Results tagged “gigs”

Movie Of The Year

We went to see Inception at the weekend. So very very good. I don't remember the last time I had that sitting on the edge of my seat feeling when watching a movie. As it finished everyone around us let out a little sigh, and there was clapping. Been a while since I've been in a cinema when people clapped at the end. I know some people say it wasn't that good. But what do they know? Go watch it forthwith. 10/10

Living In A Flyover State

As tour schedules for bands come out I often get excited especially if it's a band I haven't seen before. Unfortunately because of where I live, just because a band is on tour, doesn't mean I'll get to see them. For Arizona is one of those pesky flyover states that bands like to avoid. If you live in LA or New York you're golden. Arizona is all a bit hit & miss. Take Interpol for example. Their tour schedule came out today. Notice anything missing? Phoenix maybe? Grrr.

Being Brown

Unless otherwise shutdown by federal judge, SB1070 goes into effect at midnight tonight. If it does, it will be a very very sad day for Arizona indeed. Not our finest hour.

Update: parts of SB1070 have indeed been blocked.

I won't say it's necessarily the most effective means of promoting a gig, but it sure is the best one I've ever seen. I can't imagine the amount of time and effort involved. A true fan that's for sure.

Stumbled upon completely by accident when taking a wrong turn in downtown Phoenix earlier today.

And because I suck, I completely forgot Sonic Youth were even playing at the Marquee.

I've been a fan of Skinny Puppy ever since I first heard Assimilate when I was a teenager. For whatever reason though I never got around to seeing them live. Until last night that is.

They put on a really really good show. If you know anything about Skinny Puppy you know that their live performances are really rather good. Ogre is something of a showman in his, er, own way. Last night he hobbled out onstage using a walking frame wearing what can only be described as a bandaged straight jacket with a dunce hat on. Of course because I suck, I left my camera at home. Ah, Flickr to the rescue.

The setlist was really rather good. I was surprised they didn't preview anything from the new album but they did throw in some goodies. Rodent, Assimilate, and Worlock are some of my favorites. I was a little disappointed that they didn't play Smothered Hope but they closed the show with Far Too Frail so who can complain at that?

The show was only marred by two things. Firstly the sound was very loud and very muffled. Not the fault of the band though, I've seen a number of concerts at the Marquee Theater and the acoustics are abysmal. Secondly, Ogre didn't know what city they were playing in.

Now, I don't ask much from a concert. But there are two things I do expect when I hand over my cash. The lead singer remembering the words to the songs and the band remembering what city they're playing in .

"Thank you, Albuquerque." Really? Albuquerque?

10/10 for performance. 0/10 for having a clue.

Setlist

Love In Vein
Hatekill
Addiction
Dogshit
Deadlines
Tormentor
Politikil
Pedafly
Rodent
Pro-Test
Morpheus Laughing
Ugli
Assimilate

Encore

Worlock
Brap
Far Too Frail

[Moozik: Front 242 - Rhythm Of Time]

Skinny Puppy are one of my favorite bands of all time. I remember listening to my first Puppy album as a teenager and being absolutely hooked. For whatever reason I never got around to seeing them live though.

I'll be remedying that situation however.

December 6th at the Marquee Theater in Tempe. I'm so there. If it's half as good as the ohGr show was last year, I'll be a happy boy.

[Moozik: Ministry - Over The Shoulder]

I remember reading a magazine a few years back, I think it might have been Q, that had a big list of bands you must see before you die. I'm not entirely sure why that popped into my head today but it did, so I decided to have a think about of my own personal list of bands I've yet to see.

I've split my choices into three lists. The first of which is probably the most realistic, the last involves some witchdoctor resurrection and/or sciencey mojo.

1) Stand a decent chance of seeing these bands/artists because most/all of the original members are still together.

Duran Duran
Red Hot Chilli Peppers
Ministry
Iron Maiden
Rammstein
Peter Gabriel
The Killers
Marilyn Manson
Killing Joke
Jean-Michel Jarre
Human League
Gary Numan
Van Halen

2) Probably won't ever get to see unless by some miracle they decide to re-form.

New Order
The Smiths
Bauhaus
The Stone Roses
Yazoo (missed their reunion shows last year)
Japan

3) Some members will need to either come back from the dead or someone will have to invent time travel.

Joy Division
Queen
The Doors
The Beatles
Mozart
Nirvana
Elvis
Pavarotti

What about you, who would you like to see if given the chance?

