The "no camera" policy leads to another subpar phone-taken photo, this time of Rooney.
A collection of pop bands came to Slim’s on Sunday night to rock out in front of a small but extremely enthusiastic crowd, comprising mostly young women excited to see one of their favorite bands. Personally, I was drawn to the show by the appearance of Tally Hall, but was looking forward to a full Rooney set, having only seen them as an opener before. I didn’t know an important thing about them, though, which explains a lot. Continue reading “Show Review: Rooney with Tally Hall and The Crash Kings at Slim’s, 11/29/09”
There’s nothing like a sexy party to work off Thanksgiving Dinner, and anyone that was smart enough to not go shopping was at the biggest sexy party in town. We had Wallpaper, Oakland’s synth funk wunderkinds, we had Amanda Blank, Philly’s naughty synth-hop diva, and the queen of raunch, Peaches, to show the kids how it’s done. (Hopefully with a condom.)
One step into the Grand Ballroom at the Regency Center was likely to put the average concertgoer into a state of confusion and alarm. Aside from an abnormally high amount of snarling metalheads and angry-looking punks, the walls, floors, and stage monitors were covered with plastic wrap. The security guards for the night were dressed in raincoats and the photographers had bags wrapped around their cameras. Most of the crowd was dressed in white shirts, a stark contrast to the usual sea of black encountered so often amongst metal fans. What could possibly be coming? A monsoon? The destruction of the ceiling? Of course, to the average goer to this particular concert, it heralded only one very important fact: GWAR had returned to San Francisco.
then I let go of everything... into another dimension
The year is drawing to a close for everyone, including for Oakland’s historic Fox Theater. It seems only fitting that one of the biggest surprises and best new venues (OK, I’m biased, I work there, but if you’ve been there, you know what I mean) in the Bay Area should have some kind of colossal show to end the concert season. Something to go out with a bang, you know? As it just so happens, the Bay Area was greeted with an excellent one-two-three punch this evening, in the form of London rock troupe thenewno2 and Ohioan blues-rockers Heartless Bastards opening for the Australian arena-rock juggernaut that is Wolfmother.
I was not really in the mood for a show on Thursday night. I had worked overtime, was feeling grouchy, and as a result was thinking of ways to back out of going to the Rickshaw Stop to see Neon Indian.
There have been a few “supergroups” that came and went in the last few years, many formed from the remnants of the grunge generation looking to try out new sounds, such as Army Of Anyone (the members of Stone Temple Pilots headed by Richard Patrick of Filter), Audioslave (the members of Rage Against The Machine headed by Chris Cornell of Soundgarden), or Velvet Revolver (Scott Weiland of the aforementioned STP fronting the remaining members of Guns N’ Roses). While all of the records are excellent in theory, in execution they don’t always live up to the names of the musicians writing the music on the records. The kind of supergroup that is likely to TRULY break the mold is one spanning multiple generations of music. In the case of Them Crooked Vultures, it’s three generations: the stoner-groove-rock of the 2000’s, the solid, angry blues-grunge of the 90’s, and the arena-level rock-n’-roll of the ’70s. Of course, these three genres would make sense, given that Them Crooked Vultures is composed of Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age / Kyuss), Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters / Nirvana), and John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin).
Somewhere in Los Angeles today, They Might Be Giants are playing a show at which they’ll play Flood in its entirety. Shows where bands play the entire album are a bit boring because you know exactly what’s coming next, and most of the fun of a band like They Might Be Giants is wondering just what the heck will be played next. While you can see from the above set list photo that there’s no question what’s going to happen next, I like the element of surprise. Continue reading “Show Review: They Might Be Giants with Guggenheim Grotto at The Fillmore, 11/13/09”
The Electric Six burst onto the scene in 2003 with my personal favorite album of the year, Fire. I wrote back then:
Here it is, the greatest walking album ever created, and it is a concept album. The concept is dancing while on fire. It equates dancing with war, nuclear war in fact. The orders are given by a dance commander in the song of the same title that contains the lyric “It would be awesome if we could dance-uh.” Every song on here is incredibly fun and silly and danceable and singable and just downright brilliant. This is just quality disco rock and roll, and well … it is without precedent. I have never heard an album quite like this, and hope I don’t ever hear another like it. I don’t want this band to try and do this concept again. It would be like The Who doing Tommy 2.
The Used’s set began with an intro video of footage from past tours mixed with stock footage of planes taking off, cars passing by, and scenery changing as if shot from a window of a car. I am not sure most of the fans knew what to think of this semi-heartfelt intro. Backed by a piano and some strings, it seemed like it, as well as most everything with this set could have been better. When the video ended, the entire band just walked on stage. It was kind of anticlimactic for such a drawn out intro. Continue reading “Show Review: The Used with The Almost at The Warfield 11/11/09”
I usually never drink at shows. On occasion I might be up for a whiskey on the rocks, but rarely do I ever booze it up a show that I’m really into. I can’t tell you exactly why I decided to drink at this particular show; it could be because I was one of the handful of people over 21, or because I have the day off tomorrow (today) or whatever. The $7 it cost for a Red Stripe didn’t even deter me. It just felt like the right night to indulge, so I did. 2 beers, a whiskey on the rocks, and a shared Sex on the Beach with my companion later, I was thoroughly rocking out at the Paramore show.
