I still don't know sometimes how "indie" bands these days get so much publicity and sell out shows. Before, it was all about radio airplay. Now, it's about blogs, word of mouth, MySpace and Pitchfork to make you famous. Take the Cold War Kids for example. An awesome band of four from Los Angeles whose soulful songs and rather amusing live show who were relatively "small" just a few months ago and now have sold out GAMH.
I first saw Cold War Kids open up for Tapes 'n Tapes at Cafe du Nord last June (review). I was really surprised of how great they were, and I even thought that they were better than Tapes 'n Tapes. Like most bands that come through this city, the more popular you get, the more likely you'll play a bigger venue. So, Cold War Kids played the Independent when they opened up for Apollo Sunshine, of all bands (review). Now, they're selling out their own headlining shows.
GAMH was packed and the crowd was really into Cold War Kids as well as opener, Delta Spirit. Cold War Kids played the usual songs off their LP, with classics like "Hang Me Up to Dry," "Hospital Bed," "We Used To Vacation" and "Saint John" getting the most reaction. They even did a cover of a John Lennon song, which totally escapes me at the moment.
As usual, Cold War Kids were energetic on-stage. They were even more so when the rest of Delta Spirit joined them for three songs, with the Delta Spirit guys just banging every percussion instrument imaginable.
And I think the best line of all is when the lead singer said, "San Francisco is our favorite Western city. Just don't tell that to L.A."
Take that L.A.!!
Beer Rating:
I haven’t seen Arcade Fire in over a year and I longed to see them again. When an opportunity arose to see them in their home town at a small church, I just couldn’t pass it up. Regardless of the cost. So, I took a Friday night red eye flight to Montréal to see Arcade Fire perform on Saturday.
My friend and I waited anxiously outside the Ukrainian Federation amongst about a hundred and fifty other persons ahead of us. The night was cold, with temperatures hovering around 10°F. I could barely feel my hands. To pass the time, we drank some beers, which actually kept us warm, and plotted how we were going to get in the front of the stage. Shortly before 8pm, the line started to move and people were being let in.
We immediately rushed downstairs. There, we split up. I went to coat check with our coats while he stood in the entrance line. Once we accomplished our mission downstairs, we ran upstairs where we found a row of seats, an upstairs balcony and a small area in the front where a small group gathered. We went up front and were ecstatic as to how front and centre we were. We were beyond belief. To celebrate, we took turns buying drinks.
The stage set up was simple, yet spoke volumes. There were numerous instruments all over the place. More so than usual. A bright and big neon bible adorned the center of the stage. I couldn’t find the set list, but didn’t care for it that much.
At approximately 8:45pm, Arcade Fire came on. The crowd went absolutely ballistic! The fans sitting on the seats immediately went up. The crowd in the front where I was didn’t push or shove, but instead clapped hysterically. A welcome relief to the usual.
They opened up with "My Body Is A Cage", which is a fantastic song from Neon Bible! The video captures the song at its peak, where Win's slow, melancholy voice then resonates with the "thud" of electric organs:
“Black Mirror” then followed which was a lot stronger live than in the album. “Keep the Car Running” was a tremendous surprise to me as well, with the energy just resonating throughout the song. “Antichrist Television Blues” was next, followed by a revived version of “No Cars Go.”
“Haiti” was next and Regine was as playful as ever:
She was even doing the whole “cowboy roping the cattle” motion with her arms. She was just delightful to watch. She sang again during “Black Wave/Bad Vibrations” but Win took the limelight in this one.
“Windowsill” has that tremendous line about not wanting to live in America no more. After visiting Montréal twice and just experiencing the greatness that is this city, that is this country, Canada, and the people that reside there, I actually shouted “I don’t want to live in America no more.” Montréal is a fabulous city, with some of the nicest people around. I love people greeting me “Hello, bonjour.”
