MGMT, Spoon & Beck w/Hollywood Bowl Orchestra Strings 09/20/2008

This past Saturday, the wife and I went to The Hollywood Bowl to check out our second most anticipated concert of 2008. Our most anticipated show of 2008 actually happened last month, when we were down in San Diego, where we had the pleasure of seeing Radiohead in concert. Surprisingly enough, even though we had wanted to see Radiohead more, this concert we went to on Saturday ended up being way more enjoyable. It was a combination of better seats and great music. Let's get to the bands.

MGMT
MGMT were the surprise of the night. We had picked up their album, "Oracular Spectacular" a few weeks ago and, despite having some good songs, it hadn't wowed us. Not until Saturday night that is. They had a short, half an hour set, but they fully convinced both my wife and I that these guys were fucking rock stars. Every song they played got cheers from the crowd. This band is fantastic live, and it was just a great way to kick off a great concert. Here's an MP3 download of one of our favorite MGMT tunes not called "Time to Pretend".

MGMT - Weekend Wars

Spoon
Spoon was next up on the bill. I've enjoyed their music for quite some time, but I'm not up on my current Spoon releases, so most of their set, while technically and musically excellent, didn't get a whole lot of crowd participation from myself and my wife. Not to say that we didn't enjoy their set. It was longer than MGMT's, every song they played sounded great. But that's what we've come to expect from Spoon, so it was business as usual with them. Not that it's a bad thing. Here's an MP3 download of one of the songs we knew, and sang along with, at the concert.

Spoon - I Turn My Camera On

Beck
Beck came on stage for a full hour and a half, and just rocked my metaphorical pants off. He did the best thing I've ever seen him do when opening a concert . . . he started off with "Loser". That got the entire Hollywood Bowl to get up and not sit down through maybe 3/4's of his set. Even I, a staunch anti-dancing in public kinda guy, got up and fucking danced like one of the drunk motherfuckers seated next to us (will get to that in a minute). Towards the end of his set, Beck brought out the Hollywood Bowl's string orchestra, and while the tone of the concert went a little mellow after that, it still did not detract from the awesome set it was. There was an encore, which included the two turntables and a microphone song (the name eludes me right now). Here's an MP3 download of "Timebomb", one of the many fun songs Beck played during his set.

Beck - Timebomb

Concert Gripes
Unfortunately, no concert at the Hollywood Bowl is perfect. Even though we had better seats than ever, we still fell subject to people who would rather talk about their personal lives, in drunk volume (which is like turning your outside voice to 11), effectively ruining a considerable chunk of Spoon's set for us. And these people were not even supposed to be seated next to us. That's concert gripe #2. When you buy tickets, and they tell you that you need to be seated at a certain seat, stay there! I don't want 15 sluts trying to crowd my section, when I paid way more than retail for it, and ruin it with their presence and retardedly loud conversations about what their douche-bag boyfriends did to them 10 minutes ago. Fucking shit.

I did get to see a rather funny altercation between a couple of young seat poachers and their rightful owners. The people that had bought the tickets that corresponded to the seats next to us had wandered off (most likely to drink) after MGMT's set, and came back just as Beck was launching into "Loser", to find these two chicks seated in their spot. Now, the people that had been there originally were tore up by now, so even though justified, they might have gone a little overboard when trying to get back their seats. All they needed to do was get an usher and get these silly bitches evicted, but the guy (it was a couple) took it upon himself to get these broads out of his seats on his own. I heard him call the chicks "bitches" repeatedly, he did a rather inappropriate dance right in front of their faces in an effort to get his seats back, and when they finally left, after him repeatedly asking them "show me your tickets bitch!", the two girls kicked the chairs over and walked off, most likely with the guy's girlfriend's purse, because now she couldn't find it anywhere.

So, there you have it. A great show, punctuated with inevitable annoying moments that were beyond our control.

Next month we're going to class it up and spend a night with a philharmonic orchestra. I need to dust off my blazer. I hear only fancy attire is allowed.

BAFW on Vacation (Again?)

Just how many fucking vacations do I need? Not as many as I'm getting. This is just a quick trip down to San Diego to see a relatively unknown band. I think they're getting to be known by the mainstream and we'd like to have a chance to see them in concert before they get too big. What? Radiohead is already a huge, multi-national and successful band, instantly recognized by their wondrous musical achivements?

I guess it's not a small band after all. So yeah, we got the worst seats imaginable for the concert. Seats that are in an entirely different city. But it just creates an excuse to get out of town for three days and two nights. Away from work and bullshit. I don't have anything scheduled to post for the next couple of days, but the guys over at Analog Medium (also accessible through the links menu in the sidebar) might be posting up a review of mine within the next couple of days. Check them out, they don't get nearly enough vacations.

BAFW @ Gnarls Barkely @ The Hollywood Bowl 07/27/2008

BAFW loves live music. The wife and I try to catch a live concert whenever we can, and when I heard Gnarls Barkely was playing The Hollywood Bowl, well . . . we just had to get some tickets. This show was part of KCRW's "World Music Festival" and also included in the bill were Deerhoof and Fallou Dieng. Lets get to the music.

