sheridan's next projects -- either putting together a live DVD compilation of the last 'Wave Goodbye' shows from NYC, Chicago and LA; or releasing all the raw HD footage online for the fans to piece together on their own as they're doing now with the last "Lights In the Sky Tour" and the "This One's On Us" DVD project.

For a glimpse of the fan-created 'Another Version of the Truth' DVD, check out the trailer below -- all edited and sync'ed by the nin community using HD footage that was released by the band as a free download. Pretty cool stuff.

Finally, the time was near. It was getting close to 9.20pm and the crowd was starting to get restless. At last, the band took to the stage and launched into "Somewhat Damaged":

They continued through what turned out to be a 28-song setlist that I've included below. Now I could go on and say that it was a mind-blowing set and that it was the best show ever, but I'd be lying. It was definitely a great show, don't get me wrong. But this was also the first one back after Trent was sick a few days earlier and it showed. Although his voice started off strong, it seemed to deteriorate as the night went on. There were also a number of mistakes made that just seemed clumsy compared to previous shows. They were definitely not on their A-game that night, but neither was the crowd, and maybe that perpetuated the mistakes by the band?!? By comparison, I was lucky enough to attend the Bowery Ballroom concert, which was a similar sized venue, in NYC a couple of weeks ago and the major difference between the two shows had to be the crowd (and the heat). The Bowery show was just intense and it seemed that the entire crowd sang, shouted and punched the air throughout the entire show. Whereas, the Echoplex crowd seemed sedated. Maybe it was the fact that we all knew that the end was near? Maybe it had to do with the fact that at least 50 people slept outside on the sidewalk the night before to secure their spot against the front of the stage? And as the show wore on, the heat in the building continued to rise. Guys were streaming out of the pit, just soaked in sweat. It reminded me of the days when I was 17 trying to survive in the pit as I was getting crushed by the crowd inching and clawing towards the stage... Now that I'm a bit older, I'm happy staying on the sidelines and taking in the show from a bit further back.

Overall, I'd say the climax of the show hit when Trent introduced one of his early influences, Gary Numan, out to the stage to perform "Metal" with the band. "I Die; You Die" immediately followed, which was another Gary Numan original. After that, Trent reclaimed the mic and launched into yet another cover, Adam Ant's "Physical".

Here's my video of "Metal" with Gary Numan:

As I re-read what I've written above, I want to stress that the show was still fantastic. It was great to have the opportunity to see these guys in such a small intimate space like the Echoplex. But overall, it fell short of the Bowery Ballroom show, and even the NIN.com fan-only show at the Key Club in Cabazon, CA a few years ago. At both those shows the band seemed to feed off the energy from the crowd, and unfortunately, the Echoplex crowd just wasn't in a giving mood the other night.

Considering I'm a little behind in posting this review, NIN just played their rescheduled Henry Fonda show last night (9/8) and from what I've read, the Fonda show was truly spectacular. Let's hope that tomorrow night (9/10) proves to be a similar night for the rescheduled Wiltern Theater show -- the 'new' last show of the tour! I'll be there and hope to have a review up soon after, so stay tuned.

As I mentioned above, here's the setlist with links to a few of the other videos I shot. Thanks to the NIN forums for the setlist!

"Somewhat Damaged"
"The Beginning Of The End"
"The Collector"
"Discipline"
"March Of The Pigs"
"Something I Can Never Have"
"The Frail"
"The Wretched"
"Terrible Lie"
"Ruiner"
"Head Down"
"Burn"
"Gave Up"
"La Mer"
"Non-Entity"
"Gone, Still"
"The Big Come Down"
"The Way Out Is Through"
"Wish"
"Survivalism"
"Down In It"
"Metal" (Featuring Gary Numan)
"I Die: You Die" (Featuring Gary Numan)
"Physical (You're So)" (Adam Ant cover)
"The Hand That Feeds"
"Head Like A Hole"
Encore
"Atmosphere" (Joy Division cover they screwed up in the beginning and then skipped over to start Dead Souls instead.)
"Dead Souls" (A Joy Division cover)
"Hurt"

John Williams & the L.A. Philharmonic Orchestra @ the Hollywood Bowl in LA (9/5/09)

2009-09-08T17:51:00.000-07:00

I hope you don't mind a few non-Bay Area concert reviews here. I've got a few travel plans in the near future, but unfortunately, none include any live music. So for the time being, the recent NYC NIN show, and these new posts will be it.

I'll start by saying that the labor day weekend was meant to be a fun trip down to L.A. to see the Nine Inch Nails show at the Wiltern Theater on Saturday night. NIN were scheduled to play two shows over the weekend, their very last two shows for the foreseeable future. Of the two, I was only lucky enough to get tickets to the Wiltern and not the smaller and more exclusive club-show at the Echoplex on Sunday. However, only a few days before the show, Trent Reznor came down with the flu and was forced to cancel both the Henry Fonda and Wiltern shows. With my hotel already booked, I decided to drive down to LA anyway and make the most of a disappointing situation.

As you'll see, I wasn't the only one disappointed with the cancellation:

As fate would have it, I was about to find myself in (at least what I consider to be) a very lucky situation! As I arrived at the hotel, I realized that I was only a few blocks away from the famous Hollywood Bowl, and quickly looked to see if anyone was performing that night. Get this! Probably the greatest movie-music composer *ever* was guest-conducting the L.A. Philharmonic Orchestra that night and performing a selection of songs from the movies! I called the box office to get ticket info and found that there were only a limited supply of tickets left -- and only singles! Lucky again, because my wife wasn't able to make the trip with me, and so I only needed one ticket!

So besides my love of NIN, people who know me also know that I'm a pretty big Star Wars fan, Indiana Jones, E.T., Superman, Jaws... Basically, any major Steven Spielberg or George Lucas movie -- and I'm pretty sure they've all been scored by John Williams!

I made the walk up to the Hollywood Bowl from the Renaissance Hotel and got a ticket towards the middle of the bowl -- pretty much dead center of the amphitheater... And I waited... And waited...

The box office warned me to get there early to ensure that I was able to get one of the last single seats they had left, which for me was about 2 hours early. So I hung out at my seat and read a few magazines that I brought with me -- and took in the atmosphere. For those of you in the Bay Area, the Hollywood Bowl is most like the Shoreline Amphitheater. The Bowl holds about 20,000 -- whereas the Shoreline holds 22,000. The main difference between the two (besides the stage) is that the Bowl is completely seated. I'm guessing Shoreline is able to fit the extra numbers into the large lawn area up above the seated section. At the Bowl, it's all seated, or I should say 'benched' -- with the exclusion of the lower/closer sections, the remaining seats are just long wooden benches. Not the most comfortable seats, but for $.75, you can get a padded cushion for your rear.

As 8.30pm closed-in, I could see various performers take the stage, and at just about 8.35pm, Mr. Williams was introduced to the crowd. Upon taking his center podium, he welcomed us to the Bowl and then introduced Lynn Redgrave who participated in the first half of the show as the narrator and paid tribute to the Harry Potter series of movies.

The second half of the show started with a medley of probably about 30 movie themes all pieced together and synced to a video of the corresponding movie clips. After which John talked about his endless collaboration with Steven Spielberg and the music he composed for the movie "Catch Me If You Can". Here's a clip:

The highlight of the second set came with the closing performance of the Superman theme song. Before starting the song, Williams spoke of how the performance was a tribute to all superheroes, and focused on Superman and Batman. The corresponding video footage that was played during the song mostly focused on clips from the various Superman movies, but also included clips from the Batman movies -- although the performance was incredible, the Batman footage made me kept wondering why they were including it. The music is clearly so attached to Superman, that it just didn't make sense to me why they were trying to include Batman too. If you know, leave me a comment below!

