Hello World

At the end of last night's Thievery Corporation show (link to my review forthcoming), they brought about two dozen girls up on stage to dance (or, in some cases, gyrate wildly and hope nobody notices their lack of rhythm). This is what it looked like:

I went to see Reel Big Fish play the 9:30 club last night. It was pretty fun, and for the most part they put on a good show, but I have a few criticisms:

First of all, they have a new trombonist (or at least new since I last saw them a couple years back), and he sucks. He can handle the basic rhythm horn stuff, but whenever asked to solo or perform anything complicated, he basically throws up an airball. For a band so dependent on tight horn hooks, that is a Very Bad Thing.

Second of all, the band seemed pretty disjointed. They had to start a bunch of songs over after screwing up their cues, and although they are very funny and clever about covering up for that stuff, it's still annoying--especially considering this band has been touring more or less nonstop for 10 years.

Finally, this show demonstrated that I am just too old for punk rock. At a Sunday night show, violent masses of young men in various states of undress threw themselves at the stage and each other unceasingly for 3 or 4 hours. Kids unironically wore hilarious crap and silly coifs. People skanked around. Almost nobody was old enough to be drinking beer. Meanwhile, I stood on the balcony and alternated between quietly bouncing to the music and self-consciously laughing at the dumb shit I saw going on in the crowd. I remember when I was in high school, we used to go to the 9:30 club for shows like this. Although I was never a fan of moshing (I wasn't ever what one might call "robust") I was right there in it, nonetheless, jumping around and acting like a moron speedfreak. Now look at me. I'm old. It was a bizarre realization to come to while listening to songs about high school alienation and the politics of selling out.

But when it comes down to it, it doesn't really matter. I was a rabid RBF sycophant for a few high school years and have gotten a lot of happiness out of their music since then. They're fun, they don't condescend to their mostly-young-and-stupid fanbase, and they are unrelenting in their efforts to rock hard. So you know what? It was still awesome. I'll be at their next show, with earplugs and nostalgia at the ready.

( Here be pictures )

I saw this on my lunch break yesterday.

After work, I went to the 9:30 Club to see Ted Leo & the Pharmacists play a sold-out show. ( Here's what I thought: )

I went to the eye doctor and got two of these:

And then I did this:

So now I have contacts. For more information on this experience, click here.


Although I don't leave my office for another month, I had my goodbye party yesterday. This was my awesome cake.

Then I went to see Bloc Party.

They definitely met my high expectations. They had tons of energy and demonstrated great musicianship (especially their drummer, who is just amazing). Highly recommended. Click here for more pics from the show.

Edit: Apparently, this was a bad show for them. The sound was all screwed up (guitar was too quiet, backup vocals were too loud)--which I noticed, but managed to get past. So if a bad show was that fun, I suspect a good one would be LCD Soundsystem quality.

Then I went to sleep.

I had one of the best (4 day) weekends ever.

1 iPod DJ night, 1 fake sick day, 2 awesome concerts, 1 barbecue, 2 loads of laundry, 1 comfort food brunch, 1 seriously clean bathroom, 3 happy hours, 1 late night sundae, 200 pages of book reading, 1 dominating croquet win, and I think I must have gotten at least 13 hours of sleep in those 4 nights.

Shows:

• The Old 97's: Hey, they're awesome. They put on a great show. If I haven't already convinced you to check them out there's nothing more I can do.
  
  
• M.I.A. and LCD Soundsystem: Unfortunately, this was a Sunday show. I hate going to shows on Sunday because either they suck and I am pissed about wasting my time or they're fun and I'm pissed because I stay for the whole thing and then have to get up early the next day. But I went anyway.
  
  M.I.A. (pitchfork's fawning review, metacritic's metareview) is a truly unusual performer--a female solo rapper combining hip-hop with dancehall and lots of other influences. At any rate, I bought the ticket for this show because she's so weird and her rise to semi-fame fascinates me, and she didn't disappoint. It was a kind of innocent (though sexually-charged) performance, driven by her odd rap style, in which many lines end in rising yelps and I'd say about 85% of the words are indecipherable as English. It was fun.
  
  LCD Soundsystem blew my mind, though. I'd describe their musical style as "punk/dance/percussive orgy" and they truly gave an astonishing performance. I knew of them for their ironic indie hit, "Daft Punk is Playing at my House" (which features cries for "more cowbell!"), and I'd listened to their album a few times--my expectation was that they would play some quirky, affected dance rock, and after a half hour I would leave early to go home and sleep. LCD ruined that plan, though, by giving the most energetic, rhythmically-intoxicating, vivacious performance I have seen in years.
  
