CD review for lack of concert reviews

Well, I haven't been to a concert in a while, but I did get myself a couple of albums on Black Friday. And since I haven't talked about any concerts recently, I'll treat you to a review of some albums instead.

The first disc I want to talk about is Sara Bareilles's new album, Kaleidoscope Heart. I was actually really excited for this because of "Uncharted" and "King of Anything". But unfortunately, those are the best two songs on the album. Actually I'd almost divide it into two parts, with the split at "King of Anything". The first half is pretty good, and the second half is listenable. The problem is, the songs on the second half of the disc don't really have anything memorable about them. Although, I would have to say, it seems to be growing on me. As of right now, I don't know if I'd recommend the whole disc though. It's a little too poppy for me. I miss the jazz feel from her first album.

The other disc I purchased is Ingrid Michaelson's Everybody. I really, really like this album. It's got a very unique feel to it. I'm not sure there are any songs on here that I don't like. It took me a couple listens to get into "Men of Snow," but I even like that one, now. I'm not really sure how to describe this one. Ingrid is just...Ingrid. She's not really like anything. I would recommend this to everyone, because there is something for everyone.

I do also want to talk about the Submarines' albums Honeysuckle Weeks and Declare a New State! Even though I got those at Bumbershoot, I didn't start listening to them until recently. And I hadn't realized until I actually listened to them all the way through how much I like the Submarines.

I'll review them together, because their styles aren't different enough to separate. I was somewhat surprised at how much I enjoyed them because they're a little more electronic than I would have expected my tastes to be. But it doesn't detract from the indie, so it makes it okay. Actually I've found that done well, the electronic adds a certain uniqueness that I quite like. I think if I had to pick just one, I would recommend Honeysuckle Weeks, but they're both worth getting.

Lack of updates

Sorry I haven't updated this in a while. Concerts are on hold for a bit because of major life changes. I'll update as I concert-go.

Broken labels

Hi guys. Labels are inconsistent right now. I guess there's a limit of 200 characters for labels, so I might have to pull all the artists and just leave venues. Bumbershoot, Day 3 is missing artists right now, as a result. I'll update this post with what I decide to do.

Update: I decided to remove all the labels for artists and only keep the venues, because those will get used more often.

Bumbershoot, Day 3

Wow. Apparently I just really suck at updating this. Day three should have gone up yesterday morning. Sorry, folks.

The first act I saw was People Eating People. I guess it's one of those one person projects (like Smashing Pumpkins). It was actually really cool. She kind of reminded me of Ingrid Michaelson. Apparently the Zune Smart DJ disagrees.

Then I headed over to see JEFF the Brotherhood for a bit before BOAT. They were okay. They probably have some potential. They were very grunge. I wasn't personally a huge fan.

Since I was slightly bored, I walked into BOAT a little early. I saw some props and speech bubbles and was all excited it was going to be comedic, but then it wasn't. It was still pretty good music. I enjoyed it. I really didn't get the speech bubbles bit, though. They didn't really seem to have a point. Their banter was pretty amusing, on the other hand. They mentioned they had planned to go into the audience, but there was a barrier set up, and they were surprised the Bumbershoot clientele was so vicious they needed a barrier.

I saw a few minutes of The Whigs. They were pretty decent. Not really a whole lot else to say. Headed over to Greg Laswell after. I liked his music a bit better.

The real goal here was to get to the Garfunkel and Oates, David O'Doherty, and Nick Thune comedy show. Garfunkel and Oates were probably my least favorite of the three. I just felt kinda awkward through most of their set. All three comedians were very funny though, and it was a fun performance. I think my favorite was Nick Thune.

I was able to see Japandroids for a little bit before the other comedy show. I was really sad I had to leave their performance early because I really liked them. One more Canadian band I'm a fan of. I was also surprised that it was only a two-piece. I guess I hadn't really thought about it before.

Went to go see Laff Hole (the real site is broken, so this link is the best I got) after Japandroids. It was surprisingly empty, and through the first half I realized why. I was starting to regret leaving the Japandroids early for it, and then the last two comedians came on. They were really good. And then the final bit was Airpocalypse which was an air instrument hair cover band. It was pretty funny. Unfortunately I don't remember any of the comedians names.