[Moozik: Front Line Assembly - Torched]

Recently I've seen Songkick mentioned a few times and thought it might be fun to check out. Basically Songkick allows you to keep track of all the concerts you've ever been to but in a social networky kind of way. They call it your gigography. Now, I'm really not all that interested in joining yet another social network site but thought it might be somewhat interesting for about 10 minutes to have a gander at past gigs I've been to so I signed up.

And that's where I ran into my first problem. I'm incredibly crap at keeping old concert ticket stubs. So while I vaguely remember that I saw Iggy Pop at the Cambridge Corn Exchange some time in 1993 (?), I don't have a clue what the actual date was. Songkick allows you to search for artists, cities, and venues in the hope some kind soul has already entered the info for you. If they have, you just click "I was there" and you're done. If they haven't then you're kind of buggered without your ticket stub.

So all my initial enthusiasm bit the dust rather quickly as there are so many gigs that I won't be able to add unless someone does all the legwork for me. Oh and then I still have to actually, you know, remember that I was there and manage to get the right year - was it the gig they did in 1991 or 1992? Hmm...

Still, I did manage to remember and find the first ever concert I went to. Erasure at the Birmingham NEC, 15th November 1988. I was 14.

Do you remember your first concert?

Update: see what I mean about remembering? Shakin' Stevens seems to have preempted Erasure by a couple of years. Cambridge Corn Exchange, I was 12.

[Moozik: The Beloved - Hello]

The South By Southwest festival is one of the largest music festivals in the US, with more than 1,400 performers playing in venues in Austin over four days every March. What's particularly cool about the event is that they always release "sampler" MP3s of the bands playing at the festival. It's an amazing way of finding new bands & artists you've never heard of before.

This year they've released a whopping 6.15GB of music. That's 1267 music files. The files themselves are broken up into 3 torrents to download individually. I downloaded them all at the weekend and now begins the major project of listening to them all.

With 1267 songs, there's going to be an awful lot of utter poo to wade through. I'm focusing on the first torrent of files for the next couple of weeks, 519 songs in total. In the first pass I get rid of stuff I absolutely hate. It's quite easy as some songs are immediately recognizable as utter bollocks within the first 20-30 seconds of listening. Then with whatever I have left over after that first pass, I listen to again to see if there's anything really worth keeping.

I really don't know how long this whole listening project is going to take but if I come away with at least a handful of new bands that seem interesting it will be worth it. Or not. I'll know in a few weeks.

[Moozik: Jane's Addiction - Pigs In Zen]

After feeling better at the start of the weekend, the suck came back again on Sunday with full force. Ended up totally kicking my arse for the past few days. What happened to the good ol' days where I had the immune system of a superhero? Where did that go? Anyway, today things are good, all better, miraculous recovery, feel like a new man. etc etc.

So, to the actual point of this post. Gigs. This year might turn out to be a little bit better than last as far as concerts go. Last year because of work trips and vacations I only ended up going to three (The Birthday Massacre, The Cure, and ohGr) and missed some good shows. Last month I was thinking 2009 wasn't really shaping up to be anything special either as Combichrist was the only gig I'd been to. Then slowly but surely, there were some signs of concert life.

The next few months seem to be pretty good actually.

The Killers - Dodge Theatre, April 15th.
Franz Ferdinand - Marquee Theatire, April 18th
Nine Inch Nails/Jane's Addiction - Cricket Pavillion, May 15th
Depeche Mode - US Airways Center, August 23rd

I haven't seen Nine Inch Nails since 1991 so I can't wait for that. The Killers and Jane's Addiction will be good and then my old pals DM should be amazing.

Do you have any upcoming gigs you're looking forward to?

[Moozik: Icon Of Coil - Activate]

Rejoice kids, for today Depeche Mode have announced their North American tour dates at last.

