I’ve gotten to see the Roots live several times, often for free, since I moved to Philadelphia. That was four albums ago, when the posters for Phrenology were plastered up and down Broad Street eventually found their way into dorm rooms. That record and the one following it didn’t hit like the phenomenon did in ’99 and before, yet the Roots crew has always lived up to its reputation for a live show. They have evolved into a full fledge production, and tend to be unmatched.
I picked up tickets for the Roots Pre-Picnic show, for which the line-up boasted about a quarter of what the actual picnic was holding other than the headliner. Though I try to avoid paying 35 bucks for a show at TLA, I wanted to see what kind of heat new names like Santogold would bring. She was about to go on as we rolled in six deep.
Appearing as a less physically attractive and tiredly formulaic copy of MIA, Santogold took the stage flanked by two dancers dressed as PE-style Black Panthers, whose occasional choreographed break from ‘statue’ to ‘spaz-dance’ was about the only interesting thing about the set. Santi herself lip-synched most of the set, one clearly crafted for ready-made fans by producers in place for this former label exec to live a rockstar dream. The absolutely garbage set confirmed my suspicion that the former A&R for Epic Records would put out something sugary and contrived, taking up valuable airtime that would have been better deserved by a an original and talented discovery.
I spilled my Yuengling. All over the floor of the upstairs bar. I forked over another $5.75 for a new one and resumed my spot next to my head-shaking boys. Somehow, the next act was even worse. Janelle Monae, a fledgling on Diddy’s Bad Boy label (yes, you can smell the shit already) was fan-fared by pre-made signs, obviously handed to concertgoers who had never heard of her, which bore her name and ridiculous haircut. The patronizing effect of obviously pre-produced beats with the façade of a real band not even playing their instruments had one of my boys laughing and comparing it to a show by the robot animal band at Chuck E. Cheese. Every song was at best a weak take on Southern style pop coined by Andre 3000. She was a pretty bad performer to boot.
Finally (finally!) the Roots took the stage and murdered shit. No surprise there. Not many of my favorite old tracks were played, but we got an extra-fast version of “The Seed”, a pretty standard version of “Don’t Feel Right” and, most notably, a dub version of “You Got Me” that had my drunk ass smiling hard. The sousaphone player kicked it on stage the whole time, supplementing the bass lines in a unique way. Extra long jams on “Jungle Boogie” and “Super Bad” rang for ages, and a nice mid-set break for Black Thought gave singer Bilal a chance to tear it up for a second. A great set with well-placed surprises.
In brief, it looks like the Roots are partially surrounded by trash, even though they themselves are still holding it down. And not all of their new affiliates are worthless; Wale’s new ‘Mixtape About Nothing’ is one of the best thematic hip hop works since the Automator/Prince Paul days. But I will be weary of who the crew endorses from here on out.
The last crowd-level incident that occurred that night had us laughing; ?uestlove, as usual, tossed his sticks into the crowd, one of which my boys Brian O dove for, battled a 350 pound dude over, got it loose and fell back knocking over the guy’s girlfriend. Brian bolted into the crowd while the gigantor kept his girl from hitting the ground. It all happened fast, right in front of us and we were all losing it for a minute.
I promise…this will be the last Aimee Mann post for a while…maybe. @#%*! Smilers (I fucking HATE typing that album name because I can never remember which symbols go where) came out last week.
So in honor of that, and all the Aimee Mann posts we’ve done, here is an old school video of Mann performing “Voices Carry” (oh, you didn’t know Mann was part of Till Tuesday? She had a holy other life pre-Magnolida).
And if you ever curious about the Mann transition from the above video to now, check out this 1995 interview.
Is it me, or has Mann gotten hotter as she’s gotten older?
We’ve been very pro-Aimee Mann, ever since she gave away her single “Thirty-One Today.”
Well, we recently got more Mann news, this time in the form of a contest. From June 4 (which is in the past) to July 7 (in the future) she’s holding a Youtube contest (did you watch the video up there?) to see who has the best video of themselves signing her new song “Freeway”.
I’d like to point out that the it said “whoever makes the best video” wins the top prize and not “whoever sings it the best.”
Oh, the winner will get the chance to sing with Mann at one of her shows. Ten runner ups will get an autograph copy of her new album “@#%&*! Smilers.”
Jun 6 ‘08 House of Blues Anaheim, CA
Jun 10 ‘08 Largo Los Angeles, CA
Jun 12 ‘08 Minnesota Zoo Mineapolis, MN
Jun 13 ‘08 Pabst Theater Milwaukee, WI
Jun 15 ‘08 Bonnaroo Festival Manchester, TN
Jun 16 ’08 Cains Ballroon Tulsa, OK
Jun 17 ‘08 La Zona Rosa Austin, TX
Jun 18 ‘08 House of Blues Dallas, TX
Jul 9 ‘08 Chautauqua Auditorium Boulder, CO
Jul 11 ‘08 Botanical Gardens Denver, CO
Jul 12 ‘08 Deer Valley Resort Park City, UT
Jul 14 ‘08 Mountain Winery Saratoga, CA
Jul 15 ‘08 Stewart Park Roseburg, OR
Jul 16 ‘08 Woodland Zoo Seattle, WA
Jul 18 ‘08 Vancouver Music Festival Vancouver, BC
Jul 19 ‘08 Aladdin Theater Portland, OR
Jul 24 ‘08 Calgary Music Festival Calgary,AB
Jul 26 ‘08 Berklee Performance Center Boston, MA
Jul 28 ‘08 Washington Park Albany, NY
Jul 30 ‘08 Highline Ballroom New York, NY
Aug 1 ‘08 Music Hall of Williamsburg Brooklyn, NY
Aug 2 ‘08 9:30 Club Washington, DC
Aug 4 ‘08 World Cafe Live Philadelphia, PA
Aug 5 ‘08 World Cafe Live Philadelphia, PA
Aug 7 ‘08 Edmonton Folk Festival Edmonton, AB
Aug 28 ‘08 Koolhaus Toronto, ON
Aug 29 ‘08 Royal Oak Music Theatre Royal Oak, MI
Aug 31 ‘08 Ravina Highland Park, IL
Sep 2 ‘08 The Pageant St Louis, MO
Sep 3 ‘08 Ryman Auditorium Nashville, TN
Sep 4 ‘08 Bama Theatre Tuscaloosa, AL
I immediately read it and found artists like Feist, Roger Waters, Steve Earle, and Ice Cube all bitching about playing a show and seeing a sea of cell phone/digital cameras in the audience instead of faces. Yup, you read that right. They are pissed that you’re taking a picture or video of them. Maybe it’s because they believe part of their soul gets taken away. Or maybe they just don’t want their fans to document their experience.
As one of the many who suffers from a “strange archiving addiction” (thanks Feist), I took immediate offense to the comments these artists made in the article.
I am not “micro-bored” at shows. Nor am I there to take a video so I can have the highest views on my Youtube account. A concert is about an experience and people want to share that experience with others.
Is there harm with taking a video of a Led Zeppelin concert, especially when most of the world won’t be able to see it?
Or what about Pink Floyd? Do you not want fans to see little snippets of your show that may inspire them to buy some merchandise from you?
Or is a concert now a closed-off thing, that only the elite who can afford to pay the rising ticket prices can see?
If so, that’s bullshit. This site is about sharing that concert experience with our fellow drunkards, bloggers, fans, musicians and writers.
Though, I’ll be honest. When someone is taking a video, my eyes do tend to wander over to their tiny screen, lit up in the darkness with the tiny images and, at times, it can be a bit annoying. But, at the end of the night, I’m thankful for that person because 9 times out of 10, the moment I loved from the concert will be up on Youtube the following week.
Thankfully, the article wasn’t all one-sided. Billy Bragg, who is now a hero to this site, stuck up for music fans and their documentary tendencies.
“My bottom line is communication,” says English rocker Billy Bragg. “If they want to capture a photo of me and send it to a friend who can’t be at the gig, I don’t have a problem with that.”
So, readers of 52 shows, what are your thoughts? Are you using your camera or phone at show because you’re bored or cause you care? And any words for the artists who don’t want to look into a sea of cameras/phones?
Yes, remember this movie homeslice? The high school story about geeky love in suburbia with a teenager making up her own slang almost at will? Then you no doubt became obsessed with the music behind all those frames of dramedy. And the reason for that is Kimya Dawson, a leader in the revolution that is anti-folk (they find folk artists and beat the shit out of them…ok not really).
But then why did I put a picture of “Juno” on the front of this post? Because if put this picture up, you’d be taking my anti-folk joke seriously and wonder how many folk artists this person trapped in her closet.
Right, the news. Dawson is releasing a new album on Sept. 9 called “Alphabutt,” which is a collection of children’s songs she wrote with friends and their kids (if you’ve heard her music before, then you know this is a perfect fit).
And why is this tour a big deal? Because the dates with the “*” next to it means she’ll be opening for none other than Ani DiFranco, queen of the anti-folk massacre of 1999 (it’s too easy…and too much fun).
Get your tickets early. Ani sells out lightning quick.
July 2nd Music Hall of Williamsburg Brooklyn, NY
July 11th The National Richmond, VA *
July 12th Pines Theater Florence, MA *
July 13th Cape Cod Melody Tent Hyannis, MA *
July 15th Ives Concert Park Danbury, CT *
July 16th United Palace New York, NY *
July 25th Capitol Hill Block Party Seattle, WA
Ah summer time…what a fine season. The sleepy drone of lawnmowers filling the neighborhoods, diffusing the sweet smell of fresh-cut grass. Birds singing playfully. Bees dancing whimsically through their aimless choreography. Flowers vibrant, trees verdant. The nostalgic scent of chlorine and sunscreen. Long days, warm nights. And of course, that one thing that keeps summer in our heads all year long: outdoor music festivals.
This year, on a picture-perfect Memorial Day weekend, I kicked-off what promises to be a great summer of music at Philadelphia’s Jam on the River. As always, it was a great time. But there were a few differences from previous years, some for better and some for worse.
First, due to some kind of scheduling fiasco, the event had to be moved from the Great Plaza of Penn’s Landing to the Festival Pier. This was a shame. In fact, one of my favorite aspects of previous JOTR’s was the location. Picture standing on stadium-style steps looking past the stage out over the Delaware River, boats and jet skis skipping by. That’s the Great Plaza. It’s fairly small and there isn’t a bad viewing spot in the whole joint. There are fountains, shade trees and a gorgeous view of Camden (if there is such a thing) from across the river. It is a chill spot for a concert, and I missed it very much this year.
The Festival Pier, a much larger venue, was not bad, but it lacks the charm of the Great Plaza. With a giant stage, a circus-sized tent of vendors, and no view whatsoever, it’s a pretty lackluster scene.
Another striking difference this year was a rather weak line-up. Well, it wasn’t terrible, but there were only two acts I was really excited about: The Flaming Lips and the Disco Biscuits (more about them later.) I usually like to hit up both days of the festival, but this year I only felt the need to check out Saturday’s line-up.
It gives me a warm, happy feeling inside to see headlining bands in the audience during opening acts. It shows me that they genuinely care about music and are probably nice people.
The members of Los Campesinos! not only watched both of their opening bands, but stood in the front, cheering and sometimes even singing along. In this way, Los Campesinos! forever endeared themselves to me before they even started playing.
Aleks (lead vocals/keyboard/melody horn), Ellen (bass/vocals), Gareth (lead vocals/glockenspiel/keyboard), Harriet (violin/keyboard/vocals), Neil (guitar/vocals), Ollie (drums/vocals), and Tom (guitar/vocals) Campesinos! (their adopted last name) met at Cardiff University. They have since graduated college (all but Aleks, who had to take a leave from medical school). Their debut album, Hold On Now, Youngster, was released in the U.S. on April 1 of this year. The band played at the Bowery Ballroom on Monday, May 19, for its fifth stop on its U.S. and Canada tour, continuing until the middle of June.
The first band, Flying, a trio from Brooklyn, did little for me, especially vocally. The three alternated on vocals and while a good voice is obviously not a requirement in rock ‘n’ roll, they did not make up for it with style, conviction, or stage presence, the way the other two bands did. They just sounded very shy and awkward and it was a little uncomfortable to watch. I’d like to give them the benefit of the doubt and say that they were probably nervous and maybe will get better as they become more comfortable around an audience.
The Jersey-based Titus Andronicus gets points for being named after an underrated Shakespeare play. I probably wouldn’t listen to this band at home–the music was a little too repetitive and, well, loud for my taste–but their energy was a relief after the previous set. There was a large group of friends or fans (I couldn’t tell which) in the audience who already knew the lyrics. During the band’s self-titled song, the lyrics evolved into an outcry of, “Your life is over.” There was something both disturbing and gratifying about a room full of people repeating this as lead singer Patrick Stickles jumped off an amp and mimed pointing a gun to his head. The power of rock does have a way of bringing people together.
This proved to be true during the final set by the band that made me allow the exclamation point as an acceptable form of punctuation. It was a good size crowd for a Monday night, maybe sold out, but I’m not sure. Everybody was cheerful and dancing (then again, how can you not dance to Los Campesinos!), and the crowd was one of the most polite I have ever witnessed. Everyone gave each other room and I saw no pushing or shoving. At one point, someone actually apologized for accidentally bumping into me.
Starting with the hyperactive screams of “One, two, three, four!” of “Broken Heartbeats Sound Like Breakbeats,” the band launched into a set as joyous as the album. One of the best things about seeing a band with only one album is that they are pretty much gauranteed to play the song that you’ve been listening to on repeat all week (for me, that song was “We Are All Accelerated Readers”).
We are All Accelerated Readers
I barely noticed the issues with Gareth’s mic, or mics (at one point he was using two). The band members are all between the ages of 21 and 23 and their songs have a juvenile ADHD-like quality, yet there is a sophistication in the clever lyrics and arrangements. The band was as interesting to watch as to listen to, especially Gareth, who looked like a little boy (no disrespect intended) with his horse shirt and charade-like hand motions. In any case, they were having fun with each other (I’m pretty sure Gareth licked Neil at one point) and the audience.
They closed appropriately with “Sweet Dreams Sweet Cheeks” (not to sound old, but at close to midnight, it was past my bedtime) before coming back for an encore, “2007, The Year Punk Rock Broke (My Heart).” In 2008, though, punk rock shouldn’t break the hearts of anyone listening to Los Campesinos!
It’s true. High gas prices have inspired people to bike, bring car pooling back in the mix and have forced touring bands to wonder if they will ever make it in the music industry.
According to the Chicago Tribune, bands are finding their gas bills doubling and making it almost impossible to make a living as an unknown to medium-sized band on the road (panhandling and whoring are still acceptable ways to make a living in rock).
How do you offset this? Higher ticket prices? Traveling festivals. With Donkey rides. More exposure on 52shows. Dancing monkeys. Taco night (huh?).
In the end, it’s the musicians and fans who will suffer the most (and probably the dancing monkey who is unlucky enough to have a horrible agent and suggest they go on tour with a band).
I’m on the verge of biking it to a show this summer. I’ve only done it once before and it was when I lived in Arizona. My editor and i were trashed after a Distillers show and rammed our bikes into trees. Hilarious.
So that’s what we have to look forward to…and maybe it’ll mean a better world, one where Vinyl outsells the CD and where people crash into each other’s bikes instead of each other’s cars, all the while with that drunken ringing in their ears from the show they just saw.
So I was ill-equipped with information and assumed I was going to see a piano-driven show filled with songs about love. Like every experience i have in my life, I found I was totally wrong.
From the onset, Michaelson approached the mic on stage as her own personal therapist, talking about past relationships, her problems with drooling on planes and even testing out the various sounds on her keyboard that turned into an impromptu sing-a-long of Richard Marx’s “Right Here Waiting” (it’s true…you totally had to be there…oh wait, now you can).
When she wasn’t crooning along on stage, she was entertaining the audience with her personality and talking about her secret hobby of searching Youtube for fan videos of her songs.
So not only is the “Grid” a pretty girl with glasses, but she’s hilarious…making her my new music crush (for those who are keeping up, my previous one was with the girl in the Office…the band not the show).
This is the third time I’ve been surprised at a musician’s stage presence, straddling that line between singer and stand-up comedian. In Ingrid’s case (or her hip-hop name which she revealed was “Grid”) this worked in her favor.
Piano-driven songs are nice, but I can’t listen to it for an entire evening without wanting to nap. In Grid’s case, it was great to have these songs coupled with hilarious stories about her life, like this one about the time she fell asleep on a plane.
Drooling Story
I know. It’s hilarious and I want to give her a hug. The last time I experienced what Grid called “frivolous frivolity” at a concert was at Tegan & Sara, who have elevated the act of bantering with the audience to an art form.
Ingrid admitted that it was a strange night for her and that she was talking about things she normally doesn’t (like her ex-boyfriend). It’ s funny what a little comedy and audience interaction can do for a singer. And in Grid’s case, makes her stick out in a world that seems to be constantly churning out female singer-songwriters who write emotional ballads for Grey’s Anatomy.
Before, she was just another female singer/songwriter that seemed to be jumping on the I-wear-glasses bandwagon, but now whenever I hear her songs, all I remember is the comedy and laughing about her silliness. Maybe the future of albums should be adding little personality bits from the artist. Kind of like the skits on hip-hop albums, only funnier. Eh maybe not.
The girlfriend enjoyed her, even though it was past her bedtime (she’s a teacher) and, like me, only knew one song. Now we listen to album all the time and wonder if she’s still drooling on herself on airplanes (seriously, listen to that track. It’s a hilarious).
For now, I’ll leave you with the funniest moment of the night. It happened right after she sang “The Chain,” a song only available on her Myspace page.
(and hey, someone took video of it. I was told to put my camera away, mostly because the ushers at Berklee let people in the front section do whatever they want).
There’s a lyric in there that has her go “Glide away on soapy heels” and apparently people on Youtube have been covering it, but saying “Glide away and so be healed” (I think this is the video she was talking about).
Ingrid thought it was hilarious and, with one of her band members, did a song with the new lyrics in an epic, religious sort of way. After that, she went into a remix version of her hit “The Way I Am.” Again, both worth your time.
“The Chain” discussion and intro to “The Way I Am”
But, more importantly, Edison is my hero because he has created the ChroniCaster, an electric guitar that is also a usable bong (see video above if you haven’t yet).
He also has a CD that Jon Spencer produced that bears the same insanely long name as his book. I can only imagine what his shows are like and what that ChroniCaster is like to use/play.
05/22- 7:30 PM Portland, OR @ Powell’s Books
06/04- 9:30 PM Philadelphia, PA @ Tritone
06/16- 7:00 PM New York, NY @ Half King Reading Series
06/19- 7:30 PM Brooklyn, NY @ Pete’s Candy Store
09/30- 7:00 PM New York, NY @ KGB Reading Series
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