Finally, the encore! This is what the majority of the crowd was waiting for! John returned to the stage and quickly launched into "Yoda's Theme". As you can see from the footage below, a good number of audience members quickly lit-up their Light Sabers and conducted along with Williams.

Then came a few other recognizable theme songs before ending with the "Imperial March"! Williams and co. received a standing ovation for over 2 minutes! Just amazing...

What a night and a fine replacement for the canceled Nine Inch Nails show at the Wiltern! I could have done with less Harry Potter, but I'm not going to complain! For those of you interested, here's the description of the show from the official program. (3MB PDF)

Check back soon and I'll have another lucky story related to the concert I saw on Sunday night!

Marilyn Manson @ The Warfield (8/28/09)

2009-08-29T01:18:00.000-07:00

What a night at the Warfield! It all started with finding a great parking spot literally around the corner from the entrance to the Warfield. Then, upon picking up my tickets at will-call, I was given a pair of VIP passes with reserved seats at the back of the floor. How cool is that? I knew there was a pair of tickets waiting for me, but a VIP pass?

Walking into the venue at around 8.30pm, I was a little surprised to see the place only about half full. But by the time Manson and Co. took the stage, the Warfield was most likely about 75-80% full. Not a sold-out show, but impressive considering the lack of radio friendly hits from the new album so far.

The opening band, September Mourning, was pretty impressive as far as openers go. It was the first I had heard of them, and they played more traditional hard rock, but with a female lead singer who was very nice on the eyes. It was one of the few recent opening bands that I wasn't constantly looking at my watch to see how much longer they might be on. This time, it was a short 35 minute set, and with another 30 minute set-change, a curtain came down over the stage and the fog machine started to spew. We knew that within minutes, Manson would be taking the stage to blast us away.

For those of you new to Manson, the 'shock-rocker' has been around since the early-mid 90's getting his/their big start under the guidance of Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails.) Since then, the two bands have parted ways in some respects, but have retained some of the same musicians that were so crucial to both NIN and Manson's success.

Jordie White, who was a founding member of Marilyn Manson and their bassist and/or guitarist took a brief break a few years ago from Manson to tour with Nine Inch Nails as the live bassist. He's since returned to Manson to play lead guitar and it was nice to see him back onstage next to Manson where he belongs.

In addition to Jordie, Manson picked up the talents of multi-instrumentalist Chris Vrenna on keyboards. Chris was a founding member of Nine Inch Nails and who continued for nearly 10 years with NIN before leaving to write/perform his own music under the name "Tweaker". If you haven't already, definitely check out his stuff. And in addition to his keyboard duties, Vrenna is an incredibly talented studio engineer and again helping Manson write and record their next album while on the current tour. Chris has got to be one of the busiest guys in the music industry these days.

You can learn more about his background and his studio rig in this video here:

Back to the concert, the show will not disappoint if you're into Manson. One thing to take note, if you're going to head into the pit, you're going to get wet as Manson loves to spray/spit water out to all in the front of the pit. You'll also be treated to a number of costume changes and overall, just belligerent rock. You've been warned. As above, here's another video I shot using my Sony Cybershot. Enjoy.

And lastly a picture of Chris Vrenna and I:

Nine Inch Nails @ The Bowery Ballroom (8/22/09)

2009-08-24T17:35:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I know this concert wasn't a Bay Area show, but if you're a frequent visitor, you'll know that I'm a big fan of Nine Inch Nails. Luckily for me, this show at New York City's Bowery Ballroom coincided with a trip I had already planned back to Philadelphia -- which is only a 2 hour drive from NYC. Plus, I was one of the lucky few to be able to get a pair of tickets to this venue which only holds approx 500 people. The Bowery Ballroom was even smaller than the Cabazon Key Club in Morongo, CA which was previously the smallest venue that I've been able to see NIN.

The Bowery Ballroom show was the first show on the current, and supposedly last leg of the 'Wave Goodbye' tour. Trent Reznor, the main artist behind NIN, has openly said that this will be the last set of shows indefinitely. Who knows how long he'll stay away from touring, but there wasn't anyway I was going to miss this tiny club show in NYC.

Friends told me that I was crazy for going to the show. You see, the main reason I was back in Philly was to ride in a charity bike ride for the Lance Armstrong Foundation -- the Philadelphia Livestrong Challenge -- which was a 100-mile ride that started at 7.30am on Sunday morning. We were also told that due to the size of the event this year, we should plan on arriving at the start by 6am. So in a nutshell, I was assuming that the NIN show in NYC would end around midnight. With a two-hour drive back to Philly, that would give me a solid 3 hours of sleep before having to get on a bike to ride for approximately 6 hours.

But again, if you've read my previous NIN posts, you'll already know I'm a bit of a NIN-nut. Long story short, I wasn't going to miss NIN play at the Bowery and I wasn't going to drop out of the charity ride either.

I was luke-warm on catching the opening band, Health, so I opted to skip them in exchange for meeting up with an old friend who I hadn't seen in roughly 10 years and get some drinks. After a couple of hours of catching up, I headed over to the Bowery just about 15 minutes prior to NIN's set-time of 9.15pm. I camped out towards the right-rear section of the floor and waited patiently for the house lights to dim.

At just about 20 minutes after 9, Trent walked out to center stage as the house lights just started to dim and launched into 'Somewhat Damaged'. The rest of the setlist is below that I copy/pasted from the boards on nin.com. Overall, the mix of songs was just fantastic. As an example, playing the bombastic "March of the Pigs" which was then followed by the beautifully quiet "Something I Can Never Have" which featured Justin Meldal-Johnsen on an upright string bass. Later in the show, they performed "Gave Up" (another heavy song) followed by "La Mer", again another very quiet and beautiful instrumental song. Each of the NIN albums over the past 20 years seemed to be equally represented. As you can see below, Trent even joked before "Down In It" that this song was one of the first to spawn the rock-rap genre 20 years ago as the first single off the first Nine Inch Nails album, Pretty Hate Machine.

The videos below hopefully not only capture the audio from the show, but the energy from the crowd which was just intense! All were shot from my Sony Cybershot DSC-W100 camera which has an annoying auto-focus feature which usually gets tripped up by the stage lights and my jerky holding of the camera. But the audio has always impressed me.

"Down In It" - The video gets sharper about midway into the song.

"Something I Can Never Have" - Again, the picture quality improves as the video goes on. This is such a powerful song as you can tell from what seems to be the entire crowd singing along with Trent. Definitely one of my favorites.

"Last" - again, one of my favorites and off a truly incredible album, Broken.

Next up, I'll be heading down to LA for their second-to-last show on tour at the Wiltern Theater. I'm also on the lookout for an extra ticket to the very last show at the Echoplex, so if you have one, I'd be glad to take it off your hands and buy you a few drinks!

Stay tuned for a review of the Wiltern show and hopefully another for the Echoplex!