Friday, July 24th (Toronto)
Saturday, July 25th (Montreal)
Tuesday, July 28th (Washington, DC)
Friday, July 31st (Boston)
Saturday, August 1st (Atlantic City)
Monday, August 3rd (New York)
Monday, August 10th (Seattle)
Wednesday, August 12th (San Francisco)
Friday, August 14th (San Diego)
Sunday, August 16th (Los Angeles)
Monday, August 17th (Los Angeles)
Thursday, August 20th (Santa Barbara)
Saturday, August 22nd (Las Vegas)
Sunday, August 23rd (Phoenix)
Tuesday, August 25th (Salt Lake City)
Thursday, August 27th (Denver)
Saturday, August 29th (Dallas)
Sunday, August 30th (Houston)
Tuesday, Sept 1st (Atlanta)
Friday, Sept 4th (Tampa)
Saturday, Sept 5th (Ft. Lauderdale)

Oh yes, we're so going to be there, whichever venue there turns out to be ;-)

[Moozik: Combichrist - All Pain Is Gone]

Last night's Combichrist gig at the Marquee Theatre was amazing. It's been a rather long week and the combination of a frosty beverage and extremely loud harsh electronics hit the spot nicely ;-)

Black Light Burns opened and were really quite good. Their cover version of the Sisters of Mercy's 'Lucretia My Reflection' was most excellent and the crowd loved it. It was cool to see them hanging out at the bar after their set talking to fans.

[Moozik: ohGr - Shhh]

I've been a Skinny Puppy fan ever since I heard Assimilate many many moons ago. Over the years they've had many side projects and one that I've particularly liked and paid attention to is Nivek Ogre's ohGr. ohGr released their third album at the end of October and as luck would have it, came to my neck of the woods on the current leg of their North American tour last night.

Those fine chaps at the Marquee Theater wouldn't let me take my camera inside and of course my cell phone camera sucks donkey balls so I was a little disappointed to not be able to capture the show. It was really good gig and Ogre is a pretty good showman.

Highlights were amazing versions of luSid, miNUS, and Pepper. Somewhere around mid-show he sent copious amounts of feathers into the crowd via fans blowing at hurricane speeds. An entertaining idea as we were all playing keep the feathers out of the beer which didn't work. My car as a result is now a little feathery in the inside.

I was a little surprised at how empty the venue was though. It was absolutely hammering down with rain so that may have stopped some from coming out to buy tickets at the door. Still for the few hundred of us that were there, we had an absolute blast. Now, I can only keep my fingers crossed that if Skinny Puppy do release an album next year (which rumor has it they will), they decide to tour.

[Moozik: The Cure - The Only One]

Depending on which band releases a new album in any given year, my favorite band of all time tends to switch between Depeche Mode and The Cure. Getting to see The Cure in concert earlier in the year and the fact that they just released a new album this week means you can probably guess who is on top at the moment.

4:13 Dream is The Cure's 13th studio album and I must admit that after listening to it for a couple of days, I really like it. The Pornography (1981) => Disintegration (1989) years for me are the classic Cure years and I must admit that I've been a little underwhelmed with the post Wish (1992) years. So the fact that I was impressed with this album after just the first listen was a really good sign.

The album opens with Underneath The Stars. It's classic Cure. The washy guitars and distorted vocals take you off to your happy Cure place. I've loved this song ever since I heard it when they opened their concert with it. It also happens to be my favorite track on the album at the moment. I love the guitar work.

The Only One was the first single from the album and it's a poppy effort that zips along nicely. "I love what you do to my head/It’s a mess up there" is a classic Smith line.

The Reasons Why has some excellent bass work reminiscent of Hooky and this is one of my favorite songs on the album. I found myself hitting repeat a couple of times on the first play through of the album. "I don’t want to bring you down about my suicide". Robert, chripy as ever.

Freakshow changes pace entirely and I'm not entirely sure what I think about it yet. Funky is not exactly a word I feel comfortable using at the best of times let alone to describe a Cure song. But it's the only word that comes to mind. Hmm, maybe this is a grower.

Then unfortunately we have Sirensong and The Real Snow White which haven't really left any kind of impression on me. Again, they might be growers.

The Hungry Ghost is redeeming and another of my favorite songs on the album, excellent rhythm guitar and Robert in fine voice. Switch starts with some electronics and guitar distortion and ramps up into quite the head nodder. Turn this one up.

Hmm, then it's three in a row that I've found myself not immediately thinking anything of except they're Cure By Numbers songs: The Perfect Boy, This.Here And Now.With You, and Sleep When I'm Dead.

Then just to shake things up, comes The Scream. Wouldn't sound out of place on Kiss Me... and I love it. My second favorite song on the album and I have a feeling this will end up on a future fave Cure songs from any album list.

So overall, my initial impression is that this is a solid Cure album. Whether it's the best album of the post Wish era remains to be seen and it's a little to soon to tell. It is a little hit and miss but the hits are good and the misses will probably grow on me anyway.