Neil Finn, hundreds of amazing songs into his career.
Crowded House is a band with only two real American “hits.” But don’t be fooled by that. If you go see Crowded House live, you’d better be ready to sing. And although your less astute friends will assume the loudest singing will be for “Don’t Dream It’s Over,” the band’s biggest U.S. hit, those same friends will wonder what the heck this “You always take the weather with you” song is about. Congratulations, singer! You’re the smart one. [read the whole post]
This is They Might Be Giants with confetti, but not all that much, really. See inside for details.
If I had to give a title to this review, apart from the boring, SEO-friendly titles we always use here, it would be “They Might Be Giants vs. The Napa Uptown Theatre.” I think that the band started the show really loving the beautifully restored theater, but by the end of the performance, I feel like there may have been some antagonism between the two. Was this an actual fight? Or merely a love-fest in disguise? It was a bit hard to tell. [read the whole post]
No photos allowed, and it was really dark anyway, so I instead bring you a picture of Michael Pare from Streets of Fire. That's what Brandon looked like.
Not only did Brandon Flowers look like Michael Pare from music-nerd-must-see Streets of Fire (not the leather jacket look but the suspenders look), but the music was reminiscent of that film as well. All tales of rock n’ roll bleeding hearts and people down on their luck, but with occasional rousing singalong moments, the new material from Brandon Flowers is close enough to The Killers’ own tunes to make me wonder why the solo album was necessary. He’s always been the center of attention of that band, so that can’t be the motivation. So it must have been musical in nature. I just didn’t hear enough to know what makes this difference. Perhaps if he had played longer. [read the whole post]
Yes, I'm looking at you.
At one point late in the Silversun Pickups set at The Fox Oakland, lead singer Brian Aubert started listing off all of the Bay Area venues they had played: Rickshaw Stop, The Fillmore, Bimbo’s, Cafe Du Nord, Bottom of the Hill (this one got the biggest applause), BFD, Outside Lands. They’ve been here a lot. Because of this, it’s a bit of a surprise that it took them nearly 18 months after the release of their last album, Swoon, to finally play a headlining show in the Bay Area. So, was it worth the wait? [read the whole post]
He's 62, still rocks hard, looks great, why retire, Rudolf? Why?
The Scorpions are too famous for their giant hit song, “Rock You Like a Hurricane,” and not well respected enough for their rest of their catalog. Filled with shiny gems of pop metal, the German legends have a huge list of hard-but-not-too-hard rock songs to choose from as they continue touring for the last time. They’ve said the tour will run through 2012 or 2013, so whether this is their last stop in the Bay Area or not is still a question. If it’s not, though, you’ll see me in the audience for the next one. These guys still have their stingers. [read the whole post]
Which one's Henry?
When I called The Henry Clay People for an interview, lead singer and lyricist Joey Siara was driving the band through Oregon, on their way to another gig with Silversun Pickups and Against Me. I did my day job proud and made sure Joey was wearing a headset before continuing with the interview, making this Joey’s first interview given while driving, dialing up the degree of difficulty a bit. While we later got into detail on the life of an opening band, I started where a lot of interviews start: with the name.
About the name of the band, named after 19th century politician Henry Clay. Of all the obscure 19th century politicians, why him?
[read the whole post]