Setlist from the Bowery Ballroom:

1.Somewhat Damaged
2.The Beginning Of The End
3.Last
4.The Collector
5.Discipline
6.March Of The Pigs
7.Something I Can Never Have
8.Reptile
9.Meet Your Master
10.Banged And Blown Through
11. Burn
12. Gave Up
13. La Mer
14. Non-Entity
15. Gone, Still
16. The Downward Spiral
17. Wish
18. Heresy
19. Survivalism
20. Down In It
21. Hurt
22. The Hand That Feeds
23. Head Like a Hole

--- encore ---

24. Echoplex
25. The Good Soldier
26. Dead Souls
27. In This Twilight

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones @ The Fillmore (7/10/09)

2009-07-11T15:12:00.000-07:00

Nearly 15 years after seeing the Bosstones perform last, I was able to catch their stop at the Fillmore last night with a sold out crowd who were ready to party! And speaking of the crowd, what a great mix of people from all ages and colors! In fact, midway through the show, Dickie (the lead singer) pulled a shy 8 year old boy and his dad up to join the band on stage, which was a pretty funny moment where Dickie admitted to being one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet with one of the scariest voices you'll ever hear. A quick tidgit of info: over the past few years, Dickie has been the announcer for the Jimmy Kimmel show on ABC.

For those of you new to the Bosstones, the band's music is described as ska-core and consists of your typical guitar, bass and drums, but is also augmented with a 3-piece brass section and of course, Ben Carr, the Bosstone's dancer. Ben is absolutely amazing and makes me tired just watching him. He'll dance through the entire show, and you should see the sweat he works up!

As for last night, the band came onstage promptly at 11pm and played continuously through 'till about 12.20am where they took a quick break for Dickie to change into a dry t-shirt and then returned to the stage for 3 last songs.

The set list consisted of the following (credit due to PolarPenguin of the Bosstones boards):

The Rascal King
Devil's Night Out
Simmer Down
Jacknike
1-2-8
Na na na na na
Someday I Suppose
Let Me Be
Desmond Dekker
Rudie can't Fail
Illegal Left
Royal Oil
He's Back
Hell of a Hat
All Things Considered
Almost Anything Goes
Another Drinkin' Song
Where'd You Go
Dr. D
The Impression That I Get
Tin Soldiers

Encore:

Old School Off the Bright
Wallet
Holy Smoke

Unfortunately, the Fillmore staff were on the look-out for video tapers last night and I was stopped during both my attempts to record a couple of their songs. I haven't had a problem with this in the past, so I'm not sure if it was requested by the band or if it was just something that the Fillmore management was trying to crack down on. Either way, here are a couple of clips from the show last night.

You'll also notice that I couldn't get that steady of a shot... This wasn't because I was drunk, but because there were so many people dancing that the Fillmore floor was actually bouncing under the weight of everyone!

The Rascal King (the show opener):

The Impression That I Get:

Unfortunately, the Bosstones are only playing a handful of shows along the west coast during this swing. But they did mention that they're planning to put out a new album later this year before the holidays. So I would suspect that they'll continue to play short bursts of shows across the country when possible.

As a matter of pure chance, before the show I got to meet Dickie while we were hanging out in one of the Fillmore lounges. The picture isn't great of either one of us primarily because my camera was acting up! Dickie graciously waited for this 3rd attempt for the flash to finally go off. Clearly the camera has taken a beating during all the shows I bring it to! Anyway, here's the very bad shot of Dickie and I before the show. As he'll admit, he's one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet!

Nine Inch Nails [NIN] @ Shoreline Amphitheater, Mountain View, CA - 5/22/09

2009-05-23T22:08:00.000-07:00

For those of you who have read my older posts, you already know I'm a big fan of Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails. I've been a fan since I was 15 years old (and I'm in my 30's now), so I've lost track of the exact number of times I've seen them play live, but it's probably between 15-20 shows... Here's a few links to previous shows I've seen over the past couple of years: here, here and here.

Last night's show at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, CA has to rank up there as one of the best. Not only because of the setlist, but also because of the experience. When tickets went on sale a few months ago, I was able to score a pair of tickets in the 5th row from the stage and just about dead center, so the seats were going to be fantastic no matter what happened. Not only that, but the line-up of acts was stellar! On the bill was Tom Morello's new band, Street Sweeper Social Club, who opened the show. As an fyi, Tom Morello is the founding guitarist of Rage Against the Machine. Next up would be NIN, who were then followed by the re-united Jane's Addiction featuring the original line-up of Perry Farrell, Dave Navarro, Stephen Perkins and Eric Avery.

At least from my perspective, that's already a great evening! But a few days before the show, Trent posted a note from his Twitter account and then on the homepage of NIN.com that there would be exciting VIP opportunities available for upcoming shows. Soon after, he announced a fundraising effort for a kid who needs a heart transplant and who doesn't have any health insurance. Without insurance, he's basically been told he's shit out of luck unless he can afford to pay for the operation on his own (costing hundreds of thousands of dollars). Long story short, Trent was offering to help out by giving fans the opportunity to donate towards the cause and rewarding those who do with a VIP package for the show of their choice. Not only could we get into the show early to listen to the soundcheck, but there'd be a meet-and-greet with the band, we'd be able to watch the show from the side of the stage, and basically hang out back stage with the band and other 'VIPs'. In my mind, this was going to be money very well spent.

The experience started at 4.30 where a crowd of about 300 people lined up outside the venue and were escorted inside to watch the NIN soundcheck start promptly at 5pm. The soundcheck consisted of:

I'm Afraid of Americans
The Good Soldier
Meet Your Master
Dead Souls

It was basically a mini, semi-private concert for approx 300 donors, and unbelievably cool.

Here's the video of "I'm Afraid of Americans":

Here's the video of "Dead Souls":

After the NIN soundcheck, Street Sweeper came out for their brief soundcheck as well. Check out Tom Morello warming up those fingers:

Next up was the meet and greet. With about 300 people who donated, the line took about 45 minutes to get through, and totally worth the wait. Because of the number of people who turned out, we were asked to keep it moving and only get one item signed by the band. I'd brought a poster that I've had since around 1991 that featured the original touring line-up of Nine Inch Nails (Trent, Richard Patrick, Chris Vrenna & Jeff Ward) plus an extremely rare compilation CD featuring local Cleveland-based musicians from around the mid-80's -- several years before the formation of Nine Inch Nails. On the CD is a song from Cool Down Daddy, one of the few bands Trent played keyboards on before creating Nine Inch Nails. Trent seemed a little surprised to see both! He wasn't even quite sure when the CD was made. Considering both items didn't have anything to do with the rest of the band, I had those guys sign my ticket stub, while Trent signed the poster.

After the signing, we were whisked away for dinner backstage which was actually pretty decent. I think I had a grilled chicken breast with caramelized onions and crumbled blue cheese, some wild rice with sweet potatoes and tofu and to top it off, some 'whitetrash potatoes' which were fantastic. I'm not sure what was in them, but they were definitely good!

So as we finished dinner, Street Sweeper Social Club hit the stage and played a relatively short set. Around 20-30 minutes from what I remember. And after a brief break, Trent and co. were ready to hit the stage.

I can only assume that this is a bit of a pre-show ritual?!?

After this bit, I headed back to my seats which were going to kick ass compared to watching the show from the back/side of the stage!

Here's some video from my seat:

And a couple of photos:

The setlist for the show included:

Home
1,000,000
Terrible Lie
Discipline
March of the Pigs
Piggy
Metal
The Becoming
Burn
Gave Up
The Fragile
The Way Out is Through
Wish
Echoplex
Survivalism
The Day the World Went Away
The Hand That Feeds
Head Like a Hole
Hurt

After NIN wrapped up, I headed back to the back of the stage and hung out with a few pretty cool people including some of the guys from the band!

