Old Show Report...

Rakim & Ghostface Killah with Brother Ali
Mezzanine
San Francisco
11-2-07
















Oh, get hype. Get mad hype for this line-up.

First up, Brother Ali, an albino Muslim from Minneapolis via Madison, Wisconsin who was recently written up in Rolling stone of all publications and totally rips on the mic, warmed the crowd with his stylish flow and wit.










Then, Ghostface aka Pretty Tony aka Tony Starks aka Iron Man got on stage and held mad sway over the Mezzanine crowd.










And lest I forget to mention the backing band, The Rhythm Roots All Stars, funked the joint up on more than one occasion, providing apt segues between headliners.










Here's Dave and Myrna. We kicked it upstairs most of the night, among the VIPs...










...who received this kind of treatment, which is mad trill, yo.
















Then, the moment the crowd was waiting for, the moment I've been waiting for since I was a pimply-faced pre-teen up in my bedroom with Paid In Full and Follow The Leader (on cassette, bootlegs, bought underneath the City Hall train station, Philly, circa 1988...)









It's good to be king. All hail Rakim...

...on to the next show.



Stars
Bimbo's 365 Club
11-13-07

setlist:
The Beginning After The End
Take Me To The Riot
Set Yourself On Fire
Elevator Love Letter
The Ghost Of Genova Heights
Bitches In Tokyo
One More Night
Personal
Look Up
Midnight Coward
Window Bird
Soft Revolution
Sleep Tonight
Reunion
Your Ex-Lover Is Dead
Ageless Beauty
In Our Bedroom After The War

Encore:
The Night Starts Here
Favorite Book
What I'm Trying To Say
Calendar Girl
Barricade

Okay, Stars is about as theatric as a band can get without being camp. That's not an insult, but Stars is definitely one of those bands that I've discovered people love to hate. For me, I love them because they so narrowly walk that line between heartfelt and cheesy that the uninitiated may be a bit uncomfortable by Torq and Amy's lyrics. I've watched as someone close to me squirmed while listening to One More Night, I guess the lyrics in there were too real, or maybe that person was going through something in their life that was upset by that song. That to me is the mark of great music, there's been times I hated the singer for telling me what was happening to me.

Anyway, this show was special. My shitty camera decided not to work, so no pics.

The Freewheeling Yo La Tengo...

...with Jonathan Richman
The San Francisco Palace Of Fine Arts
November 1st, 2007















I keep lucking out. Is every venue in San Francisco absolutely amazing or what? Except for Bill Graham and his damn "civic auditorium", I can't really say that my concert going experience in this city has been anything less than completely awesome. And I'm not just saying "awesome", I am actually filled with awe (and wonder) at the beauty of the concert halls here. I guess some cities just don't fuck around with music...

Anyway, The Palace Of Fine Arts is actually a 1,000 seat theatre* in the Marina district. It's kind of like a museum inside.

















Jonathan Richman killed it. Here's all I know of JR; I have that one album with The Modern Lovers, the one with Roadrunner that is considered along with Iggy and The Stooges and MC5 as "proto-punk" or the beginnings of punk rock. I also know my homie Jens Lekman is a huge fan of his.

Tonight, he was comedic, thoughtful, pensive, hilarious, awkward, and played some really nice little Flamenco licks on his classical guitar.










The main event: YLT. So basically, I was unaware that they were doing this "Freewheeling" thing where they take questions and requests from members of the audience. It was the most interactive I've ever seen a band. Even more than Phish, what with all their gimmicks and tricks that got the phans super-involved almost every show, YLT was on a different level, reveling in the spotlight and more entertaining than any movie I've ever seen (not to mention it was worth way more that the $30 I paid for this experience).










So in between every other song or so, the house lights come up and there's a 5 minute impromptu question and answer session, then a few requests were fielded and YLT would try to figure out what to play from those requests. It was super cool, they were all over the place, talking about the Mets' and baseball one minute, The Simpsons and Troy McClure the next, talking smack on San Francisco for only one show (LA's getting three, "read it and weep!"), their experiences on this tour, et cetera.

setlist:
Madeline
Mr. Tough
Q & A
My Little Corner of The World
Q & A
Black Flowers
Q & A
Little Honda
Speedy Motorcycle (Daniel Johnston song)
Q & A
Raw Power (Iggy & The Stooges' song)
Q & A
Let's Save Tony Orlando's House
Q & A
Gee, The Moon Is Shining Bright (Dixie Cups' song)
Q & A
Autumn Sweater
? (Zombies' song)
Q & A
Drug Test
? (Kinks' song)
Q & A
When U Were Mine (Prince song)
?

