My Night Down the Rabbit Hole

Sunday night was a treat. Sure, it would have been awesome to experience this with some friends, but everyone was busy so I had to ride solo in seeing one of my favorite bands, Frightened Rabbit, play at the Black Cat.

They've released a few new songs over the last year, a few of them quite good and several just kinda meh. But the Scottish band only makes it over to the US once a year, and they included DC in the nine-city tour so I had to make sure I didn't miss them.

The played just about everything I wanted to hear, but what made the concert so awesome was how they slightly altered the arrangement of songs we all knew well. Many upbeat songs were played more dulcet or muffled, and the inclusion of a new guitarist meant more jamming and feedback when certain songs did reach their crescendo.

If there was a downside to the night, it was the dickhead behind me who proudly (and drunkenly) proclaimed, "Fuck all y'all, I'm the obnoxious 'whoop' guy tonight" and proceeded to whoop after every damn song and sounded like jackass the entire night. Luckily I was able to maneuver a few people forward that way their ears were blasted by his annoying bullshit all night. This was capped by him singing every damn song off key and out of rhythm because of the before-mentioned changes in how the songs were played.

Nevertheless, he didn't spoil a thing for me. Of the three big highlights from the show, the first was a pared-down version of Backwards Walk, which Scott almost apologized for as if he was reliving a bad breakup with a girl in front of us and just needed to grind through that song. It was stellar, and the best rendition I've heard them do of it in the three concerts I've attended.



The second was the band playing a 6-song encore, which just normally isn't done anymore because bands and venues try to keep the time limit on shows to a hard line. And it's not like they were making up for a weak main set. By the tail end of the encore, Scott kept saying, "OK, really, just one more. You are all too fucking good tonight" as they dipped into earlier albums or plucked a favorite B side track that everyone still knew the words to.

The last highlight was the top-tier of concert highlights … the white whale of live shows … the double encore. They closed the encore with The Loneliness, which if you listen to the song below, ends with a great opportunity for crowd interaction.



They finished the song with all of us reciting that cheer, and they took their bows, left the stage and the house brought up the lights and started the house music to tell us all to go home. Well, instead of shuffling off most everyone stayed and kept on singing that chant. Over and over again.

About 5 minutes of this (and believe me, that chant isn't very long, so five sustained minutes of this was worthy of giving you goosebumps) and the band strolled back up for a tired, but always-excellent, final closer of Keep Yourself Warm. I've been to many concerts where fans try to entice the band into playing longer and 99% of them never do. When Scott and the guys came back onto the stage with fresh shots of whiskey poured, you just knew they were feeling it. We all were.

My Night With An Addiction

Celebrating Kelly's birthday today, as he inches one step closer to old man status. What better way to forget worrying about the future than reliving the past. A bunch of us are checking out Jane's Addiction tonight in Baltimore. One of the staples of my formative younger years, here's to hoping that they've aged well and still bring it.

My Bash with Bashi

It's a mix of emotions today. It's my last day with an organization I have devoted five years of my life to, which has its share of sadness and disappointment. The other share is filled with joyful expectation and excitement about starting a new job in just a couple weeks.

So I'll try to numb both emotions by listening to same awesome live music tonight. I'm seeing Kishi Bashi, a guy who mixes his own music while on stage playing it. He's armed with a violin and a horde of foot pedals that he taps to record loops and create entire 6-minute songs on the fly. I was introduced to him a couple months ago when he opened for Alexi Murdoch, and I was blown away by how good he was. Tonight, he's the opening act again, but for some band called Of Montreal that I've never heard of. Maybe they will suck, maybe they will be good. But I'm there for the opener, and I'm ready to hear him mix up some great tunes while I juggle my emotions, transitioning from one adventure to another.

My Head and Heart

Last week a couple coworkers and I went up to Baltimore to see a Seattle band called The Head and the Heart. They are a cool folk/rock hybrid band that has a way bigger following on the east coast than I would have thought (the club was PACKED and very engaged throughout the show). I had never heard of the band before so this was a new band and a new venue to check out at the same time (Ram's Head is a lot like 9:30 Club in DC only larger and more odd little nooks for getting squeezed into, which can make the music a little difficult at times to hear).



What I may end up remembering the most from the show, however, was the witnessing of probably the worst opening act I have ever seen. These fools, named Drew Grow and the Pastors Wives, put on such a shitty show that I cannot properly write it all out. The lead guitarist played three songs straight using his tongue as a pick. And it sounded like it. The crowd was not into it and the best part may have been that this band was the first I've ever seen have this sequence:

Lead singer: "OK, thanks everyone for coming out tonight. Sorry we were 10 minutes late but we figured, hey, this is Baltimore and you all are tough and can take it."
Random Crowd Comments: "Boooooooo." "You suck." "Go fuck yourselves." "Showing up on time wouldn't have helped."
Lead Singer: "We've got one more song for you, have a great night."
Crowd: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Lead Singer (after pacing the stage a little and talking to some guy on the side of the stage and then to the drummer, who was beyond question the only person with an ounce of musical talent): "Thanks a lot everyone, good night!"

Oh yeah, these fools got the hook. The crowd hated them so much they got themselves booed off stage after playing about 25 minutes of they set. It was awful. Shame that that was my lingering memory from an otherwise great show introducing me to a whole new band I like, but damn that opening act was awful.

Strapping on My Jetpack

This has been a rough couple of weeks at work, and naturally it's culminating in one of the worst weeks I've had in quite some time. So I need something good to happen. Really, anything. Someone to say something even remotely positive or reassuring. Maybe see a double rainbow or some basic human kindness. Ahh, fuck it, probably not going to happen.

My hope is to get a well-deserved release tonight as I go see We Were Promised Jetpacks, a fantastic band from my fatherland of Scotland. Want them to play loud, fast and hard. Strap on the jetpack and fly me away for a couple hours. This concert also has great potential because this is the first time that I can remember finding a band before Kelly and so it makes me feel about 4% cooler than normal to have him like a band that I recommended, since it's almost always the other way around.

Hanging with Murdoch (not the A-Team member)

It's been a while since I've been to a live show, and so luckily in the next few weeks I'll be hitting up a few new ones. First up is tonight's concert featuring Alexi Murdoch. I first heard him when he dominated the Away We Go movie soundtrack. The music was perfect for that movie and I ended up getting hooked on his stuff. It's good acoustic music to have on in the background when working or when people are hanging out.

My Night with Toad

Tonight I'm getting in the Delorean and going back in time to hear one of my favorite bands of my youth.

Back in grade school I really got into Toad the Wet Sprocket. Like most people, I first heard them through their song All I Want, which was OK, but once I got the album it was filled with several other much better tracks. Hell, I liked them so much that I can admit to using one of their song lyrics in our 8th grade graduation book. We were supposed to only submit one lyric that we liked, but I wanted two, and since I was creating the graduation book as part of a class, I cheated. So alongside an Aerosmith lyric (of course), I used a Toad lyric, "Whatever happens will be." Wow, wasn't I deep at the tender age of 13? At least it was better than a couple other people's bullshit usage of Poison or Boyz II Men. Idiots.

Since then I bought every album and was bummed when they broke up. Never got to see them live, and I figured that was the end of it. They got back together, briefly, early in the aughts but I didn't hear about it until after it happened, which was a damn shame. Luckily they decided to get back together (again ... they like to break up and get back together A LOT ... kinda like UofL fans), and once I heard about the show I was first in line (well, online) to buy tickets.

I've got a setlist in my head of what I hope they play, but I'll just be happy to see them, and maybe hope they stay together long enough to make a new album.

My Night with a Pure Heart

Tonight I'm checking out a band I'm a fan of, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. I honestly don't know how I found out about this band, but I think they were one of those "People who like this album also like these ..." recs from Amazon when I was browsing for some new music last year. Anyway, I got their first album, loved it, and have their other two albums as well. Should be a great show, plus I'm convinced Kelly and I will easily be the oldest dudes there.

Don't Be Frightened ... Again

Got to see one of my favorite bands again last night. Frightened Rabbit was wrapping up the U.S. tour so I wanted to make sure I checked them out since they probably won't be back stateside for another couple years.

The opening act, Plants and Animals, was decent but it didn't sound like they've figured out what kind of band they want to be. Good set, but every other song sounded like they were appealing to a different crowd than the one before.

Once we got to the main act, things livened up right quick. They played a little longer because they are at the end of the tour, which was nice for the crowd. They played just about every track off their two newest albums, which was awesome. The only downer were the three chicks behind us who spent damn near the whole show taking each other's picture with their phones and firing it up to Facebook. Damn annoying ladies, and your drunk asses were missing out on some great music that plays well to a frisky audience. By now you all know my love of the band. If you aren't listening to them, you should be. No excuses.

Idiot of the Day

Leave it to me to attend an awesome concert yet still find someone who can take four minutes out of the evening to ruin it for me.

This dipshit brought his infant child to an outdoor rock concert that didn't end until almost 11 at night. Yeah, that's not super-late, but for an infant? Did he buy him a beer too?

Thankfully Dan was there and lent me his knowledge being the father of a 13-month-old kid. "Yeah, that's an infant, dude. Not a child. That kid can't be older than one or two months."

As I loudly said, "That's about the dumbest thing I've ever seen," I could clearly seen Dan nodding his head. I think he wanted to thrash that dude in public for being such an idiot. I don't think I would have stopped him. Later on, when we were checking out the merch table for any good t-shirts, Dan noticed a sign and said, "Why come to a rock concert if you have to buy ear plugs?" I angrily told him you would if you brought a 1-month-old to the show. He quickly said, "What an idiot."

Yep.

My Night in the Arcade

Got an awesome surprise yesterday: things fell through for Ashley and so Dan had an extra ticket to the Arcade Fire show last night. Spoon was the opener. It was awesome.

I took a short little movie clip just to give you a sense of how they were, but it definitely doesn't do them justice.



We got there a little late and only caught the last 45 minutes or so of Spoon, but it was great to see such a large crowd there supporting and getting into it since it was pretty early in the evening for live music just outside DC (Merriweather Post Pavilion is a sweet spot, but a pain in the arse to get to). Several drinks in me and once the sun went down, it was time to rock it. And Arcade Fire definitely brought the stuff.

If you aren't familiar, Arcade Fire is a band with eight members in it. No shit, eight. And they all play different instruments throughout the show. There's usually two drummers going at once and two violinists and all sorts of shit. They just rotate around and different people do different stuff, so very entertaining and active. I also gotta give it up for them bringing in a solid show considering less than 24 hours earlier they had played a live show in Madison Square Garden that was streamed on YouTube, so you know they had to bring their A game for the corporate sponsors.

Thankfully, they had tons of energy and the crowd there was vocal and bouncing around and just generally being a great outdoor rock concert audience. I would still love to see Arcade Fire in a small setting jamming out to maybe 500-600 people just to see how they adjust but I'll take it. Just another great show in a great summer of live concerts for me.

For a fuller video, try this.

Pickup Artists

Tonight continues my season of concerts. So far this summer I have seen The National for a second time and also seen Frightened Rabbit. Next up is the Silversun Pickups, and as the young folks say, they rock. I'm not a big fan of DAR as a concert hall, because it removes the energy in ways since everyone has seats and it's not a general admission type of venue, but I'm still guessing they will kick ass. This is one of the tracks I look forward to hearing tomorrow night, Panic Switch.