What Show Did You Just See?

[FiddleCastro]

Friday: Saw Deervana and Torres,
Saturday: Saw Royal Canoe and Alt-J, realized it was only 10pm then hopped on a train and caught Waxahatchee and Screaming Females in Brooklyn. Full reviews coming soon 

[Jared]

The Ottawa Bluesfest has just finished, and it was great that FiddleCastro could come up for half of it.  Over the 10 days, I saw the following:

Femi Kuti
Jimmy Eat World
The Black Keys
Camera Obscura
Frank Turner (tail end of his show)
Flogging Molly (only parts)
She & Him (may have been the most disappointing show of the festival)
Camp Radio (Ottawa band that plays indie rock-pop similar to Dinosaur, Jr's "Farm")
Justin Townes Earle
Amadou & Miriam
Fitz & the Tantrums
Neko Case
Belle & Sebastian (only about 20 minutes, should have stayed longer)
Sharon Van Etten (excellent show)
Fevers
Shaky Graves
The Joy Formidable
Wu-Tang Clan (just about 15 minutes)
Rocky Lawrence
Hannah Georgas
Diamond Rings
Eric Burdon
The Goodluck Assembly
The Specials
The Harpoonist & the Axe Murderer
Mother Mother
Atlas Genius
Animal Collective
Solange
Passion Pit
Jack Pine and the Fire
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
The Tragically Hip
Loon Choir (Ottawa band that has an Arcade Fire bent)
Matthew Good
TJ Wheeler & Friends
Balkan Beat Box
Roberta Bondar
Richard Perso (twice - he's a young Aussie, one-man band)
Imaginary Cities
Firebelly
Austra
Phosphorescent
Bjork (mind-blowing show)
Blues in the Schools (elementary and high school-aged kids get to play a couple of songs on stage)
Alice in Chains
Alejandro Escovedo
Yukon Blonde
B.B. King

Photos can be found here:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/benyung6/sets/72157634525251201/

How was Shakey Graves? I'm going to a Shovels and Rope show he is opening for this friday and was wondering if I should get there early.

[FiddleCastro]

Yeah Yeah Yeahs at Barclays Center 
Amazing, Rocking, and a beautiful celebration of their music. Have loved this band for a very long time.

[Crispy]

Nice! And wow, that's a big picture.

[Fully]

Nice! And wow, that's a big picture.

You know what they say about men with big pictures ...large apertures.

[FiddleCastro]

Meh, too lazy to fix that. Y'all can see my pics I took here, since its obvious you're all not using 70" flat screens as computer monitors

http://blog.mahgeetah.com/post/61735887595/yeah-yeah-yeahs-at-barclays-center-9-19-13-photos

[Fully]

Meh, too lazy to fix that. Y'all can see my pics I took here, since its obvious you're all not using 70" flat screens as computer monitors

http://blog.mahgeetah.com/post/61735887595/yeah-yeah-yeahs-at-barclays-center-9-19-13-photos

You know what they say about men with ridiculously large monitors....blind.

[Crispy]

There you go, Rich. I like this one:

[dmooney99]

I saw Vampire Weekend on Thursday night at the Mann (Skyline stage).    I had never seen them before and wanted to, Cool concert.  Played lots off their latest album except the one I really wanted to hear cause it's my favorite, Worship You  I had a feeling they weren't going to play it before the show cause I don't think it's a "popular"  song or single and they hadn't played it before.

Some video I shot:
Vampire Weekend- Obvious Bicycle@ Mann Music Center

Vampire Weekend- Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa@ Mann Music Center

[FiddleCastro]

I saw Julia Holter play last night at Music Hall of Williamsburg. Apparently there was a lot of stuff going on around town last night... The XX at Radio City, Local Natives at Terminal 5, iamamiwhoami in Brooklyn, and of course Lionel Richie at Barclays... But I chose Julia Holter over all of it. I heard some tracks from Julia a while back and heard she puts on a great live show.  I listened to her new record recently and really liked it.  But tonight I have a new appreciation for her music. 