  I've never seen anyone break a string on a bass--LCD's bassist broke THREE. The main drummer was simply incredible--he played complex, high bpm, throbbing rhythms nonstop for an hour and a half. It was like they had a drum machine at double speed, except that it was A HUMAN BEING. There were 5 members of the band, and at various times each one of them could be found banging one of the many drums that were arranged all over the stage. They played other instruments, as well, and they were awesome, but the highlights for me were the moments of collaborative drumming backed by driving basslines.
  
  The most powerful moment was the 10 minute percussive jam that ended their set--"Yeah Yeah Yeah," an enjoyable but unremarkable track on the album, was transformed into everything the Wachowski's wanted that stupid subterranean rave to be. I mean, a thousand jaded DC hipsters were jumping up and down and screaming at 11:30 on a Sunday night--I assure you that I have never seen anything like it.
  
  Additional information that I forgot to write about in the first draft: There was this goofy guy in the front row jumping up and down, and he got pulled onstage by M.I.A. whereupon he began to shake his ass like Shakira--except he was a husky black guy wearing a football jersey. At any rate, the guy was a really good dancer, and the whole crowd was simultaneously amused and impressed, and although he eventually got taken offstage by the club security, M.I.A. pulled him onstage again a few minutes later. And then LCD Soundsystem pulled him onstage during their encore, which ended with the guitarist (Phil!) rocking out on the guy's shoulders. It was absurd and beautiful.
  
  You missed it.

I will probably put some pictures up this evening.

LCD Soundsystem & M.I.A.
Sunday, 6/12/05, 7:30PM EDT
9:30 Club
Washington, DC, USA

$20+ticketmaster's completely ridiculous fees.

I'm buying tickets for this show, which I am confident will be awesome, at the end of today. If you are interested in accompanying me, let me know by 4pm and I will pick up a ticket for you.

For more information on LCD Soundsystem (they recorded "Daft Punk is Playing at My House") click here and here.

For more information on M.I.A. (she is indescribable) click here, here, here and here.

If this were a Saturday show instead of a Sunday, it would be a guaranteed awesome experience. Unfortunately, DC gets New York's leftovers. Still, I'm psyched.

Sorry to people who won't be in DC on June 12 and/or people who can't hear.

On the trail, the reception for Kerry is warm; the reception for Bush is akin to that of a rock star. – Dana Milbank

Who are these morons greeting an incompetent and dangerous idealogue as a fucking ROCK STAR?
Hello, people, remember our disasterous economy, our short-sighted foreign policy, and our terrible reputation abroad? He's the guy who gave them to us! HE LIED TO US, PEOPLE! HE'S GETTING YOUNG AMERICANS KILLED ON A FOOL'S ERRAND TO PROTECT OUR OIL INTERESTS! He's not a rock star! Vote for the other guy for heaven's sake! If you aren't incredibly wealthy, Bush and his policies have had and will continue to have a catastrophic effect on your day-to-day life, and don't even get me started on your future!

Passions are divided? Am I the last sane man in the world? This is, like, Dr. Strangelove territory.

Whew. So, I went to the Vote for Change concert last night. It was five and a half hours of awesomeness. Here is the lineup, in order, with approximate set times:

John "the Cougar" Mellancamp: 30 mins
Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Brown, and Keb Mo: 30 mins
Jurassic 5: 25 frenzied mins
James Taylor: 30 mins
REM: 35 mins
Pearl Jam: 30 mins of obscure and uncatchy songs
The Dixie Chicks: 30 mins
John Fogarty: 25 mins or so... he played "Fortunate Son"!
Dave freaking Matthews Band: approximately 80,000 hours of pabulum. Well played pabulum, though.
THE BOSS: 45 minutes of ass-kicking rock and roll.

Oh, yeah, and Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds performed his adorable "If I Could Change the World" at some point, and smartly left the stage thereafter. No appearances, thankfully, from Bright Eyes or Tracy Chapman. There was, though, an unfortunate singing appearance by Tim Robbins.

Still, it was fun, and it was a great atmosphere. REM and Bruce Springsteen had the best sets, by far, but I enjoyed everyone's performance, even Dave Matthews Band. The political rhetoric was pretty subdued, wisely--only one person directly mentioned either candidate, and it was a fairly mild "vote for Kerry"--but the enthusiasm was palpable. Go democracy and freedom.