Here's a shot of Robin Finck (NIN guitarist) and I:

Here's a shot of Justin Meldal-Johnsen (NIN bassist) and I:

Although Perry didn't hang out too long, I was able to snap this picture of him as he got ready to hit the stage:

And later on in the night, here's a shot of Mr. Navarro and I:

Overall, the Nails performance blew away their last show at the Oakland Arena last fall. The band seemed to be having more fun onstage, and they weren't constrained by the over abundance of visuals that were included in the last 'Lights In the Sky' tour. This was a stripped-down performance that gave the band more freedom to change up the set each night. And maybe the most important part of it all... Being a part of a fan community who has been able to raise over half a million dollars for Eric De La Cruz in under a week! That's just amazing!

Dredg @ Great American Music Hall (5/19/09)

2009-05-20T19:00:00.000-07:00

Lucky for me, Dredg is a SF Bay Area based band, so over the past 7 years I've had a chance to catch these guys play a dozen or so times. Last night offered a glimpse of some of their new material from their upcoming release on June 9th. But overall, the band stuck to their hits while at the same time inviting a number of friends to perform onstage with them.

With both Torche and Judgment Day opening, Dredg didn't come onstage until 10pm, but played non-stop until 11.30. After which, the band left the stage and the house lights quickly went up.

I got to the show late, so I missed Judgment Day altogether and saw about 15 minutes of Torche which seemed to be a somewhat aggressive prog-rock instrumental 3-piece. Not too bad for an opening band.

Anyway, my video below is fairly dark, but the audio is decent enough. Check out "Jamais vu" from the show last night:

Dredg is preparing for a short European tour, but should be back in the states in July/August.

Confirmed dates so far are listed below. Be sure to check them out if they come through your city! You won't be disappointed!

Appearing with Rx Bandits and Good Old War:
Wed 07/08/09 Anaheim,CA House Of Blues

Thu 07/09/09 San Diego, CA SOMA San Diego

Fri 07/10/09 Tempe, AZ The Marquee

Sat 07/11/09 Tucson, AZ Club Congress

Sun 07/12/09 Tucson, AZ Club Congress

Tue 07/14/09 Dallas, TX Granada Theater

Wed 07/15/09 Austin, TX Emo's

Thu 07/16/09 San Antonio, TX White Rabbit

Appearing with Rx Bandits and Zechs Marquise:
Fri 07/17/09 Houston, TX The Meridian

Sat 07/18/09 New Orleans, LA House Of Blues

Mon 07/20/09 Orlando, FL Club Firestone

Wed 07/22/09 Fort Lauderdale, FL Culture Room

Thu 07/23/09 Jacksonville, FL Fire Bird

Appearing at "XPoNential Music Festival"
Fri 07/24/09 Camden, NJ Wiggins Park

Appearing with Rx Bandits and Zechs Marquise:
Fri 07/24/09 St Petersburg, FL Jannus Landing

Sat 07/25/09 Atlanta, GA The Masquerade

Sun 07/26/09 Carrboro, NC Cat's Cradle

Tue 07/28/09 Towson, MD Recher Theatre

Wed 07/29/09 Philadelphia, PA Theatre Of The Living Arts

Appearing with Rx Bandits and As Tall As Lions
Thu 07/30/09 New York, NY Fillmore New York At Irving Plaza

Appearing with Rx Bandits and Zechs Marquise
Fri 07/31/09 New York, NY Bowery Ballroom

Appearing with Rx Bandits
Sat 08/01/09 Boston, MA Paradise Rock Club

Sun 08/02/09 Montreal, QC Les Foufounes Electriques

Mon 08/03/09 Toronto, ON Opera House Concert Venue

Tue 08/11/09 Englewood, CO Gothic Theatre

Sat 08/15/09 Portland, OR Wonder Ballroom

Mon 08/17/09 Sacramento, CA Empire Events Center

Zoe Keating @ Old First Church (4/24/09)

2009-04-25T19:57:00.000-07:00

I've written about (and seen) Zoe Keating a number of times in the past, but this was the first time I've seen her perform in a more traditional classical music setting. The place, was the Old First Church on Van Ness St in San Francisco. The church is home to a massive pipe organ that dates back to 1910. Not coincidentally, Zoe had a guest with her during her performance; Charles Rus, an organist with the San Francisco Symphony joined Zoe for at least 2 or 3 pieces throughout the night.

Here's a video that I found on YouTube. The audio's not great, but it'll give you an idea of the setting:

White Lies @ Rickshaw Stop (11/1/08)

2008-11-02T15:33:00.000-08:00

Last night was my first time visiting the Rickshaw Stop to check out the 3-piece British band, White Lies. I'd first heard of them after their performance at this years' Lollapalooza in Chicago. As it turns out, the band has been busy over the summer hitting the large US/UK festivals including the Reading and Leeds festival.

Opening for White Lies was a Southern California, Costa Mesa band, Japanese Motors. These guys would have been a good college party band who had fun onstage but didn't do much to warm-up the crowd.

As for White Lies, the initial comparisons to Joy Division and Ian Curtis held true. Their darker, synth-pop-rock got the crowd dancing during the short 40 minute set that included their current single, "Death".

Here's the video for "Death":

Here's a video from their performance last night:

Unfortunately, last night was their last night in the US for a while, as they've returned to tour Europe for a bit. Be sure to check them out if and when they come to your town.

The 22nd annual Bridge School Benefit line-up announced!

2008-09-20T14:09:00.000-07:00

The 22nd annual Bridge School Benefit line-up was announced yesterday. The event will be held (as usual) at the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View, CA on Saturday & Sunday, October 25th & 26th.

Here's the line-up:

Saturday:
Neil Young
Pegi Young
~~ZZ Top (Saturday only)~~
Nora jones
Jack Johnson
Death Cab for Cutie
Wilco
Cat Power
Band of Horses (Saturday Only)
Sarah McLachlan (Saturday only)

Sunday:
Neil Young
Pegi Young
Smashing Pumpkins (Sunday only)
Nora Jones
Jack Johnson
Death Cab for Cutie
Wilco
Cat Power
Josh Grobin (Sunday only)

~~I would guess tickets will be on sale next weekend.~~

Update: Tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. Sunday at Ticketmaster outlets and the Shoreline box office, at www.livenation.com and www.ticketmaster.com, and at (408) 998-8497. Prices are $39.50 for the lawn and $75-$150 for reserved seats.

For those of you who haven't heard of the Bridge School, Neil and Pegi Young founded the school and organize the annual all-acoustic two-day concert every fall, attracting sell-out crowds to the event which supports the operations of the school. Learn more by visiting their site here.

Update #2: Due to a scheduling conflict, ZZ Top will not be able to perform. Band of Horses will be replacing ZZ Top.

Nine Inch Nails [NIN] @ the Oakland Arena (9/5/08)

2008-09-06T16:51:00.001-07:00

Trent Reznor's latest incarnation of Nine Inch Nails swung through Oakland last night with a slightly modified roster of artists joining Trent onstage from the last 'With Teeth' tour 2 years ago. Allesandro Cortini (keyboards/synths) and Josh Freese (drums) reprised their roles and Robin Finck returned to lead guitar (replacing Aaron North from the With Teeth tour) after previously playing with the band during the Self Destruct and Fragility tours in the late 90's. Robin took a break to work with Axl Rose (of Guns n Roses) on the upcoming Chinese Democracy album. The newest member, Justin Meldal-Johnsen, Beck's long-time bassist and accomplished studio musician and producer, joined the team on bass, replacing Jeordie White who left to rejoin Marilyn Manson.

The show kicked off just about 10 minutes before 9pm and continued for a solid 2 hours with songs taken from nearly 20 years of material. Classics from 1989's Pretty Hate Machine included "Terrible Lie" and "Head Like a Hole". And the radio anthem, "Closer", got the crowd into a frenzy within the first third of the show. With so much material to choose from, Trent strayed from the typical rock concert you might expect to play several arrangements from his instrumental album, Ghosts, that was released earlier this year. The slower interludes gave the crowd a chance to breathe before launching into pounding renditions of "Gave Up", "Survivalism" and the Grammy award winning "Wish".