Encore:
Did I Tell You
?

Sorry for the holes in that setlist. I did my best, I'm not a long-time fan of YLT. Funny story how Yo La Tengo discovered me: so apparently they allow people to tape their shows and trade tapes around, much like a band previously mentioned earlier in this article. (I'm not writing their name again, therefore I'm not going to let them hijack this essay). So I found them on a tape trading list, downloaded a show and I've been a fan ever since. I recommend getting The Sounds Of Science live if you can, it's pretty amazing.

Okay, peace out.

* - I spell it the olde English way.

Broken Social Scene PRESENTS...

...KEVIN DREW'S Spirit If...
The Fillmore
San Francisco, CA
10.29.07

So it technically wasn't an official BSS show, but it really rocked nonetheless. I was part tourist/museum gawker, part "serious journalist", and part rock fan/devil horns/w00t w00t!!1!

Allow me to explain each in minor detail.










Here's the museum part. Seriously, this place is a music mecca. Every sell-out show, that night's poster goes up on the wall and everyone in attendance gets one on the way out. So here's the first wall, from a Dance Party in 1965. Oh, Bill Graham...

















Neil Diamond was here, and I bet he killed. Actually, it was Super Neil, bitch.

















Here's our opener, New Buffalo. Solo. Woman. She didn't suck. Piano and effects and all that stuff a la Laura Veirs (who I'll be seeing again in 3 weeks, opening for The Decemberists. I think she's with her Saltbreakers band, however...) or St. Vincent (whom I just saw open for The National, who I can't stop talking about lately). So definitely there's a trend in solo woman acts around lately, which I think is a good thing. Then there's no Stevie Nicks-Lindsey Buckingham drama, which actually made for some really good songs...










Anyway, I really like The Fillmore. Check out the classy interior.










I heard some indie snobs arguing before the show (one of the benefits of going to shows alone is the wallflowering I do and eavesdrop on nerds like me) that it really couldn't be considered a real BSS show because so many core members were missing, but after tonight I'm pretty sure that Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning are Broken Social Scene and the rotating cast of musicians are just that, rotating. These two are the heart and soul of the band, and I can't really see them actually getting every "member" of BSS to churn out a solo album worth noting except for these two. I should've took their pic and got their names to make them look like fools.










Pics here are kinda blurry, in fact the night got blurry from here on out. I jotted down so many half-assed notes and song names, but alas, no complete (or even ordered) setlist from this show. I met this gang upstairs at the bar and they bought me mad shots of Jager and beers until I forgot things like where I parked. Then I remembered I took the BART and the owner of a 2005 silver Suzuki somewhere laughed at me.










Fun times! I like making friends that you don't have to see again. It's like a one-night stand. I'm not looking for friendship right now, sorry. Let's just hang and dance and laugh and drink and listen to really good rock music and then never see each other again.










Some songs played included:

Farewell To The Pressure Kids
Cause=Time
Back Out On The ...
Superconnected
Gang Bang Suicide
It's All Gonna Break
Ibi Dreams Of Pavement
Lover's Spit
When It Begins










Here's my shitty close up of Brendan Canning.










All in all, a really good show in an absolutely stellar venue. I was able to move around and snap off a ton of pictures without getting hassled by security at all. Drinks were pricey, but I was able to get rid of my extra ticket in like .65 seconds after arriving in front of The Fillmore before the show.

Next Shows:
Thurs, Nov. 1st - Yo La Tengo
Friday, Nov. 2nd - Ghostface Killah with Rakim

Interpol...

Hey there, how's it going? Wanna hear about the worst concert experience ever?

I thought you would like to read about my Saturday night with the shittiest security guard in the entire world, she works at San Francisco's Bill Graham Civic Auditorium.

I'm going to call her PigVomit, because she looks like a pig and makes me want to vomit. (Thanks to Howard Stern for that one...) Anyway, here's the scene: some of you may or may not know that I work with a young disabled man who attends college at UC-Berkeley, and we like music. We really like music. So when I got the pre-sale offer a while back alerting me that Interpol was going to pay us a visit, we jumped at that chance, naturally.