Deerhoof

We didn't have great seats, and my digital camera doesn't have great telephoto capabilities. Those specks you see down there are Deerhoof. Garth Trinidad, host of the evening and DJ over at KCRW, introduced them as one of Gnarls Barkely's favorite bands. Described as "noise pop", the band got started jamming immediately as they got on, but that's all I can say about this band. I didn't understand anything the singer was singing, most likely because she was singing in Japanese. I think. This band does jam, but they lack cohesiveness, and it just sounds like 4 people out there making their own music and somehow it's supposed to blend into something enjoyable. Well, it wasn't. It only proved to be a mild distraction. The set was short, so we didn't have to endure too much of it. I wasn't taken by my online research of the band, and their live set didn't do much to turn me into a fan.

Fallou Dieng

Again, sorry about the pictures. Those specks of people you see there is Fallou Dieng and his band. They're from Senegal, and again, I didn't understand much of what was being sung. They were marginally better than Deerhoof, but only because their songs sounded like they were well put together. A lot of percussion and crazy dancing enhanced the performance. They didn't turn me into a fan with their set, but they also didn't leave me scratching my head wondering what the fuck I had just listened to.

Gnarls Barkely

As the night progressed, it got harder and harder to get good pictures with my camera. That's supposed to be Danger Mouse and Cee Lo, better known as Gnarls Barkely, but even I can barely recognize them, and I took the picture. They were pretty great. My wife expected them to be a little more upbeat, but I enjoyed their entire set thoroughly. I would have liked to sit a little bit closer, and in more comfortable seats. They did a pretty great encore. Cee Lo gnarled (see what I did there, knee-slapper!) through a cover of Radiohead's "Reckoner". That pretty much ended the show, and we headed down to the shuttles to get back to our car that was parked in the LA Zoo.

Upcoming shows BAFW will be at:

Radiohead @ The Coors Amphitheater in San Diego, CA. 08/27/2008
Beck w/Spoon & MGMT @ The Hollywood Bowl, LA CA. 09/20/2008 (with much better seats)

Tokyo Police Club @ The Glasshouse

My wife and I went to a concert this past Wednesday. We hadn't really been to a live music venue, which we had paid for, since last year. And that had been at the Hollywood Bowl. So, we figured it was high time to plunk some money down and support a band that we are fans of. We had paid the exorbitant convenience charges that Ticketmaster imposes on its victims a couple of months ago and had been anticipating this show for quite some time.

If you've ever been to The Glasshouse in Pomona, then you know it's just a room with a stage. Nothing fancy. The last time I had been there was probably almost 9 years ago. And it was to a Royal Crown Revue concert. I know, I used to like swing music. So fucking sue me. It was the late 90's. Everyone loved swing then. The place hasn't changed since then. It's still just that one room with a stage and a little snack area, which, I'm happy to say . . . doesn't sell $4 water bottles. That I was quite surprised about, because mark-up on beverages at concerts is almost astronomical at times. Heather was upset that there was no alcohol on sale at the premises, but that is understandable. The Glasshouse is an all ages joint. Whatever. The tickets were only 12 bucks a piece.

We got there right around the time that was printed on the tickets. Staff didn't let us actually enter until about a half hour later. Which sucked, but whatever, we were glad just to be in there. What we didn't know is that it would take just about an hour or so for the first band to get their set going. While waiting, we surveyed the crowd and found ourselves to be amongst a bunch of kids, some parents here or there, and not a whole lot of people in our same age bracket. My wife nailed it when she said that the group was made up of skinny pants emo kids sprinkled throughout with a freak here or there. I don't know what's up with these kids these days, but I saw an unnatural amount of fedora hats and ankle-high boots. I didn't get it. Maybe I'm just too old . . . but then again, I'm only motherfucking 28 years old.

The first band up was "The Virjins". Yes, with a "j". We hang out towards the back of the crowd while they performed their set. We weren't all that interested in them, and they did not surprise us much. The singer had an alright voice, but the band as a whole was just boring the shit out of us. Towards the end of their set, they got a little better, but it wasn't enough to make me a fan. To tell you the truth, the best part of their set was that it was only 8 or 9 songs long.

After a smoke break while the bands were in transition, we were treated to an actual nice surprise. We had never heard of the "White Rabbits", but they were great. A 6 man band that at times had 3 percussion instruments going, keyboards, guitars and two singers. They also had a great spirited set which didn't last long enough. They were good enough that I went to the merchandise desk afterwards and picked up their CD for 10 bucks. Which is saying a lot, because I probably buy 1 CD every couple of years.

After they were done, we finally got to see the band that had drawn us out to Pomona. "Tokyo Police Club" was fantastic. They played all of my favorite songs, and even got me to dance a little. Which is quite the fantastic feat, since I hate dancing in public. What I didn't understand much about their set, which had nothing to do with the band itself, was the kids that actually started moshing. I mean, I'd understand it if it were a hardcore punk show, but "Tokyo Police Club" just doesn't fit with that genre. Maybe it was just the kids getting excited about the great music. But it was a bit on the annoying side. We didn't end up inside the mosh-pit ourselves, but we were on the perimeter of it, having to push off a bunch of sweaty teens away from us. I secretly wanted one of them to fall and break their fucking neck. Maybe out of malice, but mostly because they were really pissing me off.

Aside from the moshing and the long delay with the first band actually making it on the stage, we had a good time at the show. It was also the last stop on the "Tokyo Police Club" tour schedule, which made us feel fortunate to have gotten a chance to experience it. If they're ever in your town, make an effort to catch their live concert. You can check out some samples of their music on a previous post of mine here. Check it out and download the free MP3's.