Also noteworthy was that Trent broke from his traditional vocal, guitar and piano duties and took up the xylophone and some sort of electronic clarinet during the instrumental Ghosts songs.

Throughout the night, a massive curtain of LCD lights would descend and rise in front of the band where the light show seemed to be fairly interactive with the music being played. My clip of "Vessel" below may be the best example I was able to tape last night.

Overall, the light show was impressive but at times the curtain of lights seemed to distance the band from those of us in the audience who came to be a part of the show. And at other times, it came across as more of a performance art/concept show compared to a more traditional rock concert.

I can't help to think that I would have been blown away if the show was more focused on either Trent's rock-infused songs OR the slower tempo, semi-jazzy instrumentals. Don't get me wrong, the visuals were stunning... And if you haven't seen NIN live before, you'll still be impressed with the show. But it seemed that the combination of high/fast-tempo, balls-to-the-wall rock songs just didn't work as they were mixed up against the slower instrumentals. Don't get me wrong, it was a good show, but I've definitely seen better performances from Trent & co.

Here's somewhat of a good example with Trent playing piano on "The Frail" that leads into "Closer"... Not as drastic of a segue as other examples during the show...

Trent's performance at the Bridge School Benefit, Neil Young's all-acoustic annual festival, a couple of years ago still stands out in my memory for the complete re-interpretation of his electronic songs mixed into an avante garde performance that will go down as one of his greatest. As he tried to slip some of that inspiration into last night's set-list, it seemed to me, that it would be better off as a honed experience separate from the walls of amps found in this tour.

Here's some video I found on YouTube of the Bridge School performance:

Back to last night...

Other songs that stood out last night include the timeless "Head Like a Hole":

And the show closer, "In This Twilight", which you can possibly make out the apocalyptic city burning in the background:

The last thing I'll mention is that the crowd was mainly made up of young teenagers through people in their late 30's or so. There was also an odd smell that could have been made-up of a combination of bad pot, extremely bad body order, and beer or puke (or both) -- keep in mind I was back towards the main soundboard on the floor, well behind the pit. So I think the crowd around me were those who had escaped the pit and wanted to enjoy the lightshow with some cheap pot -- definitely not a pleasant smell for those just trying to enjoy the music!

Finally, here's the setlist from last night (thanks to the nin.com forums for keeping track of the specifics):

999,999
1,000,000
Letting You
Discipline
March of the Pigs
Head Down
The Frail
Closer
Gave Up
Corona Radiata
The Warning
Vessel
5 Ghosts I
17 Ghosts II
19 Ghosts III
Ghosts Piggy
The Greater Good
Pinion
Wish
Terrible Lie
Survivalism
The Big Come Down
31 Ghosts IV
Only
The Hand That Feeds
Head Like A Hole

Encore:

Echoplex
God Given
Hurt
In This Twilight

Crudo (featuring Mike Patton and Dan the Automator) @ The Great American Music Hall (5/22/08)

2008-05-23T07:00:00.000-07:00

When most new artists start out their career, they're usually forced to play small coffee shops or high school gymnasiums in order to build a fan base, practice in front of real audiences and hone their performances. In the case of Crudo, their very first live concert was in front of a nearly sold out audience at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco last night.

In many respects, Crudo isn't necessarily a 'new' band. The 7-piece band is led by Mike Patton who rose to fame in the late 80's with the rock group Faith No More. Patton has once-again teamed with Dan the Automator, a long-time collaborator and local DJ and hip-hop producer who's gained recent critical praise for his work. Also joining them on-stage performing human beat box, background vocals and keyboard duties was a woman who goes by Butterscotch and who's performed with one of Patton's other recent bands, Peeping Tom.

The night's performance was surprisingly tight considering again, this was their very first show. But from the sounds of it, they've been practicing quite a bit and have a fairly deep repertoire of material that they performed for the enthusiastic crowd.

Besides being Crudo's first concert last night, it seems that it was a bit of a warm-up show before heading out to perform at this weekends Sasquatch Festival at the Gorge Amphitheater in Washington state. These have been the only publicly announced tour dates so far. In fact, no news of an upcoming album has been released at this point either. So with the exception of a song, "Let's Go", that's been posted on the band's MySpace page, the majority of the songs last night were completely new to all in the audience.

If you're familiar with Mike Patton's history, you'll already know that he's somewhat difficult to describe in terms of the type of music that he's been involved with. Crudo is no exception. If you can imagine a mix of 70's funk, 80's hip-hop and a blend or traditional rock, with a sprinkling of Eminem, you'll be close to the mark of Crudo's sound.

Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me last night, so I wasn't able to grab any video of the show. But I've added "Let's Go" below. I've also found a decent video that someone else took and posted on YouTube. I've embedded the video further below.

Here's the setlist from the show. As I mentioned above, the majority of songs were new so the titles below are best guesses at the moment with the exception of the covers and "Let's Go".

Crudo Setlist:

Running with the Devil (Van Halen)
Too Many Strangers Keep Calling
This is Your Countdown
Are you Livin' in My World?
Anger Management (Why Must God Punish Me?) (Lovage)
Let's Go
Human beat box solo by Butterscotch
Make it Shine, Make it Rain
Can't Stop, Won't Stop
Are You Down With It? (Handsome Boy Modeling School)
Are We Having Fun Yet?
Pants on Fire
I'm Gonna Get Ya'

Encore:

I Am the DJ

Encore 2:

Mojo (Peeping Tom)
Life on Mars (David Bowie)

If you decide to check them out, be prepared for a fun hip-hop show and you won't be disappointed!

As I referenced above, here's "This is Your Countdown":

Dredg @ Coachella (4/26/08)

2008-05-01T07:54:00.000-07:00

OK, I'll admit that Indio, California is not located in the SF bay area, so this post is a bit of a stretch, but I couldn't resist posting the video from the full show of Dredg's performance this past weekend at the summer music festival, Coachella.

Keep in mind that the audience may not be completely made up of core dredg fans that you'd find at a normal show, but I think the video will show that they did their best to win them over!

This is the official video taken at the show (not by me!)

Be sure to check out my previous Dredg reviews by clicking the "Dredg" label below!

Jack White's 'The Raconteurs' @ Bimbo's 365 (4/23/08)

2008-04-24T07:00:00.000-07:00

Jack White's 'The Raconteurs' performed at San Francisco's Bimbo's 365 last night to a sell-out crowd made-up of what I would assume to be complete Jack White fans, or lucky ticket-buyers like me! When tickets went on-sale, they sold-out quickly and were only made available at Will-Call the night of the show. In addition, when picking up the tickets, you were forced to go directly inside the venue -- effectively limiting the opportunity to scalp or sell tickets to anyone other than the original purchaser.

Well, as I said, I was one of the lucky ones to get tickets as they went on sale. We arrived at Bimbo's just after 9pm to find that the opening band, the Birds of Avalon, were already loading up their van after their performance.

After standing in a line that extended down to the corner of the building for about 5 minutes, we made our way into the show. And after a few more minutes, The Raconteurs made their way on-stage at about 9.20pm, played for an hour and then broke for a quick break before returning to the stage to play for another 25 minutes.

