see more live music

I feel so cultured, admittedly most of the live music I’ve seen has been some kind of “classical” music. That kind of shows how much my taste in music has changed over the last year. Anyhow, seeing live music is just so much fun.

Architecture in Helsinki
with El Guincho

So this was my second time seeing AiH at the Tiv. We arrived pretty early so we could secure a spot right up the front and I was dead in the centre. Which was awesome.

El Guincho was… I don’t know, really. He was certainly energetic and I was quite honestly waiting for him to fall down from doing so many things at once, but I guess it seemed a little repetitive. Or something? Like I said, not sure. It was the kind of stuff I’d likely love dancing to while out clubbing. AiH contributed to two numbers, though, which were excellent. Still, methinks Bridezilla from last year were better.

I spent most of my time in-between downing Red Bull and chatting, but it was probably good that the main act came on fairly soon after because we were all pretty tired. Although, clearly, some more than others. Let me also just say here that I love that these guys set up all their own instruments and do all their own sound-checking, rather than letting The Tiv do it. Anyhow. I pretty much started dancing from the first number; I freaking adore these guys live. Their music is so infectious it’s impossible to actually stand still (although I wish there hadn’t been Red Bull spilt on the edge of stage that made my hands all gross and sticky. Boo). They were just as excited and chatty as when we saw them last year and Gus Franklin is still as cute as ever. Ahem. Jamie also spilt his beer on-stage, which was funny and Kellie came down off stage into the front at one point, though the poor girl got accosted by crazies. They did all the good stuff – “Hold Music”, “Debbie”, “Like It Or Not”, “It’5”, “Frenchy, I’m Faking”, “Cemetery”, “Wishbone”, etc. They also did “Souvenirs” which made me incredibly happy; they were all, “we haven’t performed this song here for about four years so it could be dreadful” but it so, so wasn’t. When they came back for their encore, I pretty much decided that they’d better do “Maybe You Can Owe Me” or I was leaving and they did (um, I may have gotten a little bit excited). Next was a cover of “Break My Stride” which was actually the greatest thing ever. Then lastly, of course, “Heart It Races”. Some crazy morons jumped up on stage and were dancing and trying to get photos and stuff and as much as I would have loved to see them carted off by security, they jumped down fairly quickly; as crazy and fabulous as AiH are, I think they were still a bit worried.

I classify AiH’s previous gig as the second-best I’ve ever been to, and this was just as good, if not better. To avoid having to make an actual decision and bump number three down, I may just squish them both together in the number-two spot. Yay. A wonderful night spent dancing and being crazy with wonderful people to finish a great day.

In the past week, I’ve seen Brett Dennan, Harry Pickens, Stonewheel, and 8 other bands at a jam fest. Tomorrow, I’m going to a Digby, Peter Searcy, and Code Red concert. I’ve had this goal since I joined this website. I’m glad I’m finally doing something about it.

Eels

Ah, classy seated shows at the Tiv. Is there anything better? Well, probably, because it was freezing and I ended up with two guys sitting to my right who smelled oppressively of beer and whiskey. But we were close to the front and I think I enjoyed the show much more because of it.

Doors opened at seven and I was dreading having to sit around for nearly three hours waiting for Mr. Everett to rock out. However, instead of the usual cringe-worthy support act, the evening began at around eight with a really lovely documentary film about E’s journey to learn more about his father, Hugh Everett III, who was a famous mathematician and quantum theorist. It was called “Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives” and I believe it was made for the BBC. I was thoroughly impressed with this – good production values (despite an incredibly irritatingly-accented female voice-over), as well as being very bittersweet, funny and charming. Plus Bobby Jr. was in it (of course) and that makes everything okay.

E came out about a half hour after this finished, which was great. He said hi, cracked a few jokes and took a seat at the piano for a beautiful version of “It’s A Motherfucker”. I totally did not mist up. The Chet (aka the awesomely fabulous Jeffrey Lister) then joined him for “Strawberry Blonde” and that was it, I was gone. It is such a gorgeous, sad song and it ruined my eye makeup. Ahem. All in all, it was an excellent show. E and The Chet traded jokes back and forth most of the night and the latter also read extracts from E’s autobiography (which was on sale at the merch stand but it was $35 and I was broke as all hell), Things the Grandchildren Should Know. I’d forgotten what a great musician The Chet is. They also worked incredibly well together, the highlight being a crunchy version of “Flyswatter” that saw them swapping back and forth between drums and piano for an extended outro. So much love. E pretty much did all of Daisies of the Galaxy, plus classics like “Novacaine for the Soul”, which made me endlessly happy; some of the newer stuff from “Blinking Lights and Other Revelations” is a bit hit-and-miss. Sad that there was no “Saturday Morning”, “Fresh Feeling” or, worst of all, “Mr. E’s Beautiful Blues”. Boo. The non-musical highlight of the night was E getting stuck into a group of loud drunks right down the front – they were chatting endlessly before and during songs, and calling out random bullshit. At first, he was telling them to hush as politely as he could, but later told them, deadly seriously, “okay, you really have to shut up. It’s a concert, for chrissakes. I’m going to play some tunes now, if that’s okay with you guys.” You could have heard a pin drop in the Tiv; it was hilarious. They got thrown out by security mid-song about twenty minutes later. Mwhahahaha.

In conclusion: a unique and wonderful show that was well worth the expense.

april—sean kingston and brand new

So we are going to see Big Smith this weekend. Probably going to get pretty crazy….it should be a good time. I just want to eat some good food before we go, drink some beers and then dance my ass off.

Maybe even meet a guy… WHO KNOWS…

It just occurred to me that I fail at updating this goal.

Modest Mouse
with Hot Hot Heat
and Sparkadia

Let me just put out there first that this was at The Arena, otherwise known as the worst effing venue in town. It’s inescapably hot, the floors are sticky, it generally attracts the worst kind of dancing douchebags and it’s a fire hazard. If I could gather a group of like-minded people and burn it to the ground, I would.

Also keep in mind that my dinner this night consisted of Maccas, Red Bull and assorted lollies.

So Sparkadia were quite good. Nothing particularly memorable, but a couple of solid songs and decent instrumental work. I also have a vague recollection of liking something the female guitarist was wearing. Hot Hot Heat weren’t anywhere near as great as they could have been, and I’m sorry to say that Steve Bays was dressed like an absolute asshat, but they did rock out and look like they were enjoying themselves, plus they kicked it on “Middle of Nowhere” so I was happy.

It was around the end of their set that I started to feel like death warmed up. Even after the water that Nic kindly purchased for me and crouching down to lean on Huy, I just felt worse and worse. Modest Mouse finally came on and I still felt pretty sure I was about to die. I was hot, I felt claustrophobic and I was pretty sure I was about to lose my dinner. I tried my very hardest to enjoy it, but the worst part about being sick during a show is that it then seems like it’s going on FOREVER. They singalled their encore and all I could think was “hurry up, PLEASE hurry up.” I have never been more grateful for oxygen in my life; I pretty much raced away and burst out through the doors and into the night as soon as they played their last note. I was okay enough to recognize that it was a good show, and I was happy that they did “Dashboard” and “The View” but I wish a) that it had been at a different venue and b) that I hadn’t been so ill.

We’re experiencing a minor drought at the moment, but Eels and Architecture in Helsinki (again! Wheeee!) are coming up, so yay. Still ragey that The Presets is sold out, though.

Wow. Rockin concert. Bobby McFerrin can do more things with his voice than one can imagine.

No longer a priority.

Heard BW, Iration, and Natural Vibrations play at Sandbar last night.