After “Ocean of Noise,” my friend and I shouted “Come back to San Francisco!” Win gave a puzzled look, and Richard asked to repeat what we said. I then said, “We flew all the way from San Francisco to see you guys!” And my friend said, “Come back to San Francisco!” Richard got a kick out of it. Regine then asked Richard what we said. After Richard repeated it, Regine gave us a smile.
Anyways, “Ocean of Noise” was a decoy to the insanity that is “Power Out” (video). At this point, Win went down from the stage and into the crowd. My friend and I were just going berserk at this point, and the video captures that insane moment.
We went even crazier during “Rebellion (Lies)”:
Win was again down with us and my friend and I were taking turns blindfolding one another. We shouted our hearts out as we yelled out “LIES! LIES!”
“Intervention” was just brilliant and I think this is when Win started ripping out the strings from his guitar. I hopped around like mad during the last song, “Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)” and just shouted my heart out. Granted, I wasn’t the only one singing and shouting, the nearly 650 people in the audience were doing the same. I may have jumped the highest out of everyone though.
At this point, I knew that Arcade Fire was playing either the back of the venue or the basement. My friend and I immediately escaped the crowd in the front and tried to go to the back. However, our effforts were futile since security didn’t let us pass. Instead, we waited and listened to the security guard, in French, tell us what to do (video). I knew they had to go back up, so I wasn’t too worried. Apparently, they did “The Well and the Lighthouse” acoustically.
I was standing near the stairs when Win and the camera guy came up. In my hysteria, I put my camera on video and captured a good majority of Win, Richard and one of their trumpet players play an acoustic version of “Wake Up” (video).
At this point, with sweat running down my clothes, voice nearly gone from all the singing and aching joints from the icy cold temperatures and hopping around, I was in bliss. I can’t believe I’m this close to Win and here he is asking me for a guitar pick, laughing at me because of my horrible singing and patting him on the back every now and then. Richard told me to watch out since I almost got hit by the bow of his viola. It was just amazing. Purely amazing. Look how close I was:
After the show, I went downstairs to get a poster. As we left the Ukrainian Federation and walked outside the cold night, dripping in sweat and just plain exhausted from the concert, we couldn’t get the smiles off our faces. Maybe the cold had something to do with it, but we just couldn’t stop smiling and just recapping every minute of that show. When we found a nice bar to go to, we talked some more about Arcade Fire and how wonderful Montréal is.
If you want to see all my photos of this show, you can see them here.
Best show of the year so far.
Beer Rating: 0 Beer
Lily Allen is one of those guilty pleasures I have. She's a darling of the blog world, and even self-proclaimed "indie" websites like Pitchfork, Brooklyn Vegan and Product Shop NYC love her. I've always been a sucker for pop music, and Lily Allen is no exception. After missing her first two visits in San Francisco, I finally had my chance to see her at Great American last Tuesday night.
It was an MTV sponsored event, so I braced myself for the prospect of all these young kids romping around. Fortunately, that wasn't the case from my vantage point. Unlike her past performances, Lily Allen looked like she just stepped out of the tour bus. She didn't wear one of her trademark dresses. Instead, she wore jeans and a t-shirt. She even acknowledged that this was probably the only show she's ever done where we can "see her fat ass." She occassionally smoked a fag every now and then, despite her acknowledgement of California's law banning such behavior indoors. But whatever. Oh, and she had a cool gun necklace.
Show wise, she was top notch. Her backing band sounded great. She sounded great. She entertained the crowd with some funny banter.
She opened up with "LDN" which I missed. But all the songs I wanted to hear she did play...and more. "Littlelest Things" was played, and it sounds a lot like Radiohead's "Karma Police." At least the keyboard bits. Otherwise, this song is nothing close to Radiohead. She even covered Keane with "Everybody's Changing." Her cover sounded like a reggae tune. And, for the encore, The Specials' "Blank Expression." Her musical taste is diverse, and these covers proved it.
Best reaction from the crowd was when she played "Smile" and the last song, "Alfie." She remarked about how the venue smelled like weed, which then reminded her of a little brother of hers.
Overall, great show. Nothing wild or spectacular, but a good way to spend a Tuesday night.