For those of you who don't know the history of the band (and I'll admit that I only knew about Jack White's participation) I've copied a bit of info from Wikipedia here:

The band features four members previously known for other musical projects: Jack White (of The White Stripes), Brendan Benson (solo), Jack Lawrence (of The Greenhornes and Blanche), and Patrick Keeler (of The Greenhornes).

About the formation of the band, wikipedia states that "The seed was sown in an attic in the middle of a hot summer when friends Jack White and Brendan Benson got together and wrote a song that truly inspired them. This song was 'Steady, As She Goes' and the inspiration led to the creation of a full band with the addition of Lawrence and Keeler." The band came together in Detroit during 2005 and recorded when time allowed for the remainder of the year. Due to the various members' success in other bands, they were quickly dubbed a supergroup. The band, however, asserted they were not, saying that the term implies something pre-planned, whereas they are actually "a new band made up of old friends."

Along with the song 'Steady as She Goes', they played a host of other songs that I've included below. Unfortunately, security was pretty tight throughout the night with large signs as we entered Bimbo's about no camera phones, etc being allowed in. Typically, my video isn't great, but the video I've captured below is truly sub-par as I was trying to keep the camera hidden out of sight. That said, the audio capabilities of the camera still amaze me!

As for favorites of the night, I'd probably have to say that "Rich Kid Blues" was high on my list. Take a listen for yourself here:

Rich Kid Blues:

The Raconteurs' best known single, "Steady As She Goes" can be heard here:

Steady As She Goes:

And they ended the night with "Carolina Drama" -- at which point I got a little more ballsy with the camera and actually got slightly better video footage towards the end of the song.

Carolina Drama:

I've added two others that you might enjoy, but weren't favorites of mine. "Solute Your Solution" and "Old Enough".

Solute Your Solution:

Old Enough:

Overall, the night was a great opportunity to catch a great band in a very small venue as I'm assuming they were using the night to practice before playing the summer music festival Coachella this weekend. A larger summer tour will follow shortly thereafter.

Dredg @ The Great American Music Hall (GAMH) - (4/20/08)

2008-04-21T19:46:00.000-07:00

Sunday night shows are tough for me to attend. I'm usually drained from the weekends and I like to get a good night's sleep before kicking off the next work-week, but considering it was a Dredg show, I had to give it my best effort to attend.

Tickets didn't sell out as quickly for the concert as I had expected, and although the show was completely sold out last night, the Great American Music Hall (GAMH) didn't seem to be at full capacity. It was almost exactly a year since I last saw the band perform at the GAMH and you can check out my last review here.

In fact, I've got a number of reviews that you can check out over the past couple of years. There's a small warm-up show at the Cafe Du Nord in November '06; Another show down in Santa Cruz at the Catalyst Club; and my earliest review that I've posted to this site from a larger show at the Fillmore which was the basis of their Live CD in the Spring of '06.

Anyway, Dredg recently announced a handful of California dates in what I can assume they're using as warm-up shows for their upcoming festival performance at this year's Coachella -- one of the biggest summer music festivals in the country.

The show consisted of many of their classics, but also featured a few new songs that could potentially show-up on their upcoming album due out later this year.

I was able to capture one of their new songs right below. The video isn't great, but the audio is pretty decent.

Unlike previous shows, this was the first time I've heard the band perform a cover song -- Dave Brubeck's classic 'Take Five' which was dedicated to a friend of the band who recently died. The band was joined on stage by three 'North Beach' friends -- two on brass and a percussionist -- who led the instrumental performance. Again, the video isn't the clearest, but the audio is decent. Check out 'Take Five' here:

Lastly, I'll post Jamais Vu from the Catch Without Arms album -- their most recent studio album.

I've pulled what seems to be the complete set-list from the Dredg forums:

Canyon
Hungover
Bugeyes
Sangreal
Triangle
I Don't Know (new song)
Saviour (new song)
Same Ol' Road
(Wind)
Take 5 (Brubeck cover)
Tanbark
Sanzen
Planting Seeds
Ireland (new song)
Catch Without Arms
Noise / Experimental (new song?)
Ode to the Sun
Jamais Vu
End Up (new song)

If you're not already a fan of Dredg, check these guys out when they come to a town near you! I've got to believe that they're gaining a critical mass of fans that the labels will not be able to continue to ignore them. As I've mentioned before in earlier reviews, the labels just don't know how to market their sound -- a pseudo prog-rock, alt-metal, jam band just doesn't fit the traditional radio-friendly mold they're generally looking for.

Loop!Station & Zoe Keating plus Brad Brooks @ Red Devil Lounge (4/3/08)

2008-04-04T20:59:00.000-07:00

Zoe Keating is the Jimi Hendrix of Cello. It's as simple as that. Looping, layering, banging and slapping the instrument -- anything short of lighting it on fire! Last night I was able to catch another incredible performance while she co-headlined with Loop!Station at the Red Devil Lounge in San Francisco.

I've been a fan of Zoe for the past few years and was introduced to her back when she was a member of the transient female cello 'band', Rasputina. Breaking out on her own, she's been able to establish herself as an up-and-coming avant-garde electronic musician who happens to play one hell of a cello.

Her technique incorporates a MacBook Pro, her cello and a set of foot pedals that she uses to record pieces of her performance and then layer and build upon to create a more traditional song structure.

Completely instrumental, fairly dark and brooding, Zoe's music has been used most recently within an online photo spread of the devastating affects of pollution in China on the New York Times website and I've even seen it incorporated into a segment on PBS recently.

My videos below don't do her performance justice, but I hope you take a listen if you haven't heard or seen her play yet!

Zoe opened her set last night with one of my favorites, "Tetrishead" -- be sure to watch how she'll lay down 'piece' after 'piece' while layering and controlling or triggering the sections of the song using a foot pedal system.

Here's "Tetrishead":

Her last song of the evening was an audience request, "Legions" -- another Zoe classic!

As she left the stage, I was getting tired -- it was a school night you know! -- and I wasn't sure what to expect from the headline band, LOOP!STATION (who spell their name with the all-caps). I decided to stay for at least 15 minutes to see what they were all about... As the two-some, made up of Sam Bass on cello and female vocalist, Robin Coomer, got ready to kick off their set. The pair pulled out 4 dozen donuts to share with the crowd, or at least get them amped-up on sugar. Scoring an old fashioned glazed donut, I thought to myself that I had already made the right decision to stay a bit longer after Zoe's performance.

Looking at the duo, my expectations were still low, but at least I was liking how they were trying to score early points with the audience! The Red Devil definitely wasn't sold out last night, and it wasn't clear to me how many people came to see each of the three bands.

So far I've neglected to mention the first opener, Brad Brooks, who performed with a quirky band that consisted of another cellist, a bass player who also played some type of electronic accordion that I've never seen before and a guitarist. For the first half of Brad's set, he did double-duty playing a vintage Wurlitzer keyboard while singing his off-beat vocals. Clearly a talented musician, but it seemed that his band needed a bit more time practicing as they got stronger as the set progressed, but never seemed to be all that cohesive.

Anyway, back to LOOP!STATION, looks can definitely be deceiving as what I was expecting from the pair was completely shattered as soon as I heard their opening notes. First of all, Sam on cello is nearly as talented a musician as Zoe, but as I quickly learned, Robin can definitely belt out the notes with the best of them. Her voice reminded me of a classic jazz singer -- one of the greats like Ella Fitzgerald or Billie Holiday.

Using the same technique as Sam used with his cello, the pair each recorded pieces of their performance that were then looped and layered with the rest of each song using their sets of foot pedals. Robin created her own harmonies using the pedals and absolutely blew me away with her incredible voice. I was amazed that I hadn't heard of the pair before and am still scratching my head why these two don't have a record deal?!?