So this last Saturday night we went to Bill Graham to see Interpol. After navigating our way up to our special seating, I was told that someone in that section would get me a chair so I could sit next to Conor. (Don't worry, he's got his own chair, it cost more than my last car...) When I arrived in the section I asked the security guard if she'd be so kind as to get me a chair. She said "uh-uh" and stared at me. Now, a lot of actual retarded people live in San Francisco and I'm sure the city is an EOE, as Bill Graham's large building is in reality owned by the city and they may employ these retards. She wasn't retarded I finally learned, just a huge bitch. Imagine the most difficult person you've ever met. In my world she is a 350 lb black woman with breath of death and eyes of pure evil.

Literally, huge. Like 350 lbs of mean. So anyway, after I asked why I couldn't have a chair, she said that I could but our companions wouldn't get a chair. Okay, I guess. There are a bunch of open seats in the section behind us, they'll manage. But I'd like MY seat, to sit on. For the show, of course. She stonewalled me until the security guard from the next section came over and was like, "Let's chill, I'll help you." This dude was pretty rad, he was like "I'll get you 3 chairs but you might not be able to sit in that section." Which was cool with me.

When we carried the chairs over to the section we were to sit, PigVomit came over and took the chair I was carrying, then took the two chairs dude was carrying and told us again, "uh-uh". I think she had a hard time speaking English properly because of her missing teeth, which no doubt were melted by the intensity of her foul breath. At this point I was like, "Fine, I can stand" but she was all, "No no, peoples behind you can't be seeing through you!" She was getting more and more belligerent as I remained calm, actually I was about to crack up laughing at her, but she's one of these fuckheads who takes her nine dollar an hour job serious enough to pass up dental insurance and toothpaste, so I played along.

So other guy, I'm gonna call him McRad because he was really trying to diffuse the sitch and PigVomit wanted to keep arguing. He was like, "C'mon, do this for me..." and she was not having that. Then, when I thought the tables were turned, she was like, "Come o'er here and talk to me." So we went down these steps to a hallway and she proceeded to tell me that because I didn't say "Please" when I first asked for chairs is why she didn't help me. She said my attitude was "very demanding". This is when I lost it and laughed my ass off at her. She was like "apologize" or else. So I said sorry, but then I got the "I don't believe you".

This is where I really fucked up: I asked her what this was really all about and that this was her tripping on power. This is where she grabs me and starts to escort me OUT OF THE BUILDING. So my friends and McRad followed us down stairs where I was actually escorted out of the building! McRad was like "stay right here, I'm gonna get my supervisor" just as the show was starting. I'm like, "Okay, it's a new song so, I'm not going to miss anything good"

So the supervisor came out a few minutes later. He's all, "Tell me your side, please." So I told him and it matched up with McRad's because I didn't need to lie. He was like, "Sorry for the inconvenience, sir, enjoy the show..." and I went back in, right as Obstacle 1 starts and I'm all pissy now because this is my jam.

Anyway, I get to see most of it, but PigVomit wants to go another round. She tried to pull my chair out from under me after I was sitting for a minute. I told her that her supervisor let me back in and that we were all cool to sit here and to step off. She's like, "I ain't got no supervisor, I am my own supervisor." Anyone who has ever said this is either 1) completely deluded or 2) a complete asshole. They teach you to say this kind of shit in Power Trip 101 class and again in Intro to Asshole Security.

I smiled at her, said that I was very sorry for the misunderstanding (in my sweetest voice, man can I act!) and for her to have an excellent evening. When I'm being a dick, I use words like excellent and misunderstanding. Her face was priceless as I turned back to the show. I couldn't really relax because she was standing behind us all night, but Interpol's droning rhythms eased me back into their world.

Let me actually review/describe the show now.

I like a few of the new songs, All Fired Up is fucking the tightest jam on that album, and I like Pace Is The Trick and Who Do You Think? quite much, actually, the second half of the album I think is really good. Not great a la Antics or TOTBL, but serviceable enough. However, of the three new songs I like, they played zero.