I made my way over to Surfer Blood after that. They were also really good. The Broad Street stage was a good place to be on Monday.

Checked out Booker T. for a little bit, next. His music was interesting. It was a little more bluesy, and not at all bad, but I don't know if I could just listen to him. A lot of it was also covers. Since it was jazz type instruments, though, the rock covers had a very different feel to them, so I'm definitely glad I saw him.

Finished out the night with the Thermals. I was most excited for this on a friend's recommendation, with good reason apparently. The three-piece from Portland were very good, even if they did seem to talk over their music. Two things I didn't realize were that they were a three-piece and had a girl bassist, and both are rather inconsequential. At any rate, I enjoyed them enough to stay through the rain for their entire encore, and I'm glad I did because one of their encore songs was "My Name Is Jonas," which is probably the most fitting Weezer song, but I thought it was really funny that they played a Weezer song when probably the entire audience had seen Weezer the day before.

Bumbershoot, Day 2

Oh, today was awesomeness. Even if it was way busier than it was yesterday.

Started off with Hey Marseilles. I hadn't actually heard their music before, so I didn't know what to expect. It was a really good mix of instruments, and I really enjoyed it. I tried to buy one of their CDs later, but they were apparently all sold out. It was crazy. And so packed, that it made more sense to find standing room in the beer garden than try to mush in with everyone standing in front of the Broad Street Stage.

After that I went and saw Crash Kings. I think they played a couple songs that weren't on their disc. They rock well, though, and their songs are just fun to hear. So that was also a good performance. Nothing really special to say about it, though, other than that this was also surprisingly packed. And that they finished out their (rather short) set by covering "War Pigs" :)

I made my way to the Redwood Plan from Crash Kings. I felt like I probably should have skipped them. I don't think I stayed for more than about 10-15 minutes. They were more electronic than I liked. They really didn't have much going for them.

I got a little break after that until the Bouncing Souls went on. I ran into a friend there that I was really surprised to see at a punk show, and lo and behold, she left after all of 5 minutes. I didn't stay much longer, either, as there's only so much punk one can take.

So I popped back into the EMP Sky Church stage for Slender Means, who unfortunately didn't have any CDs available. I really liked them. I don't really know what to compare them to. I guess I'd say they fit squarely under "indie rock."

When Slender Means was done, I walked over (and heard the end of the only song by the Bouncing Souls I actually know, whose name I can't actually remember right now) to Rise Against. I can't say their show was anything special. They even acknowledged that it's strange playing in an arena as a non-arena band. But it was still a really fun show. They had a great set, and they definitely were energetic and got the audience pumped up.

I left about fifteen minutes early to go watch Motion City Soundtrack, and regretted leaving early within minutes. I didn't miss much, and Rise Against was almost done anyway, so there was no value in going back, but Motion City Soundtrack was definitely more pop than I remembered, and the clientele was pretty homogeneous (pre-teens and high schoolers).

I went into the EMP hoping Fences was better. Their music was different, but I didn't enjoy them much more. They were very mellow. I could listen to them as background music, but as a live band, they weren't very exciting, so I came back out and watched the last couple songs of Motion City Soundtrack's set, including the only song I recognized by them, "The Future Freaks Me Out".

I was really disappointed that the Dandy Warhols were at the exact same time as Weezer. Whoever scheduled that must have been drunk. I ended up just watching Weezer. That was a great decision. I don't know what I missed, but what I saw was definitely amazing. They played a really good set list (mostly old stuff), and the new songs they played, they made a lot of fun, what with Rivers Cuomo running around into the stands for "Pork and Beans" and all. They even had beach balls for the audience during (and after) "Island in the Sun." The best part, though, definitely had to be the cover of MGMT's "Kids." Most importantly, halfway through, Cuomo put on a wig and sang some of Lady Gaga's "Poker Face." That was definitely the most interesting set I've seen. There was just a lot of juxtaposition I wouldn't have expected.

Overall, a good day, and I'm definitely looking forward to tomorrow, though I'll probably see fewer musical acts tomorrow since I'll try to hit up some comedy.

