The Hermit Comes Out

But only for an old person band (Sonic Youth).  The show was pretty amazing especially cause I got into it for free.  Thanks Tim.  We managed to get up pretty close to the stage and were able to hear the whole thing.  I am glad to finally have seen these guys live.  It lived up to all my expectations.

Fuck Seattle Hipsters

And their unwillingness to dance.

Tonight I got the chance to see the Liars live and I am very happy about that.  I was going to be lazy and old and call Marques with some kind of made up story about how I could not go to the show.  Instead I decided to sack up and check the Liars out as I have heard a 7" of theirs but that is about it.

Very satisfied is how I would describe the show.  They managed to combine elements of the Stone Roses, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Trent Reznor and "Beaches and Canyons" era Black Dice into a mix that was uniquely their own.

Their drummer was a force of nature that went through at least three sets of drumsticks during the show.  He never played anything that was really crazy like Damon Che but damn was he solid and one of the better rock drummers I have heard in a while.

The rest of the band was pretty magnificent as well.  The guitarist captured a lot of attention early on because he looked as if he was producing the sound but due to the crazy deductive reasoning of Marques and myself we finally reckoned it was the bassist with the help of a foot pedal system who was making the ridiculous noise.

The show itself was amazing.  The energy peaked in the middle with a set that was good leading to the expected encore (When did that become expected by the way?).  They started off strong with the musicians described above providing ample playing room for everyone.

About half way through their set they played what might be the most amazing jam I have ever heard.  I have seen a lot of shows in my time but this was the most danceable cerebral music I have heard (This might apply to all their music).  I will buy their music bit by bit until I have something that roughfully approximates what I heard tonight.  It had elements of everything yo0u love plus those random things that you don't love but respect.

All in all a phenomenal show.  Peace and good night.

Smile

Last night was the Lily Allen show and contrary to Yachi's preconceived notions it was not full of 14 year olds. Wait until next year, right now Ms. Allen is still on the taste maker curve so it was just a lot people our age in nice clothes.

I thought she performed very well. The fact that she had a full horn section definitely added to that opinion. Also her drummer was pretty great as Eric said not too over the top but played everything excellently. Her music has enough nods to great English bands so that you like it without any thought. The high point of the night was her acknowledging this by bringing out Lynval Golding, the guitarist for the Specials. The Specials started the ska revival in England and apparently had a great impact on her music.

The second great thing about the concert was her choosing Heart of Glass as a cover for an encore.

I was impressed with how candid she was and her choice of banter in between sets. Chris was slightly less impressed. In five minutes she went from stomach trouble, to belching, to her disgust with our president. She does not fit easily into the female pop star box which is refreshing. It will be interesting to see how her career progresses.

Fortuitous Circumstances

I got lucky Friday night in seeing DJ Babu. I started the night off waiting in various lines forever. After rapidly tiring of that I saw Ryan and Ella and went with them to Rosebud where Eric showed up and we got nice before waffling on heading back to the War Room to try to catch the show. I finally got my way and we walked in right as Babu came on.

He started off playing a lot of funk and rare groove with a set that was a little too close to Q-Berts on Demolition Pumpkin Squeeze but still fun to dance to. As he moved into more recent territory, Ann, Chris, Teresa, and Elaine disappeared. That left Eric to bear the brunt of my excited punches to the shoulder as Babu dropped the crazy shit. What night could be bad when you get to hear both Liquid Swords and the Ten Crack Commandments? Overall a great show and one that turned out to be a lot of fun even though the night started off not so well