Again, my videos don't do their performance justice, but I've tried to capture how they incorporate the looping pedal system into their performance. It's easier to notice how Sam will record a piece and then add to it with another part. In "Sweeter" below, you'll see that Sam throws on some kind of effect to make his cello sound like a trumpet while his earlier cello performance is looping in the background.

Here's "Sweeter":

Another great example of their looping technique can be seen in "The Last Time I Saw You" here:

Overall, I ended up staying through their entire set which ended around 12:15 in the morning. I wasn't looking forward to work on Friday, but overall, the show was well worth the $10 cover charge for the quality of the bands last night!

Be sure to check out both Zoe Keating and LOOP!STATION if either come to your town!

Bell X1 @ Cafe Du Nord (3/26/2008)

2008-03-27T21:06:00.000-07:00

I arrived to the show last night as the opening band was kicking off their set. This was the first time I've heard of the LA-based Submarines and most likely the last. That's not to say they were bad. Not at all. They were a decent 3-piece made-up of a white male drummer with an amazing afro, a male bassist/vocalist and a female guitarist/vocalist. The 3-some reminded me of an alternative band trying too hard to be poppy. Sounding very similar to the recent Apple iPod/iPhone/Air TV commercials. The female vocalist also played what sounded like a xylophone which again reminded me of the quirky Apple music ads.

After 45 minutes, which was about 20 minutes longer than it should have been for an opening band of their caliber, they finally decided to cede command of the stage and let those in the audience clamor for the band we were all really there to see... Bell X1.

Honestly, I didn't know too much about Bell X1 before tonight's show. I knew they were an Irish rock band that was gaining popularity here in the states largely due to their recent hit single that appeared on the TV show "Grey's Anatomy". But that was about it! Here's what Wikipedia has to say about them:

"Bell X1 are an Irish rock band from North County Kildare in Ireland. They have thus far released three critically-acclaimed albums in Ireland, and are rapidly gaining success in the United States, where their music has been used on popular television shows such as The O.C. and Grey's Anatomy. Their third album, Flock, which was previously only released in Ireland and later in the UK, has recently received a North American release in February 2008."

What I can tell you now after hearing them play last night, is that they sound like a combination of Snow Patrol, The Talking Heads/David Byrne, and just a touch of VH-1's favorite, James Blunt.

Minutes before 10pm, the band came on stage and kicked their set off with the song "Bad Skin Day". The song is one of the more 'Snow Patrol'-ish of their collection. (Snow Patrol is another Irish rock band if you're not familiar with the reference.) Take a look at the video below -- it might be a bit blurry, but the sound is decent.

Bad Skin Day:

A few songs later came Bell's current single here in the US, "Rocky Took a Lover":

Soon after came the 70's struttin' "Flame" which is one of the stronger Talking Heads influenced tracks:

"Reacharound" had a brief introduction about the drummer's first visit to the US back in 1994 as an irish student shacking up with a house full of other irish -- a rite of passage for most irish kids before going to university. Here's "Reacharound" (with more Talking Heads influence):

The entire set-list looked like this:

Bad Skin Day
My First Born for a Song
Alphabet Soup
Natalie
Next to You
Rocky Took a Lover
Eve, The Apple of My Eye
Trampoline
Tongue
White Water Song
Flame

All-in-all, a great show at a tiny venue for a band that will surely see more success in the near future. Be sure to check out their website to keep up with their tour dates and if you have the chance, definitely check them out!

Filter @ Cafe Du Nord (3/3/08)

2008-03-04T22:22:00.000-08:00

Richard Patrick and company tried their hardest last night to rock the doors off the small Cafe Du Nord on Market Street in San Francisco. Patrick's reincarnation of his original band, Filter, came together after a 5 year hiatus while he joined the ex-Stone Temple Pilot DeLeo Brothers on their recent "Army of Anyone" project.

Patrick last visited SF with Army of Anyone just over a year ago when they played Slim's -- you can read my review and check out a video of "Take a Picture" here!

The Cafe Du Nord show was one of 3, very intimate west-coast club shows that Patrick was using as a warm-up before heading out on the summer festival circuit starting in a few weeks.

A local band, Cold Hot Crash, opened the night with a short 25 minute set that concluded with a classic by the punk-metal band, Helmet -- their anthem, "Unsung" -- which was a nice finishing touch to a band that reminded me most of the Foo Fighters.

After a brief 30-minute set-change, Patrick followed his bandmates onstage and kicked into high gear with a pounding rendition of "Welcome to the Fold". Considering Filter's new album, "Anthems for the Damned" is due out in May, I was expecting Patrick to play a higher percentage of new/unreleased material from the forthcoming album, but he stuck to the classics last night and only played 2 new songs; one of which can be found on their MySpace page here (at the time of this writing).

I found a copy of the San Diego setlist and from what I remember, it looks very similar to the one from last night with the notes that I've included below:

Intro
Welcome to the Fold
American Cliche
The Take (San Diego)
Where Do We Go From Here
Trip Like I Do
It's Gonna Kill Me
The Wake (San Diego)
Jurassitol
Kill the Day (San Diego)
Captain Bligh
Soldiers of Misfortune (New)
Hey Man, Nice Shot
(There was supposed to be the encore here)
Cold (skipped)
Take a Picture

Here's a nice video of their performance of their version of The Crystal Method's 'Trip Like I Do' that Filter/Richard Patrick remixed for the Spawn movie soundtrack. Here's "(Can't You) Trip Like I Do":

As you can tell from the pictures and video I shot, I was close enough to the stage to see the setlist throughout the show and noticed that 2 songs near the middle of the set were already blacked-out as the show began. I also noticed that a 3rd song was skipped that should have been part of the encore. These could have been new tracks from the new album, but I don't know for sure.

Unfortunately, there's no easy way on or off the stage at the Cafe Du Nord, so at the end of what was meant to be the 'first set', Patrick found himself and the band almost trapped on-stage -- or at least felt that it would have been too much of a hassle to jump off-stage and wade through the crowd to reach the side door, and then wade back through the crowd to get back onstage for a formal encore. So, instead of a 2-song encore, the band closed out the night with "Take a Picture".

Before breaking out into "Take a Picture", Richard explained that while he shopped the single around to potential record labels, the labels didn't understand the drastic departure from the previous harder/industrial Filter album -- and were too risk adverse to sign the band and the new album to a deal. In their minds, they wanted more of the same "Hey Man, Nice Shot" -- not all that different from the mentality of the labels today... resisting change and fighting their customers.

Here's the video for "Hey Man, Nice Shot":

Followed by the video for "Take a Picture":

Matt Nathanson @ The Fillmore (11/2/07)

2007-11-03T10:53:00.000-07:00

The summer months were not only a bit hectic for me this year, but there weren't all that many shows to get excited about either, so after a bit of a drought, I made it up to the Fillmore about a week ago to catch a rising signer-songwriter, Matt Nathanson.

The fact of the matter is that this guy has been 'rising' for at least the past 8 years. I was first turned on to Matt by a co-worker back in 1999 when Matt was playing local SF Bay Area coffee shops. Over the years, he's been steadily growing his fan base and either opening for bigger and bigger names, or headlining bigger and bigger venues. Last night was by far his biggest headlining venue that I've seen him perform at so far -- with a sell-out crowd none-the-less!

Over the years, Matt's been over shadowed by the likes of David Gray and John Mayer, but at least in my opinion, Matt's day as a full-blown pop-rock star are coming close at hand. The crowd at the Fillmore was a strange mix of 15 year old girl groupies, young gay/lesbian couples, young professionals, and then a random grouping of 40/50 year olds -- perhaps the teenage crowd's parents?