Beer Rating:
I haven't updated in a while, but here are some new shows added on the calendar since my last post:
February:
27: Tapes 'n Tapes, Har Mar Superstar @ Mezzanine
March:
2: Le Tigre (DJ Set) @ The Supperclub
23: Sondre Lerche @ The Fillmore
April:
17: Ted Leo & The Pharmacists @ Slim's
19: Iggy Pop & The Stooges @ Warfield
25: Adult., Erase Errata @ Bottom of the Hill
26: Klaxons @ Popscene
28: Jarvis Cocker @ The Fillmore
May:
1: Mando Diao @ Bottom of the Hill
4: Frog Eyes @ Bottom of the Hill
15: Peter, Bjorn @ John @ Bimbo's
16: Peter, Bjorn @ John @ Bimbo's
30: Voxtrot, Au Revoir Simone @ GAMH
June:
1: ARCADE FIRE @ BERKELEY GREEK THEATRE
2: ARCADE FIRE @ BERKELEY GREEK THEATRE
Of Montreal played 4 nights in San Francisco. One at Bottom of the Hill and three nights at Great American Music Hall. That's crazy. I went to their Friday night show at GAMH and although it was quite enjoyable, it was too damn long.
The Blow was the second opening band. I like The Blow. It's just fun music that you can dance too. Khaela, the lead singer, was there on stage but the other guy, Jona, was not. Armed with nothing but a microphone and a friend manning her Apple laptop, Khaela sang as if she was doing karaoke. She was really funny too, although sometimes her banter went on longer than one would like. She has some dance moves, and she even did the Running Man and the Roger Rabbit. Yeah, remember those dances? "Parentheses" and "Pile of Gold" were my favourites.
After The Blow, Of Montreal came on wearing their signature "weird" costumes. Backed with three projectors (that I thought added virtually nothing to their show) and a whole bunch of theatrics, Of Montreal went through pop song after pop song after pop song. They started off their set with "Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse," and all I can think of is that crazy video for that song. I think the first few songs in their long set was from the most recent album Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? like "She's a Rejector," which was way fun to listen to, "Cato as a Pun" and "Faberge Falls For Shuggie," which is my least favourite song in their set. With their vast discography, they played so many, many songs. They even did a cover of the Fiery Furnaces' "Tropical Ice-Land," albeit much faster and rockin'.
In between all of this was lead singer Kevin Barnes' costumes. He had this body suit thing with frills on the side, then he changed into a really short kimono, then he climbed into a huge dress with a ladder underneath it, then he wore jeans and a tight fitting shirt.
And, no, they didn't play the Outback song, which we all know is "Wrath Pinned to the Mist and Other Games" from Sunlandic Twins. Would have liked to have heard it, but after all the songs they played, it was fine.
Overall, very entertaining but very long.
Beer Rating: 1/4
Remember back in the day when bands like Franz Ferdinand and the Bravery rode the wave of the new New Wave revival in indie rock? Moving Units is among those bands, but, unlike Franz or the Bravery, they never made it big. They still have this small cult following of younger scenesters who continue to be ever so faithful to the Moving Units.
Well, Moving Units haven't released an album since 2003's Dangerous Dreams. But here they were at Cafe du Nord performing in front of a sold out crowd of young scenesters. Making everyone groove to their post-punk sound that made so renowned.
Most of their set was dominated by their previous releases. They opened up with "Anyone" and that immediately got the crowd going. They sounded pretty good, even though I was in the back. If I was more energetic, I would have been in the very front dancing my arse off, but after a long work week full of stress, I couldn't be bothered. Besides, I was fine just standing in place, enjoying the music and dancing vicariously through others.
My other favourites included "Emancipation," "Scars" and "Going for Adds." They also played a couple of new songs, which pretty much sounded like their other songs. So, new Moving Units songs will be released soon, but any drastic change is not expected.
But, man, I was tired and I wish I was more into the show like the other kids. Oh well.
Beer Rating:
