Trifecta Phase Three - David Byrne @ The Greek Theatre Los Angeles, CA

I just got home from The Trifecta, now complete after watching David Byrne perform songs he and Brian Eno worked on together. Well, mostly. The crowd kept screaming for Psycho Killer, which didn't fit the mold, but neither did Burning Down the House, as he admitted.

The set consisted of about a half dozen songs from the new album Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, and the rest of the set seemed to be made up entirely of old Talking Heads songs.

Don't get me wrong, the set was fantastic, complete with three dancers (two of them very, very sexy), three backup singers, two percussionists and another guitar player onstage. However, I was really hoping for something, hell anything from My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. I don't think he played a single song off of that all night, but I'm sure my good friend the Fountain Valley Lounge Lizard will point out if I'm right on that one.

One of the greatest things about the night was that the crowd were absolutely into it the entire time. So much so, in fact, that after two encores, David conferred with the band to see if they'd be up to do one last song. They closed out the night on a bit of a slow note with the title track from the new album.

All in all, three great nights of music, three very, very different shows, and all three exceeded our expectations.

Back to reality now. Sigh.

Look for a more complete review of My Bloody Valentine soon.

Trifecta Phase Two - My Bloody Valentine

There are two types of people in this world: People who have seen My Bloody Valentine, and people who have not.

I feel like I've evolved.

What can you say?

We all agreed on one thing. That to describe it is next to impossible.

I feel like I've had my chromosomes rearranged without a kiss.

Trifecta Phase One - sigur rós

"I think, maybe, you all should stand up," the lead vocalist of the Icelandic enigma sigur rós suggested. The band had played nearly its entire set to a seated crowd at San Diego's Copley Symphony Hall, and we happily obliged. The four piece band was joined by four extra drummers, all pounding in unison on individual drums strapped to them as the band played gobbledigook, the opener from their most recent album, Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust (With a buzz in our ears, we play endlessly).

To say they merely played this song robs them of something, as it was a celebration of the entire set, the most energy imparted from the band to the crowd, and vice-versa. The song is in stark contrast to much of the band's beautifully sad, cinematic material, with three members playing acoustic guitars instead of the usual keys, guitar (often with a bow) and bass guitar. As the crowd clapped along happily, two figures appeared at opposite ends of the stage with massive cannons, and, along with two other stationary cannons, produced an orgasmic blast of confetti the likes of which I have never seen.



Keep in mind folks, this video was taken from the balcony. We were SHOWERED in confetti.

Here's one more glimpse of what you may have missed.




Trifecta?

I haven't posted about what Conner and I are calling The Trifecta. The Trifecta is our three-day concert and drinking binge that marks the (almost) halfway mark between now and Coachella. Three shows, three days, three cities. That is, if Santa Monica is a city, which I think it is.

Here's the itinerary:

10/1/2008 - Sigur Ros - Copley Symphony Hall - San Diego, CA
10/2/2008 - My Bloody Valentine - Santa Monica Civic - Santa Monica, CA
10/3/2008 - David Byrne - The Greek Theatre - Los Angeles, CA

The Juan MacLean Rewrites the Manual

Just got back from seeing The Juan Maclean in Los Angeles.  I have to say that overall it was pretty amazing.  At their worst, this group highlighted just how hard it is to perform electronic music live.  At their best, they blew the doors off the place.  I thought the girl from The Octopus Project played a mean theramin, but she's got nothing on Juan.  He was like a symphony conductor with that thing.

They opened with a song from their upcoming album The Future Will Come, available "In a month that's not this one."  I'm not sure if that means next month or just some month in the future.  Hopefully it's coming out soon, because the first song, and many of the other new ones, sound very promising.  Wikipedia says 2009 but who knows.

After the second song of the set, a familiar spectre revisited the band.  Massive technical difficulties.  This time, instead of delaying the start of the show, it stopped it.  The band gathered around a malfunctioning device for about five minutes while the small but dedicated crowd heckled the band.  Juan responded by being totally transparent.

"We're going to do something now that's really embarassing," he began, "we're going to have to pull out the manual," he finished, holding up the user guide for the synthesizer.  The crowd laughed.  It felt like the crowd was made almost exclusively of true fans and people who genuinely understood how difficult it is to do electronic music live.

It takes Nancy Whang, Holy Ghost! and Juan MacLean to technically support an ailing device necessary to perform Give Me Every Little Thing 20080913 - The El Rey, Los Angeles, CA

When they finally got the thing going, the crowd came back in full force.  Though their biggest track was a little rough, it showed great tenacity for the band to come back from such a long break at the beginning of the set.

