The Shins were awesome. I expected no less. They played a couple of great sets and for nearly two hours. I was reminded today by my brother that I was actually supposed to see them at some point in the recent past*, but I was unable to go because of a death in my wife's family. Thanks to this unread by anyone else blog, I have a record of this. It was in March 2007.

*Actually, what he asked me was if the Shins were better than the last time we saw them and a very confusing conversation ensued, as I've never seen them before.

[Photo appears courtesy of Picasa/Leslie (whoever she is, she really like some awesome music)]
First, I'm really disappointed that I forgot my camera again. There were a couple of really solid Kodak moments, including the heavyset bitch who turned around and actually asked me and my friends to keep it down, like we were at the opera or in the viewing room for a neurosurgical procedure. Needless to say, we began to get into it a little bit and I told her she needed to cool it. And then after we were finished arguing, I had a "jerk store" moment where I realized I should have told her to tell her cats about the mean man at the concert that made her sad. But the moment was gone, and I spent quite a while loudly making fun of her while standing right behind her, so all wasn't lost.*

*Am I crazy? Is it ridiculous that someone would do this? Especially back at the bar, which is where people go at a concert when they want to talk and listen to the band play?

Second, Terminal 5: not a really amazing venue. They probably could have put a little money into the place when they decided they'd be converting it to a concert venue. I guess it looks a lot like the Hammerstein Ballroom or Irving Plaza.

Also, we spent the concert standing by the bar in the back. During the encore, there's a little commotion behind us from the bartenders. Turns out, they were taking bets on two couples that were really going at it at the back of the room. It was a total "I think he's going to pork her, Dad" moment. One of the guys looked like he was actually going to unhinge his jaw and put his date's whole head into his mouth. These are the kinds of things that need to be recorded for posterity.

Anyway, good times were had by all.

Labels: live music, The Shins

I'm going to see Van Morrison tonight at the brand-spanking-new Beacon Theater. This is very exciting, as Van will be playing Astral Weeks from front to end. He will also be playing another set of rarely heard songs (this per the Beacon Theater website). I'm also a little geeked out to see the Beacon renovation. It's an amazing venue.

Also, I'll be heading down to New Orleans on Sunday for a conference and have plans to eat my way through the city. I haven't been to New Orleans since 2003, so I'm excited to get down there. I've never been down there in a professional capacity, so I'll need to make an effort to keep my unslakable thirst for beads in check.

Labels: live music, New Orleans, Van Morrison

... I'll be going to this tonight.

Labels: Huey Lewis, live music

We caught Journey, Heart and Cheap Trick at Jones Beach last night. We ended up with outstanding seats as well, thanks to my sister, who still has contacts with their booking agent. These wound up being in the rear orchestra, about four rows deep.

Anyway, Journey was moderately disappointing, until they blew it out with "Wheel In The Sky" and then hooked up ridiculous versions of "Don't Stop Believin'" and "Separate Ways." They've got this new lead singer, who looks a little like Steve Perry, except that he's Filipino and probably 9 inches shorter. But he also sounds exactly like him, which I think is even crazier.

For me, Heart stole the show with their stripped down version of "These Dreams," which is absolutely my favorite song by them.

Very good times.

Labels: Cheap Trick, Heart, Journey, live music

Radiohead is awesome.

The Roots are awesome.

Kings of Leon are awesome.

That is all.

Labels: All Points West, live music

[picture courtesy Randy Levine]

Just wanted to blog quickly that they show was great. Bill Janovitz (pictured above) hasn't lost a step. He's an energetic performer and a very skilled guitarist. The band was everything that I'd remembered them to be and the new tracks sounded great as well.

Labels: Buffalo Tom, live music

Tonight I'm going to the Bowery Ballroom to see Buffalo Tom live. I'm pretty excited about it. Despite being from Boston, the guys have been among my favorite bands for many years. I saw them live back in 2002 in Cambridge at TT the Bear, and they played their album Big Red Letter Day, in its entirety and played the songs in the order in which they appeared on the album. TT the Bear is a tiny venue, smaller even than the Bowery Ballroom, so I was about 10 feet from them.

Here's a clip of them on the old syndicated Jon Stewart Show playing "Summer" from their album Sleepy-Eyed:



As for Big Red Letter Day, the upcoming YPR book has an essay about this album. That should whet your appetite a little bit. But probably not.

Labels: Buffalo Tom, live music

Have you seen this?

It's by an Aussie band called Sick Puppies that will be headlining an event at Crash Mansion downtown this Saturday night. The video is brilliant and smart and funny, and I hate them because I'm jealous that I didn't think of it first.

Labels: Australia, live music, Sick Puppies

Anyone else think that the Shins are among the best bands making music today? I'm in the process of ingesting their most recent album, Wincing the Night Away. It's good, but thus far, I'd still place it third behind Chutes Too Narrow and Oh, Inverted World in that order. It's a great album and I assume that I'll just need a little more time listening to it to figure out where it belongs in the hierarchy of their albums.

They descend upon New York City in 3 weeks and yours truly will be in the audience. The seats that I got aren't great, because I was at the vet with my dog for a 10am appointment (tickets went on sale at 11am) and she didn't actually get around to my appointment until 10:45am. By the time I got home, it was almost 11:30am and the best seats that I could get were in the rafters. Whatever. They're in the theater and that's all that matters.

Labels: live music, The Shins

Last night, SuperDiamond came to Irving Plaza, so we headed down there to catch the show. We were really lucky because we knew the manager of the venue, so she hooked us up with free tickets, VIP passes and some drink tickets. The whole night was essentially gratis, which automatically makes things awesome. What's better than free stuff? Sexual intercourse, perhaps, and that's never free. I'm a little annoyed that I didn't bring my camera, so I don't have any pictures of us enjoying the band or the venue, which is one of the better places to see a concert in the city. We were told that 1100 people were there last night, but it didn't feel that crowded, not on the floor or upstairs.

I've seen these guys 11 times before, so there were no surprises. The band still rocks pretty hard, which is weird because they're playing Neil Diamond tunes. They play pretty much everything, including songs that you wouldn't necessarily know that he wrote unless you're a fan. On this dozenth (is this a word?) time, it was still extremely enjoyable. I was there with a dude who dives with sharks, and he called it "intense," which seems weird because he described diving with sharks as "fun times."

Labels: live music, SuperDiamond