Bumbershoot, Day 1

Whoo! Bumbershoot kicked off pretty awesomely. Started the day off with the Submarines at the Broad Street Stage. I was really sad that I only got to see 15 minutes of their (surprisingly short) set because the will call line for tickets took me an hour to get through, but from what I saw, it was a good performance :) It was actually a lot more crowded than I expected it to be.

I did miss the Maldives because the game was finishing up and then we had to pay, but I made it back in time to see Civil Twilight at Center Stage. This was probably the best act I saw today. Not only were they awesome, but there was a group of people that brought a pink unicorn tied to a stick and they were waving it around. It was pretty amusing. That group were, as a result, really easy to pick out at the Mainstage acts, too.

Like the Decemberists, who were the first Mainstage act of the evening. I didn't really know what to expect from them. I will say I enjoyed the end of the performance better. It seemed to shift over the course of the hour from folk-y to more rock-y. I also can definitely say I enjoyed it.

After the Decemberists, Neko Case played. I also had no clue what to expect from her. I ended up really liking it. Her banter was kinda weird (bases?), but the music was a very good mix of folk and rock, definitely leaning towards rock.

I left the Neko Case performance slightly early so I could go see the Cute Lepers at the EMP Sky Church. That show was just fun and amusing. Their music wasn't exactly good, but it was definitely entertaining. It was a cross between 50s rock ("Great Balls of Fire") and 90s ska punk (stuff like Reel Big Fish) including the obligatory girls with tambourines (50s) and Oi!s (90s). I guess they kind of reminded me of Elvis Costello. It was just really fun to watch them; even if the audience was belligerent, it wasn't an annoying belligerent, but an amusing one: no crazy moshing or anything, just dancing around. On top of that, Sky Church might be my favorite venue at Bumbershoot. It's indoors, so the acoustics are slightly different, and this particular one is better than some of the other indoor Bumbershoot venues that aren't actually set up for concerts, which helps.

Closed out the night with the beginning of Bob Dylan's set. After all, if you're going to be right there for an icon, you have to go see them. Especially when they're as old as Dylan. You could hear the age in his voice. We left well before the end of the set, though, because we were both tired and neither of us is that interested in folk. I'm sure if I enjoyed Dylan more, I'd have loved seeing him play.

Sara Bareilles at Marymoor

Been a while since the last post. Also a while since I actually went to this concert.

I went to the Mountain Music Fest at Marymoor Park this year. I should also mention that it was on August 14. Sara Bareilles, The BoDeans, Jakob Dylan, and Robert Randolph and the Family Band were playing, in that order, which surprised me. I was only able to stay long enough to see Sara Bareilles, though, unfortunately.

Sara Bareilles was pretty awesome, at least. I really enjoyed her set, even though it was really quite hot out. I thought it was really cool that she played her songs differently in person than on disc. It made things interesting. Almost as interesting as when she transitioned from one of her new songs into a cover of Beyonce's "Single Ladies".

The concert was a pretty good preview of her new album. Or rather, it would have been had she been playing everything like it was on disc. I would guess that she didn't play any of the new stuff like on disc, either, though, so I'm still going to wait to pre-order Kaleidoscope Heart. It was good to hear new music, on the other hand, even if some of it felt a little strange. I don't remember the title of the song, but one of them had drum line that was faster than it should have been. It matched okay with the music; it wasn't off-beat. But if it was slower, I would have absolutely loved the song. As it was, the song was too...club-y.

I also learned, and this, too, surprised me, that "Gravity" was about, as she put it, "a douche-bag." I still maintain that it doesn't sound like it's about an asshole. Maybe it's a specific person that ended up being a cock.

We tried to stay for The BoDeans, but they hadn't started their set by the time we had to leave, so we missed out on them, along with Jakob Dylan and Robert Randolph and the Family Band.