Fair enough.

setlist:
Pioneer To The Falls
Obstacle 1
C'mere
Narc
Say Hello to the Angels
The Scale
Mammoth
Take You on a Cruise
No I in Threesome
Slow Hands
Length Of Love
Rest My Chemistry
The Heinrich Maneuver
Evil
Not Even Jail

Encore:
Untitled
Stella Was a Diver and She Was Always Down
PDA

It was a pretty good show despite that trifling ho at the onset of the evening. I was really impressed by their intensity as a live band. Carlos D didn't move around all that much, but he still throws down some of the greatest basslines around. Daniel Kessler, however, was all over the stage like a little mad man. And Sam Fogarino's drumming was quite on point, even getting a little extended fill between Stella and PDA. I thought he was gonna go off, but PDA's opening drums started and I knew this was gonna be it for the night.

Paul Banks is a frontman, and I think he was born to be a lead singer in a band with the coolest fucking self-image on the planet, all this mysterious shit with the black and red. And smoking on stage? Cigarettes do make people look cooler...

Interpol rules.

But the Bill Graham as far as a venue? Okay sight lines, shitty security, a super strict no camera policy, and the tickets were like 42 a piece, but Interpol's extreme radness overruled all things shitty that night in October, my friends.

cell phone pics (blecch)

Jose Gonzalez...

Jose Gonzalez with Tiny Vipers
October 8, 2007
Great American Music Hall
San Francisco, CA

(Note: What follows is an exact transcription of the author's seemingly vague notes from that evening. I put my editorial notes in italic. So, results may vary. You have been warned...)

The venue: Think mini-Troc, insane filagree, ornate
patina, rococco (1907 post-quake)
- was a burlesque house, featured fan-
dancers (called the Music Box after war)
- fell on hard times during 60s-70s
- beautifully mirrored walls, balconies, the
ceiling! 2 renaissance-style paintings
on either end.

Here's one of the columns









Opener: Tiny Vipers
- acoustic, picking n strummin folk,
guy/girl duo - she sounds like J. Newsom
(vocally) he - besides bass not much
else. I'd like to hear their album, I couldn't
hear them as their set progressed (as the
place filled up...)

Tiny Vipers (signed to SubPop? wow...) and all these blurry pics are not my fault. The GAMH has a no-flash policy. Actually, when I asked the gentleman by the side of the stage what the photo policy was, he said it was up to the bands. This guy is also how I got all the history facts on this place.









Jose Gonzalez - How Low (opener*)

- Encore - Deadweight On Velveteen
Crosses
Love Will Tear Us Apart

overall, he killed it.
So powerfully emotive
w/o being sappy or corny.
Shush over crowd, he
owned us.

Playing at the speed of light, Mr. Gonzalez...









- He walked
by me before
the show. He's
short.









Shhhhhhhh! Genius at work









Suddenly! the hottest fashion for the over-40 set
poncho thingys
I swear, every woman there over 40 was wearing one of those throw ponchos, those things that look like a shag rug with a hole in the middle.

* - then I met the most beautiful young woman
named Rosa. She drinks Jameson on the rocks! I
bought her one and we hung out all show. Then we
went to a Thai Restaurant. She's really pretty and
smells like fresh flowers. Floras el fresco? mmmmmm

I'll probably never see her again, she lives in San Jose (I love to crush on cuties that are geographically undesirable...) but as you can see, there is no setlist except opener and encore, because I was flirting and making googly eyes over at this shorty. Whom I'll probably never see again...

The Shins...

The Shins
Greek Theatre
Berkeley, CA
10/5/07

I'm not going to say too much about this here show I went to last week, it was pretty solid I guess. The Shins don't really do anything all that special, they write really awesome pop songs and go on tour and play them and then do that again. Outside of the lights and the amazing encore, I felt that The Shins were kind of going through the motions here in Berkeley, and lead singer James Mercer actually forgot the opening lines to Australia and they had to restart it. Anyway...

setlist:

Kissing The Lipless
Turn On Me
Sea Legs
Mine's Not A High Horse
When I Goose Step
Girl Inform Me
Turn A Square
New Slang
Australia
Saint Simon
Girl Sailor
Gone For Good
Sleeping Lessons
A Comet Appears
Pam Berry
Phantom Limb
Know Your Onion!

E:
Caring Is Creepy
The Past And Pending
So Says I

...and that's all folks.

Oh, pictures:

The National...

...is probably my favorite band/album of 2007. I don't know if I'm necessarily hinting that Boxer is my Album Of The Year, but I wouldn't bet it against it. Not yet at least...