I'm not sure what it was, but standing there at Music Hall with her music playing out in front of me, I felt like I was elsewhere, another planet, maybe? I'm not sure. For a while I just wasn't here, I just checked-out.  Every so often, I'd snap out of it, but get dragged back into it by the music. Her music and voice is beautiful. The orchestration of her songs and re-arrangement into a live format and a band featuring a saxophonist, violinist, cellist, and drummer was incredible.  If you haven't heard anything from Julia Holter, I highly recommend you check out her latest record, Loud City Song.

http://youtu.be/uulY9Qyp0sI

Julia Holter - Maxim's II

[oistheone]

Saw Bahamas last night at Massey Hall, a place I feel they were made to play. I've mentioned here before how much I dig Bahamas, but that's not going to stop me from doing it again. It's Afie Jurvanen with a drummer and (now) three angelic backup singers. Every time I see them, I fall in love with Afie's Angels (as I call his backup singers) and come away more and more impressed with how fucking talented Afie is. He's a triple-threat of the highest order (singer, songwriter, guitar-slinger) and I will do anything I can to turn more people onto his talent.

Jack Johnson, uh, closed for him, and while I find most of Jack's songs kinda blend into a soothing but unstimulating blend of easy-jam-beach-folk-pop, it's pretty damn hard to dislike the guy. He just seems so damn nice. And part of Jack's stipulations for this tour is that the bars are prohibited from selling bottled water, so they gave out cups of ice water for free -- nice touch Jack! Anyway, I was planning on only staying for a few songs after Bahamas but ended up just boogiein' the night away with Jack and his pleasant band. Bahamas ended up sitting in on a few songs too, which was nice, though having Afie and his Angels sit in with Jack is a tragic under-use of their talents. With this and Bonnaroo, I've now seen Jack Johnson twice in a few months without ever having a plan to even see him once. But hey, fun is fun. Overall, very enjoyable night of tunes!

[johnnYYac]

A couple of shows this past week...

First, J. Roddy Walston & The Business at The Washington in Burlington, IA last Friday. It's a nice little bar, the owner is a nice guy, but the locals showing up we're a real curiosity, there to drink and amazed that someone would drive 90 minutes to see a band they never heard of. I assured them they would see something great and, despite their lowbrow nature, they were, like me, blown away. We got two 45-minute sets, full of great energy. They played a number of tunes from across their discography, most unfamiliar to me then (I'm catching up).  Rod rocks the piano with Jim-like intensity, long hair flying front to back, vocals with great ferocity. If I didn't think I'd get my ass kicked, I'd have been up front rockin' out, but the few feet in front of the stage remained mostly empty, but for a couple of drunk girls dancing for one tune in the first set (nice to watch) and a couple dancing for a couple tunes in the second set (painful to watch). Met and spoke with most of the band before, during the set break, and after the show, mostly Rod himself. He's a really nice guy!  When some local guy was sharing his plans to open a pawn shop, I mouthed "save me" to Rod, he laughed and nodded understanding. Picked up their s/t vinyl, which the guys signed. A sparse crowd but J. Roddy & TB brought it!  Closed with a blistering cover of Little Richard's "Lucille" that left many jaws dropped.

On Tuesday, it was Dawes at the Englert Theatre here in Iowa City. I caught 'em while camped in front of the adjacent stage at Mountain Jam in 2011 (ran into MMJ just before, on their way to check 'em out for the first time) and again at Newport last year. Festival scenes offer one kind of experience, though having my family with me at Newport was distracting, so a chance to catch a full set in a great venue- a theater with fantastic sound- was a treat. Met Taylor Goldsmith prior to the opener (Jonathan Rice, excellent), as he was hiding in plain sight seated nearby to my right through Rice's set and he talked of what great guys MMJ are. The crowd was feeding the band great energy and they delivered a solid show in return, expressing a genuine appreciation. Taylor is a talented, if somewhat tame, guitarist with Billy Joel-esque vocals, and his brother added percussion with flair and solid vocals here and there. The guy on keys looked like he wanted to be somewhere else, but added fantastic layers of organ and piano throughout. A bit mellow for my taste, but this is a solid, tight 4-piece group and it was a great way to spend a Tuesday night.