Upcoming concerts

I know this is supposed to be a review blog, but it's worth mentioning some upcoming shows that I'm excited to see:

• July 8: Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band at Seattle City Hall Plaza.
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• July 28: We Are Scientists and guests at Neumos.
  More info
• July 31: Silversun Pickups with Against Me! at Paramount Theater.
  More info
• August 14: KMTT Mountain Music Fest at Marymoor Park featuring Sara Bareilles, Jakob Dylan, Robert Randolph and the Family Band, and The BoDeans.
  More info
• August 14: Vans Warped Tour at the Gorge in George, WA featuring a whole host of artists, most notably After Midnight Project, Anti-Flag, Eyes Set to Kill, Sum 41, and VersaEmerge.
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• September 4-6: Bumbershoot at Seattle Center featuring way too many people for me to list out. Bumbershoot is just something you go to.
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• October 2: The Black Keys at the Paramount Theater.
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Really, really not sure whether I should go to Warped Tour or the Mountain Music fest on the 14th. Not being able to find anyone to go with for either doesn't help. Anyone want to go or have a recommendation? Let me know!

I'll take this opportunity to mention that I'm still looking for someone to accompany me to the Silversun Pickups/Against Me! show. Let me know if you're interested!

The Offspring

I was really excited for this show. The Offspring were playing with Terrible Things last night at Showbox SoDo. We managed to make the last song of Terrible Things' set. I thought they were fine, but I didn't hear enough to form a strong opinion.

The Offspring came on after that. They had a pretty good set. I basically recognized every song they played except two: their cover of the Clash song they played and the new/unreleased song they played, which my friend decided was a Foo Fighters song. I'll agree that it didn't sound like the Offspring, but I'm not sure it sounded exactly like "Times Like These." I'd need to listen to it again. They also played an acoustic version of "Gone Away" right before "Kristy, Are You Doing Okay?" which I thought was kind of cool.

It turns out that 45 to 50 year olds aren't terribly energetic, though. Although the song list was pretty good, the actual performance was kind of boring. They had the lights and everything, but the performance was missing something. The crowd probably didn't help much. We all felt like we were being smeared in everyone else's sweat. It was pretty gross.

I think the most interesting part of the night (also the most annoying) might have been entering SoDo. For some reason one of the bouncers pointed me out, so they pulled me aside. I was very confused and felt like I was at the airport. Then he asked me, "How much have you had to drink tonight." I had had one beer, and said as much. After checking my ID, he said, "All right you can go in, but take it easy on the drinking; you almost look like you're already there." I decided they were idiots, and they just gave me another reason to dislike SoDo. Also, those might not be exact quotes as I didn't exactly have a tape recorder going, but they get the idea across.

Holy crap Paramore!

Paramore played at WaMu Theater last night along with Relient K and fun. Like the last two nights, I missed the first opener (fun in this case), but saw the second two performances.

Relient K took me back to high school. I think if you looked up the definition of "pop/punk" you'd find a picture of Relient K. Actually, maybe they'd be the example for the Christian subcategory. They did have a few songs that were interesting, but I think those were mostly their older stuff (and their set closer). I don't know their discography well enough to say with any real assurance, though. And I mean, even though the performance wasn't anything particularly special, didn't make it un-fun to watch.

Paramore, though...they were way more than I expected! Haley Williams came on stage headbanging and pretty much never let up. At one point, she lied down in front of Taylor York, and he bent over a little so Jeremy Davis could do a backflip over them! It was totally unexpected and totally ridiculous! Of course, York and Davis were still playing while this was happening, too. Amazing.

It was also pretty awesome that Williams interacted with the audience so much. Even though it was in a huge venue, she didn't treat the audience like we were just watching or like we weren't important. There was a person with a "Haley marry my son" sign, and she took time out of the set to comment on it (something along the lines of "That's flattering, but marriage is way down the road for me. Maybe I'll go to prom with you. That's a little more my age group."). She also brought up a balloon sword that someone had to get all the band members to sign it, and accepted a shirt with "Team Zac" written on it and hung it on the bass drum for the rest of the set (or at least until it fell off).

The set (stage, background, etc...not music) isn't something I usually pay attention to, but with Paramore it mattered. When they came on, they had a sheet with their older logo on it. Then right as they started their performance of "Ignorance" (I think...I don't remember. It must have been their first Brand New Eyes song, though), the sheet dropped away revealing their new logo. And then during the encore, that dropped away giving yet another change of scenery.