There were some great moments and some not-so-great moments during most of the rest of the set.  When Juan announced that the band had only one more song to play, "but don't worry", I looked at my watch. The band had only been playing for about 50 minutes, and I wondered if they could possibly have an encore planned.  Nope.  I have no idea what the last track was, but it was an 18-minute multi-orgasmic opus that started minimal, built to a climax, exploded, went back to climax level, and repeated the pattern over and over.

Juan admitted that it wasn't a perfect performance, but we don't go see The Juan MacLean for perfection.  We go see this act because, as one girl at Coachella put it, "We wanna dance."  

And dance we did.

The Juan MacLean plays The Casbah in San Diego this Monday night.  Don't be stupid.  Check it out.

Antony and the Johnsons To Play Walt Disney Concert Hall 2008-10-16

The first time I heard I Am A Bird Now, the most recent release from Antony and the Johnsons, I wasn't quite sure what to make of it.  Here's a guy with an almost angelic voice, race car driver-like control of trills and a torch song range reminiscent of Nina Simone, but I couldn't see it.  Not on the first listen.

Still, I was intrigued enough to listen again.  And fairly quickly, again, and again, and again.

It's puzzling to me now, when I can't listen to songs like Hope There's Someone without tearing up, that I didn't get it the first time I heard it.  But I knew there was something there, and that kept me listening.  His voice absolutely destroys me, makes me hurt in the pit of my stomach as if I'm actively experiencing what he's singing about.

The act has an album due Oct 7, 2008, so it's strange that this tour is so truncated.  Using the business model of Radiohead's Kid A tour, there are two dates.  One in New York, and one in LA.

If you're up for something truly unique, please, please, please catch this show.

Radiohead

We managed to catch the Monday show at the Hollywood Bowl and the show at Cricket here in San Diego, formerly known as Coors. Both were sold out, and apparently the Cricket show's attendance was almost 20,000. It's hard to pick which was better, but if pressed, I'll take the Monday show at the Bowl. We got Tell Me Why, a cover of a Neil Young song from the album After the Gold Rush, as well as Go Slowly, a hauntingly moving song from CD 2 of the In Rainbows box, which everyone was calling "the blue song" due to the cool lighting.

We got to Cricket at 3:45 p.m., saw the show, and got out of the parking lot in TWO MINUTES. To put this in perspective, our pal Bill didn't make it out of the lot for TWO HOURS. Yeah. Not only did we get Talk Show Host, Airbag, How To Disappear Completely, Paranoid Android, Climbing Up the Walls, Lucky (damn, so many songs from OK Computer!!), but we made it back to my place in a record 25 minutes. Not too shabby.

I'm embedding a link to Thom and Johnny playing Portishead's The Rip from Portishead's fantastic return to form, Third. Also, here's a link to a YouTube video I made at the Bowl of the end of Karma Police, and the entire closing track, Idioteque.

We'll miss you, Radiohead. Thanks for Webcasting your final show from Santa Barbara. It was a little choppy at first but after the first half it was nearly flawlessly transmitted from the 'net to the lappy to the TV and sound system. To quote Homer Simpson, "A class act, all the way." Then again, he was talking about God, but I'm pretty sure I could worship this band and not be poked with a pitchfork in the afterlife.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hI-TRf-Yt0Y



Find more videos like this on w.a.s.t.e. central

The Juan MacLean Coming to The Casbah September 15, 2008

HELLLLLLS YEAHHH!!!!!

Anyone who waited for their epic soundcheck at Coachella will remember four things:

1. The soundman telling Juan that he "needed to hear the cowbell a few more times"
2. Juan saying, "fuck the cowbell, let's get started!"
3. A woman near the front shouting what was on everyone's mind: "We wanna dance!!"
4. While the set was a skimpy 20 minutes (while the soundcheck was easily double that), it was one of the most memorable moments at Coachella 2006.

Talk about leaving 'em screaming for more. The abbreviated set forced the band to deliver 50 minutes worth of energy in less than half the time. This totally made up for the fact that, when the soundman finally agreed to let the band play, Juan announced, "OK, I gotta go take a piss," and disappeared for a long slash.

Sucks that it's on a Monday, but if you're willing to make the trip to LA, they're hitting the excellent El Rey Theatre on Saturday, September 13. If you can get your lazy ass to San Diego's Finest Venue that Monday, you're in for a very, very rare treat.

And speaking of a treat, here's something from this post that Microsoft Word suggested I change. The world needs teachers.