Opening the show was Ingrid Michaelson who was pretty entertaining and had a voice that reminded me a bit of Tori Amos, but her lyrics were definitely not as emotionally acute as Tori's. Next up was a four (or was it a five) piece band that was ultra poppy -- Melee -- I listened for about 10 minutes and thought my time was better spent seated at the bar instead of listening to these guys. They were fine performers, but just not my cup of tea.

So one thing I have to say about Matt, is that he talks. He talks a lot in between songs. He likes to go off in little tangents. And he loves to reference classic late-80's rock songs. This time, he even broke out into a classic Whitesnake song, "Here I Go Again", one of my personal favorites -- not to mention my very first live concert (Whitesnake at the Spectrum 4/14/90, with Steve Vai on lead guitar & Bad English as the opening band!) Anyway, this was one heck of a crowd pleaser as it became a huge sign-along between Matt & the audience.

Later in the show, Matt once again felt his roots and broke out into some Journey, check out the video:

Overall, a fun show if you're looking for a good date-concert. Matt's a riot and a fun performer to see live.

Bustle In Your Hedgerow at the Independent (5/11/07)

2007-05-12T10:19:00.000-07:00

A couple of months ago I got a call from my college buddy saying 'Kev, you gotta check these guys out!' The guys he told me about are, Bustle In Your Hedgerow, a 'super-group' jam-band that only play instrumental Led Zeppelin songs. The band consists of Marco Benevento on the Hammond organ, Joe Russo on drums, Ween's Dave Driewitz on bass and Scott Metzger on guitar. Benevento & Russo normally play jazzy rock instrumentals and go by "The Duo" when they're off on their own.

Expecting the show would sell out quickly, I bought tix when they went on sale. Oddly though, tickets were still available even as close to a few days before the show; but they eventually sold out by show-time last night. Only a few weeks after I bought tickets, I found out that Porcupine Tree would be playing the same night, but having just recently seen Blackfield (a Porcupine Tree off-shoot -- see review here) I wasn't too worried about skipping the Porcupine show.

So first up was a five-piece all female band called "Rocket" -- in your mind, think 'the Bangles on steroids'. These ladies rocked and had a blast doing it! After a relatively quick 30-minute set, it was time to get ready to get the Led out!

The lads came on stage just after 10.30pm and kick started into a 'best of' collection of Zeppelin songs. The crowd went wild and quickly plumes of smoke made the Independent look as if someone had turned on a smoke machine. A guy standing next to me tapped my shoulder and asked for rolling papers -- unfortunately, i was all out at the time! ;) Why is it that weed and jam bands go hand-in-hand?

Anyway, I was able to capture "Kashmir" and "Communication Breakdown" that I've added below. This is definitely a fun show if they come through your town. If you even mildly like Zeppelin, check these guys out -- and don't forget your rolling papers!

Kashmir:

Communication Breakdown:

Aqualung @ the Fillmore (5/10/07)

2007-05-12T01:00:00.000-07:00

What makes a decent singer songwriter stand out from the rest? That was the question running through my mind running up to the Aqualung show last night at the Fillmore... Let me take a step back and say that I didn't go to the show as a big fan of Aqualung -- I got a last-minute invite from a friend who got stuck with an extra ticket, so I jumped at the chance to catch a show since's it's been a few weeks since seeing Dredg (see review below!). When asked, I'll admit that I was vaguely familiar with Aqualung -- although I was initially thinking Aqualung was a full band; turns out that Aqualung is one guy, Matt Hales of England, and tours with a full band, but goes by the studio name of Aqualung when he releases CDs.

I checked out his MySpace page (here) to get a little more familiar with his material before heading to the show and got myself ready for a nice batch of catchy piano-rock ballads... That brings me back to my initial question -- just what makes a decent singer songwriter stand out from the pack?

There's John Mayer with his bluesy guitar and unique voice, and a few years back David Gray was big with his catchy Babylon song. Back then, it was Gray's unique voice, catchy riffs and an extra little spice with some electronic beats in the background that he'd throw-in.

But in today's landscape, who really stands out from the pack? You need to be featured on Scrubs or The OC if you're trying to make a name for yourself as a singer songwriter!

I'm not trying to take anything away from Aqualung. Overall, he and his band were decent! Definitely a talented bunch. Listen for yourself with these videos from the show below. The video is crap due to the fact that the Fillmore was only about a third full, so the staff could easily see my camera recording with the display turned on... Anyway, the audio's excellent and should give you a taste of what Aqualung sounded like last night!

If you like what you hear, be sure to check out the rest of Aqualung's stuff! I'd also recommend two other singer songwriters who deserve more attention if you're into Aqualung. They are:

Matt Nathanson & Cary Brothers -- take a listen to these guys too.

Enjoy!

Dredg @ the Great American Music Hall (4/7/07)

2007-04-08T20:57:00.000-07:00

The Easter Bunny came early this year with two great shows this Easter weekend. The first (Mew) I wrote about yesterday (see below or click here for the brief review.) The second show was at the Great American Music Hall in downtown San Francisco last night and featured a band that I've written about numerous times in the past -- like here and here and here... Dredg.

Dredg was playing the second of a two night set. The previous night the band played at San Francisco's Slim's, which is a great venue but unfortunately it was the same night as the Mew concert. Otherwise I would have most likely have tried to see both shows... Yeah, Dredg is that good!

Here's the first of three videos I captured last night -- the song is "Push Away":

The Great American was jammed with people -- as I expected for this sold out show -- and the band didn't disappoint, as usual! Mainly keeping focused on previously released material throughout the night, the band did play a few new tracks -- like Push Away (above).

Here's a classic, "Tanbark":

And another goodie, "Ode to the Sun":

The band was joined by two horn players for about 4 songs during their set along with a cool rendition of Happy Birthday for a girl in the crowd. Gavin (the lead singer) mentioned that he had just met the horn players in North Beach only a week earlier... Here's the best video clip of the night. Dredg's "Symbol Song":

I can't stress enough that you should give these guys a listen. They're more than deserving and have gotta break out one of these days!

Mew @ The Fillmore (4/6/07)

2007-04-07T11:26:00.000-07:00

Wow! What a fun show last night at the Fillmore! The evening kicked off with the opener, Oh No! Oh My!, coming on stage at 9pm to a half-empty Fillmore. As far as opening bands go, these guys weren't bad at all. In fact, they reminded me of the bands "Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah!", "Arcade Fire" or "Wolf Parade" -- all of which I would recommend over Oh No! Oh My!, but as I said at the start of this, they weren't bad as far as opening bands go!

After about a 40 minute set, it was time to prepare for Mew!

So Mew's been around since the late '90's and originated in Denmark which is where they're most popular. They've started to get a little more critical acclaim here in the states, and I can only think that these guys will break out at some point over the next several years.

To give you some idea of what they sound like, think of a combination between Pink Floyd and Radiohead... Here's video of their song "156" taken from the show last night. As you see, the video starts out a little dark, but give it a minute or two and you'll get an idea of what the show was like last night... as a hint, I'll mention COOL VISUALS!

As the video shows, the visuals added quite a bit to the performance last night. Some very trippy clips seemed to add quite a bit to the near 75 minute show. I strongly recommend checking out their album and if they come to your town, get tickets early! It was only a fluke that the show didn't sell out last night although it did start to fill up by the time Mew went on -- around 10.20pm.

Stay tuned, another review will be posted soon from tonight's Dredg concert at the Great American Music Hall. Hope you can make it!