Speaking of the encore, it was definitely the highlight of the show. Paramore played "Decode" and "Misery Business" and right before the bridge of the latter, Williams stopped singing to talk to us. But since the rest of the band was still playing, the crowd kept singing and made it through the bridge before letting her speak. I'm pretty sure we surprised her because she was about to talk and then said, "Oh, you guys know this part. You sound great, Seattle," and let us finish. And then she talked about how they met a fan during their meet and greet before the show that claimed to know all their songs on guitar. And gave him the chance to prove it. They brought him up and gave him Josh Farro's guitar and had the fan play the lead guitar part for the rest of the song. It was very exciting...and he nailed it! After they finished the song, Paramore just kept banging on their instruments for at least 15 minutes while getting rid of all their picks, water bottles, drumsticks, and what looked like song sheets or something...I couldn't quite tell, and just generally having fun with themselves. Definitely one of if not the most fun concert I've ever been to.

Flyleaf :)

Flyleaf played with 10 Years and Fair to Midland at Showbox Market last night. As on Monday, I missed Fair to Midland's performance. But whereas on Monday, it was because we were hungry and didn't care about Neon Trees, last night, Fair to Midland just started earlier than I expected them to, so we arrived right as they finished up instead of as they were starting.

So we started the night off with 10 Years. They were definitely enjoyable, but the crowd was distractingly rowdy. I'm not a huge fan of mosh pits, and that's what the whole front half of the floor turned into. The band was infectiously energetic, though, which was a nice change of pace from Leto's "All right now everybody jump" from the night before. They managed to get everyone excited without specific instructions, which is what a show should be. My friend decided the bassist could have been less conceited, but I didn't think it detracted from the performance. I rather enjoyed that he used the whole stage.

Then Flyleaf came on stage. The performance was fun. Nothing terribly out of the ordinary. That's not to say it was boring, but there wasn't really anything specific to mention. They did manage to keep the crowd under control, though. I think there was a point where people started moshing again, and Lacey Mosley just asked everyone to move forward so they didn't have room for the moshing.

Pat Seals almost felt like he didn't fit as part of the band. He looks...scarier...than everyone else. But he was also the most entertaining person to watch as a result, although Lacey had a good stage presence, too, what with her amazingly powerful voice and the comparatively small stage (as compared to Neumos).

The "encore" made the concert, though. After Flyleaf finished their set, they left the stage, but no one left the venue. There were chants of "one more song!" and endless cheering. Eventually, some people started trickling out, but a large portion of the crowd stuck around. Lacey and Sameer had to come back out to explain that they don't ever do real encores and weren't expecting to come out, so they had nothing lined up. But of course, they couldn't come back out just to say that and leave, so Lacey and Sameer played us an acoustic song. Pretty sure that was what one would call an "overwhelming crowd response." That encore definitely made ME feel special, anyway :)

Mutemath is even amazing when they're not headlining!

Last night I went to Showbox SoDo to see MUTEMATH and 30 Seconds to Mars and skipped Neon Trees.

The 30 Seconds to Mars performance was subpar. Jared Leto seems like a jacka**. He's really full of himself and the show centered around him. I will say that it was kinda cool of him to scold the security guard for trying to get people off each others' shoulders, though. And props to him for specifying that they wouldn't go off and come back on for an encore, and instead just finishing the set outright.

But most of the show was him telling the audience what to do, except apparently he thought we could only do two things: 1) jump, 2) scream. It got old really fast. There was also a bit in the middle of the show where he somehow got to the where the sound engineer is in the middle of SoDo and he played an acoustic "set." I say "set" because he played half of about 4 different songs and then played an acoustic first half of "The Kill" and then made his way back to the stage where the band played the rest of the song.

MUTEMATH, on the other hand, didn't perform like openers. I went into that performance expecting them to play, finish, and get off, but I felt like they were headlining! Paul Meany even passed around his weird electronica/guitar thingy and the band threw out all their drumsticks, etc. at the end of their set. Of course, they didn't have time for a proper "Reset" encore, but they still played "Reset" and merged it into "Typical." The entire band was bursting with energy the entire time they were on stage, and even my friend, who generally doesn't like performances where he doesn't know any of the songs, enjoyed himself.