concert

Whatcha Whatcha Whatcha Want?

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Red Rocks Couple

Caught a great Beastie Boys show at Red Rocks last night. I was pretty impressed with the whole crew but it was Mix Master Mike that blew me out of the water. He made each of their songs sound brand spankin’ new. Even instantly recognized songs like “No Sleep Till Brooklyn” were reworked with different beats to create a song that was fresh yet familiar. You can tell the boys were having a lot of fun and relishing their time on stage and that can really make or break a show to me.

Sunset At Redrocks

Whatcha Want

I also forgot to mention I was in Salt Lake last week for business and got to stay at the wonderful Snowbird Cliff Lodge. I also made my first ever visit to an Ikea store. To describe it in a word – overwhelming.

Manu Chao At Red Rocks

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About a month ago I was giving my girlfriend a hard time about never taking me out on a date. Well it turns out that she actually took my pestering to heart. I’m surprised she bit, I was really just needling her, trying to get a rise out of her. (Wow there was a lot of slang in that last sentence) Because of my prodding, she surprised me by taking me to my first Red Rocks show of the summer.

Gogol Bordello opened up for Manu Chao (I love his crazy website). Both shows were really good. I really want to see Gogol Bordello at a smaller venue but I couldn’t imagine Manu Chao in a small setting, he feeds off the audience and the crowd feeds off of him in return. It just wouldn’t have been the same in an “intimate setting”. I hadn’t heard of Manu Chao until a couple of weeks before the show, so his whole thing was totally new to me. I was even more shocked to learn he is one of the worlds best selling artists.

Man, what energy! Him and his band ended up doing something like four encores, and the stage nearly got rushed during one of them. Manu sings in French, Spanish, Arabic, Galician, Portuguese, English, and Wolof, and he’s often mixing them in the same song. His sound is a strange crossbreed of reggae infused with UK punk (The Clash) with hints of salsa, raï, ska and good old rock and roll sprinkled throughout.

Unfortunately I missed a half of Gogol Bordello’s set while helping my brother finish a flask of Southern Discomfort in the parking lot before the show. Oh well. Next time.

If you’re interested in more cause=time has a great review of the show in addition to some bootleg mp3s. There is another (Romanian) review of the Red Rocks show on this blog. There are some great photos of the show to be found on Flickr too. Below you’ll find a couple Manu Chao songs to listen to (and download) if I have piqued your interest.

Manu Chao – Me Gustas Tu
Manu Chao – Welcome To Tijuana

Freakshow

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My weekend started off with a Colonel Claypool’s Bucket of Bernie Brains, a super band consisting of Les Claypool (Primus), Brain (Praxis), Buckethead (Guns N Roses), and Bernie Worrell (Parliament Funkadelic). The show was great, they played a really long session, had some wonderful solos, a couple of good covers and it was basically a full-on freak show. I went with A.P., my bro, Pandy, and a bunch of friends and I think we all had a blast. Opening the show was Gabbylala. She put on a great show playing all kinds of instruments; look for her album in 2005.

I slept in on Saturday consisted of yard work (raking leaves) and lazing around. I am still on the verge of a cold so I went to sleep early. By the way, that new doublemelt pizza thing from Dominoes is disgusting. Don’t try it. The chicken kickers, however, are wonderful.

On Sunday I ran a bunch of errands and then we had a pumpkin carving party. The weather was perfect to sit in the backyard with all the leaves falling around us making jack-o-lanterns. It was tons-o-fun and we have a whole bunch of freshly roasted and liberally salted pumpkin seeds to boot.

Spilt Milk

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Did you know that Frank Black broke up the Pixies via a fax? That’s fucking brilliant. I wish I broke up with my exes via a fax. Why didn’t I think of that. Oh yeah, cause I always the one getting dumped.

The Pixies show last night pretty much kicked ass. Watching a show at Magnus Arena is pretty much like watching a show in a large tin box, thus, it’s like listening to a show in a large tin box. Sound quality left something to be desired. I saw Jane’s Addiction there before and didn’t notice the sound, but it was Jane’s addiction, and it was Halloween, and it was my birthday – I probably didn’t notice much of anything. Despite being inside a giant Altoids container the sound was decent. It was loud. Just like it should be. And they Pixies put on one hell of a rocking show (or rawking is how I think the kids are spelling it these days).

They must have played for about an hour and a half and played 20+ songs. I don’t have a set list but I knew most of the songs they played. Apparently they played everything everybody wanted to hear. But Tony’s Theme. Honestly I wasn’t that familiar with the Pixies before this summer so I feel like I’ve really been invited to sit at the same table as the cool kids now. God I hope I don’t spill my milk.

I Am Republic Plaza

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The I Am The World Trade Center show last night was really enjoyable. The opening bands were the local The Very Hush Hush who were just ok. Nothing special really and they only played like 3 songs. The other opener was Paper Lions, they were pretty good, great rhythm (bass and drums) section. They sounded a bit like The Clash to me. You can listen to their entire album at there website if you’re interested. I Am The World Trade Center played a great set. They claimed the altitude here pooped them out but they danced through the entire night. They did a partial cover of Berlin’s “Metro”, a great cover of the Human League’s “Don’t You Want Me” (a song near and dear to my heart – the album isn’t released yet but you can listen to it here) and for the encore they did a cover of New Order’s “Bizarre Love Triangle” at my screamed out request. I got to the lounge early hoping that it might actually start at a decent time. Unfortunately there was two opening bands and they didn’t even get on stage till 11:30. This, combined with hanging out with Dan and Amy and drinking beer all night. They are super smart (Dan’s an engineer and Amy is getting her masters in costume history and teaches at the University of Georgia) and a fun couple to be around and I was glad I got a chance to meet them. It was a fun night over all. I just can’t handle going out till 2:30 a.m. on weeknights anymore. I’m exhausted.

KHUBS Radio And Azure Ray

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I saw Azure Ray for the first time by mistake. A few years Ago I was going went to see Bright Eyes play at the Paramount and Azure Ray opened up for them. I was so pleasantly surprised by them that I ended up enjoying their performance more than the one I bought the ticket for. I bought the self-titled CD that night from Maria Taylor as she was working the merch table. I was pleasantly surprised to find out they sounded better live than on the CD (despite Conor Oberst’s crazy vibrato mucking things up in the background on a couple of songs). The women of Azure Ray have those sweet whispery female vocals that I’m a complete sucker for. And although their voices are breathy and sexy, their songs are so goddamn sad it feels like a punch in the gut. On KHUBS Radio I put Azure Ray’s entire first self-titled full length album (songs #01-11), the entire November EP (songs #12-17), one song (#18) off of the Burn And Shiver Album, and two songs (#19-20) off the most recent Hold On Love album. Enjoy.
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Mates Of State

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Saturday night, after nursing my hangover all afternoon, I went to my old roommate’s engagement party. It was pretty fun, but nothing too exciting. The usual crowd was there. I got to see the Rod family’s new house, it was really cute and I’m sure I’ll be spending plenty of time in their backyard this summer. Congratulations to the newly engaged couple, you’re very good together. I wish the both of you a lifetime of happiness together, you both deserve it. After a couple of hours of catching up with friends and giving my congrats, I went to go see Rainer Maria and Mates Of State at the Bluebird Theatre. I really like Rainer Maria and I own all their albums, but I went to the show to see Mates Of State. The show was great. I just love Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel’s songs, lyrics and harmonies (I own all their albums too, and a couple of 7″). It is best to see them live. It is just the two of them on stage. Knowing they are married and loving every minute of it. They constantly look at each other, sing to each other, and croon each other throughout the entire show. It is no secret that many of their songs are written about their relationship and it really comes across on stage. At one point I saw Kori mouth the words “I Love You” across the stage to Jason. Seeing them play was truly an inspiration and it absolutely made my day. Plus I have a true celebrity crush on Kori now.

You can watch a video filmed at Emos in Austin Texas here.

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