[Fully]

Did, you go see both these shows twice, Yac?

[johnnYYac]

Did, you go see both these shows twice, Yac?

oops. Fixed. Thanks for the sarcastic heads up, Fully. I expect no less!

[FiddleCastro]

On Saturday night I saw Daugher at Terminal 5. It was their biggest headlining show ever.  I remember seeing them last year open for the Walkmen at the same venue to a very small crowd.  I came in during their set and I was able to get up to about the third row. I remember being blown away that night and a lot of people around me in the audience asked around "who was that!?"

Fast-forward to May, and Daughter's two sold out headline shows at the 600-capacity Bowery Ballroom.  These were special shows.  The crowd was into it, and Elena Tonra seemed overwhelmed by the support New York showed her those two nights, fighting back tears to thank the audience.

On Saturday, Daughter headlined the 3000 capacity mega-club Terminal 5.  Once Daughter took the stage, the very young audience went crazy, screaming and cheering on the band.  Singing along to every word, I will not forget the feeling of the audience singing along to "Youth" and I don't think Elena will either. Elena then said "I hope we're not depressing you too much on a Saturday night" which the crowd responded to with a cheer.  The band was fantastic, playing songs off of If You Leave, and their amazing EPs which sounded great in the notoriously bad sounding venue. 

It's crazy that a band I saw last October in the same venue to 1/10th the crowd just headlined there...

[MrWhippy]

Neutral Milk Hotel last night in Richmond VA.  Incredible and very moving show, the band sounds great and Jeff Mangum's voice was amazing. 

Really special to finally have gotten to see them.

[MarkW]

Baroness last night in Manchester, at a small (200?) venue.  The sound wasn't great where I was standing (too much vocals), but they played all the good ones.  Their new drummer hits his kit about as hard as anyone I've ever seen.

[FiddleCastro]

Baroness last night in Manchester, at a small (200?) venue.  The sound wasn't great where I was standing (too much vocals), but they played all the good ones.  Their new drummer hits his kit about as hard as anyone I've ever seen.

Good to hear about the new drummer. I saw them open for Clutch a few years ago, and saw them at Bonnaroo as well. Great to see them out on the road again.

[johnnYYac]

Lucius @ Cornell College, Mt. Vernon, IA last night.

Small carpeted space in their student center. Their gear took up a third of the space



I had spoken with the band online and before the show. They know Tommy's wife, Court, who was part of MMJ's management team. Also, one of their guitarists is from my homestate of NH. About 4 songs in, "we'd like to dedicate this next song to John," then proceeded to play Wonderful TWIF, which they'd covered at Solid Sound. 


This was a free show and poorly attended (maybe 60 people) but the girls were as powerful as ever with their parallel vocals and the guys provided great percussion and guitar work. The show ended with Lucius stepping away from their gear, having us form a circle around them, as they sang an acoustic cover of McCartney's Goodbye.

Not a bad way to spend a Wednesday night, and home in time to catch the last hour of the World Series game 1 (go Sox!).

[ManNamedTruth]

I've been lazy about reporting back on the shows i've been going to lately... but saw Dr. Dog last night and thought I'd share. They get better every time I see them! And the crowd gets bigger too, not always a great thing. Got annoyed with these two guys that lifted their girl up on their shoulders, but security took care of that. It's an unnecessary thing and blocks the view of people behind you, you're not more important than anyone else there. Other than that not too bad of a crowd. The new songs sounded good, and got a nice mix of old songs toward the end of the set. Toby has really emerged as their front man, even if they're kind of a dual leader type thing.


The Truth
These Days
Heavy Light
Broken Heart
That Old Black Hole
Hang On
Love
The Beach
I Only Wear Blue
Cuckoo
(First Time Live/Tour Debut)
Oh No
Stranger
How Long Must I Wait
Too Weak to Ramble
Heart It Races
(Architecture in Helsinki cover)
Jackie Wants a Black Eye
Lonesome
Encore:
The Girl
Rock & Roll
(Tour Debut)
The Way the Lazy Do
The Breeze
The Rabbit, The Bat, and The Reindeer