Gigs, Concerts, and Other Live Performances

[Chienfantome]

Exactly, during some concerts, I like it when the artist interact with the crowd, but this time with Sigur Ros, it felt right that they stayed in their performance and not break their universe by talking to us. Really a great show.

Primavera, well, there's enough bands and artists to fill a year of concerts there !

[silversurfer19]

I went to Primavera about 7 years ago. It was great, but the biggest problem was the scheduling. First off, so many great bands clash with each other, I mean, they should really have tried to make sure bands from similar genres did not clash. Secondly, and more importantly for me, was the timing. The bands don't start until 6pm and carry on until 6am. Most of the headliners start around 11 or 12 if I remember correctly, but a lot of them start at 2am too. And there were still lots of bands I wanted to see that began their sets at 4am. For one night that would be fine. But for a few and considering it's in Barcelona so you want to actually spend your time doing things during the day and actually having a holiday, it gets very draining. Maybe they've changed that, but if not, that was one of the few downsides to a great festival.

Would love to see Sigur Ros live, I imagine it would be magical.

Gah! I did it. I looked at the line-up and now want to go!

[numbersix]

Hah, that was the plan.

But they still have the same schedules, starting at 6pm and finishing around 4am. But to be honest, that's representative of all nightlife in Spain, so you just have to sleep in during the mornings. It's a tough life....

[Geezer]

So, I might be taking a six hour drive to Quebec this summer...

The lineup for the Amnesia Rock Fest has been released, and it's basically every band that I love all in one show. I feel if I don't go, I'll regret it for the rest of my life. Just looking at this list I can't decide whether I'm going to have an orgasm or cry tears of joy. Maybe both at the same time:

http://www.pnrockfest.com/en/2013-lineup/

[transformers2]

So, I might be taking a six hour drive to Quebec this summer...

The lineup for the Amnesia Rock Fest has been released, and it's basically every band that I love all in one show. I feel if I don't go, I'll regret it for the rest of my life. Just looking at this list I can't decide whether I'm going to have an orgasm or cry tears of joy. Maybe both at the same time:

http://www.pnrockfest.com/en/2013-lineup/

Shit that's a really good lineup, I may have to join you!

[Geezer]

Dude, if you do end up making the trip, we'll have to camp out together!

[Buscemi]

So I got to see Weird Al Yankovic last night. It was a great show with lots of props, costume changes and flashing lights. During the costume changes, you got to see a lot of different appearances of Al in film, Al TV segments, references to Al on television and a hilarious fake movie trailer called Weird (starring Aaron Paul and Olivia Wilde). And Al performed his two Star Wars songs for the encore (of which Darth Vader showed up).

Before the gates opened, some religious zealot was yelling this doomsday crap to the people in line. A bunch of us (myself included) heckled the guy and one person even managed to stop him.

[Geezer]

Saw three bands last night.

Opening up was Off With Their Heads, the band I was mainly there for. This is the same band I saw in a basement with 42 people in attendance and have fallen in love with ever since. You'll recall their album "In Desolation" was on my countdown. Their new album, "Home" is absolutely fantastic, and half their set was off of that. This band is going places. Here's a cut:



The tour's second act is usually Bayside, who I don't care for, so I'm glad they weren't playing this date. Taking their place was Into It Over It. I hadn't heard of them, but they were good. I'll probably look into them further.

The headliner was Alkaline Trio, who was awesome as usual, though they played kind of an odd set. They just put out a new album also, which is great and they played a few songs off of that which I expected. But most of the rest of their set consisted of songs they don't usually play, leaving off the more familiar tracks, which was kinda cool.

Great night overall!

[Geezer]

Last night I had the pleasure of seeing The Menzingers live for the first time in a packed Middle East club basement (capacity 575) with Fake Problems, Restorations and Captain We're Sinking. Easily one of the top 5 best shows I have ever been to.

Of the three openers, I knew very little, but they all brought something to the table. Captain, We're Sinking was probably my favorite of the three even though Fake Problems got the biggest crowd reaction.

But then The Menzingers came on and it just rocked. A truly awesome crowd which is essential for any punk show. Tom May jumping into the crowd from the opening chords of their first song, Obituaries, just set the tone for the entire set, which was near perfect, covering almost all of On The Impossible Past, as well as several of their older material (only a couple songs they didn't play that I'd have liked, but they can't play forever!) and closing with covers from the Lawrence Arms and an awesome cover of Smashing Pumpkins Bullet With Butterfly Wings.

My voice is gone, I'm bruised and battered, and I wouldn't have it any other way. The Menzingers are on the list of bands I will never miss if they come within driving distance from here on out.

[numbersix]

Just finished attending Primavera Sound in Barcelona. Brilliant, but exhausting. Really crowded, through. Highlights were Nick Cave (who played Stagger Lee while crawling over the audience), Swans (an intense 2-hour set), Grizzly Bear, Savages (a new and very promising act), Thee Oh Sees, and The Jesus and Mary Chain.

[silversurfer19]

Ah, gigs, I remember thee... Would be cool to see The Menzingers, definitely one of the better punk bands of recent years and I liked their last record. Wish I could have gone to the Primavera festival too, the opportunity to see JAMC would have been amazing, and I've heard nothing but good things about Savages too, will have to check out their record.

[silversurfer19]

In follow up I've been listening to the Savages record a lot over the last day, fantastic record, kind of like a mix between Siouxie, PJ Harvey, YYYs and Sleigh Bells. Great stuff, and adds to the list of fantastic records released this year, which is ridiculously high already, we're only at June!

[Chienfantome]

This week I went to see Sixto "Sugar Man" Rodriguez perform in Paris. It was to be the gig of the year for me, because "Sugar Man" is such a marvelous film, and Rodriguez' story a fantastic one.
And it the end it was one of the strangest gigs I ever attended. Rodriguez is now an old man, without the physical condition required to tour and perform. He's almost blind, has almost lost his voice... Musically, it was very fragile, sometimes bad. And yet the audience cheered more and more, pushing the guy to his limits so he could enjoy the success he never had outside South Africa.
Rodriguez came to Paris in 2009, and he only managed to attract 50 people to his concert which was a gigantic flop. This time, he filled 3 gigs, attacting more than 10,000 people.

[Geezer]

Last night I had the pleasure, the privilege, the utmost joy of seeing Laura Jane Grace sing the Transgender Dysphoria Blues in a small club in Boston. It was a solo acoustic show, featuring most of Against Me!'s new unreleased album, plus a lot of old stuff that I've never seen them play live before. It was one of the greatest nights of my life. She's such a phenomenal artist. And the best part is that I'm going again tomorrow in Providence, RI. Only 6 shows on the tour and I'm lucky enough to go to two of them. Here's a taste of some of the new stuff, from the 2 song acoustic EP they released recently:

[numbersix]

So she's the singer for Against Me, right, the one who changed gender? That's pretty wild, perhaps too rock-n-roll for some. Do you think this will affect the fanbase much?

I remember as a teen there was this Brit-pop band called Ocean Colour Scene who were big, nearly the next Oasis, and then the lead singer came out of the closet, and the fans deserted them.