Anyway, I'm way behind in reviews, so I'm going to try to get these out very soon:
Interpol, Menomena, Wilco, Devendra Banhart, Minus The Bear, Jose Gonzalez, Jens Lekman, MIA, Spoon, Stars, Kanye West, Iron & Wine, Hezekiah Jones, St. Vincent and Beirut.

That's like 15 reviews. They will be short and glib and whatever I probably won't even do them...

So there's all this then:

The National
The Grand Ballroom
San Francisco
9/29/07

setlist:
Start A War
Mistaken For Strangers
Secret Meeting
Brainy
Baby, We'll Be Fine
Slow Show
Lit Up
Squalor Victoria
Abel
All The Wine
Racing Like A Pro
Ada
Apartment Story
Daughters of The SoHo Riots
Fake Empire
About Today

E: Green Gloves
Mr. November

And they ruled the whole show through.

On to the pics section, still shitty but getting better than the cell phone...

Here's our opener, St. Vincent, which is actually just one woman, Annie Clark, and she's pretty righteous.















These are blurry and shitty, but mildly psychedelic as well

























These are slightly better. Check out this dude's bald spot. Couvre time!



































We like violins.










Shot from the top during the Encore.










...and there you have a fine show.

NEW Radiohead

I just paid 10 dollars for the New Radiohead album!!!

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart...

Wilco
Greek Theatre
Berkeley, CA
August 24, 2007

Setlist:
Sunken Treasure
You Are My Face
I Am Trying To Break Your Heart*
Either Way
Handshake Drugs
Pot Kettle Black
War On War
Shake It Off*
Side With The Seeds
A Shot In The Arm
Impossible Germany*
Sky Blue Sky
Too Far Apart
Via Chicago
Jesus, etc.*
Hate It Here
Walken
I'm The Man Who Loves You*

Encore 1:
Misunderstood*
California Stars*
Hummingbird*
On and On and On

Encore 2:
I'm Always In Love*
Outtasite (Outta Mind)*
In A Future Age
Spiders (Kidsmoke)*

I loves me some Wilco (sorry Jeff, but it's true...) and last Friday night, eight thousand souls here in Berkeley couldn't agree more, even if Mr. Tweedy told me not to ever say that under any circumstances. But after watching this show (from the second row, stage left) I can't help saying it over and over. I loves me some Wilco.

I loves me some Nels Cline guitar solos, also. During Wilco's newer tunes Nels' prowess was fully unmasked, I don't know how this guy doesn't break strings (or explode his own head!). Not to take away from Wilco's older stuff, I became a fan of Wilco rather late in the game, sometime right before Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, and I guess you can factor in my love for both Americana and Prog-Rock. And with the recent addition of Nels Cline, Wilco is free to get proggier and noisier. Which are both good things...

Anyway; let me reiterate that The Greek is the best venue, music-wise, I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing shows at. Now the ink in the gin so to speak (or doublespeak, thank you George Orwell's 1984) is the "line" situation: only two bathrooms? Only two beer lines? Uh, be prepared to wait. Then I can wait some more, causing me to miss the first two verses of Sunken Treasure. No kudos to the architects of The Greek.

Then again, it was built in 1903 and has withstood countless earthquakes and the infamous 1922 Berkeley Hills fire. Okay, a half a kudo. Jerks...

Highlights:
-The new songs are very lovely, I was impressed with how well they go over live, being that I think most of the new album is stripped down compared to both A Ghost Is Born and their magnum opus YHF.

-Jeff imploring the crowd that "it's okay to sing along to this one..." and playing a rousing rendition (I always wanted to say that!) of Jesus, etc.

-Actually, all of Jeff's banter was both incisive and witty. Telling the crowd "you guys smell high" but warning us that "we had a long way to go to beat Portland". Later on he passed the torch (metaphorically speaking) to the Berkeley crowd.

-An 8-song double encore? It was basically like a second set of greatest hits. I kept hoping they'd play all night, but they have many more gigs after this one, so...

-During the extended middle part of Spiders, Jeff made us clap in unison, keeping the beat going for a good minute until they came back in to end the song. He also told us how the Belgians were the best at this.

-I could be a douche and say, "well, they didn't play some of my favorites, like Kingpin, Heavy Metal Drummer, or Nothing'severgonnastandinmyway (Again), but it was still an awesome show nonetheless." Wait, I guess I did just say that...

Obligatory crappy cell phone pics: