Normalized Happiness

Music QotD: Hot Ticket

nobody@vox.com(djchall) — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 12:45:08 -0800

Have you bought any concert tickets this year? What shows will you be going to?

Just last weekend I finally dealt and bought tickets to the following shows:

* Drive-By Truckers at the Mezzanine 2/14
* Built To Spill @ the Fillmore (can't remember the date)
* Mountain Goats at the Bottom of the Hill (3/2) This will be an all-ages afternoon show, which should be interesting. I believe it's part of Noise Pop.

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Live Grateful Dead is sweet

nobody@vox.com(djchall) — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 18:10:34 -0700

Last Wednesday night I saw the Dark Star Orchestra, a Grateful Dead tribute band of some renown, although calling them a tribute band is like saying Jerry Garcia enjoyed being in an altered state of mind. These guys did by far the best musical recreation of any musical act I've ever seen, Grateful Dead or otherwise. Although they didn't really look like the Dead, if you closed your eyes, it really sounded like them .Scarily so. And not burned out, sandblast Jerry off the stage 80s and 90s Dead either, but the prime 70s edition of the band, when they were young, hungry and capable of producing some of the most sublimely complex music of all time (but that still rocks.)

Dso-gamh

Anyway, the Dark Star Orchestra's thing is that they recreate Dead Shows song for song, note for note, as precisely as possible, even going so far as to use vintage amps and equipment. In a way it's sort of strange, trying to so precisely duplicate a band whose basic metier was messy, improvised and later in their career, downright sloppy. You can't argue with the results, though, perhaps evidence that enlightenment can be achieved by precise discipline just as much as through unfettered freedom.

This is the set list from the show (what I thought were highlights of the show in bold.)

Show #1,379 - Wed, Mar 28, 2007 at Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA
Performing 2/24/1974 Winterland Arena, San Francisco, CA
1:U.S. Blues, Mexicali, B. E. Women, BIODTL, Candyman, Jack Straw, China Cat> I Know You Rider, El Paso, Loser, Playin
2:Cumberland, Roses, Big River, Bertha, WRS Prelude> WRS Part 1> Let It Grow> Row Jimmy> Ship of Fools, Promised, Dark Star> Morning Dew, Sugar Magnolia, NFA> GDTRFB> NFA
Encore: Baby Blue
Filler: Walk In The Sunshine
DSO with Donna Jean Godchaux - with special guest Rob Barraco - Entire show with Donna Jean Godchaux

Dso-gamh-2

Here's an mp3 of the original Grateful Dead show that the DSO recreated, of Not Fade Away into Goin' Down the Road Feelin' Bad back into Not Fade Away (NFA->GDTRFB->NFA in setlist-ese.)

NFA->GDTRFB->NFA

Grateful Dead

Unfortunately the mp3 I downloaded of Dark Star->Morning Dew exceeded Vox's size limit of 25mb for audio files. You can find bitorrents of the entire show pretty easily, though, thanks to the Dead's liberal policy on show trading via the Internet.

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The Thievery Corporation live at the 9:30 Club

nobody@vox.com(djchall) — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 18:00:59 -0800

RP-3

I just bought a ticket to see "The Thievery Corporation" at Washington DC's 9:30 Club on 12/21. This isn't the kind of music I'd normally see live, but my cousin and her husband are going, so I thought it would be fun. Plus I've always wanted to go to the 9:30 Club. I've heard good things about it–the new one, that is; apparently the old one was a dump. I have an amazing bootleg from GBV's 2004 "Electrifying Conclusion" tour that was recorded there.

Anyone on Vox know the Thievery Corporation's music/seen them live? Have I made a tragic blunder? Or a sweet decision? You tell me.

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QotD: Name That Horse

nobody@vox.com(djchall) — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 20:34:09 -0700

You've been through the desert on a horse with no name. Except your horse does have a name. What is it?
Submitted by edubya.vox.com.

Live My Morning Jacket rules.

Mahgeeta

My Morning Jacket

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My Morning Jacket live album

nobody@vox.com(djchall) — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 22:47:15 -0700

My Morning Jacket's forthcoming double live album, Okonokos, is now available for pre-order from MusicToday.com. If you pre-order, you get a bonus track in mp3 for, as they put it, "instant gratification." Speaking of which, here it is:

7MDD02MP128_01_Strangulation

My Morning Jacket

The live album was recorded over two shows at the Fillmore in November of last year; the first of which I attended and blogged about during my pre-Vox days.

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QotD: Weekend Wrap-Up

nobody@vox.com(djchall) — Sun, 16 Jul 2006 17:11:36 -0700

Saw Pearl Jam last night, who rocked. They performed the "Mamasan" trilogy in its enterity, but in reverse order. (Footsteps->Once->Alive.) Below is a video of PJ doing Footsteps, which some of you may notice, sounds a lot like the Temple of the Dog song "Times of Trouble." However, it's not a case of copyright infingement, but an interesting case of rock and roll paralel evolution-Eddie Vedder and Chris Cornell both received the piece of music from Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard and Mike McCready had written, and each wrote their own vocal lines and lyrics to it. Because "Times of Trouble" came out first, in early summer 1991, "Footsteps" was relegated to a b-side status, but has has in recent years a song Pearl Jam bust out every so often-it always gets a rapturous response.

pearl jam - footsteps (live)

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Sufjan Stevens announces fall tour, to play Zellerbach Hall

nobody@vox.com(djchall) — Sat, 08 Jul 2006 13:00:59 -0700

Billboard reports on Sufjan Stevens's fall tour, which will begin on September 11th (a day notable for, among other things, being Lucacris's birthday, and also the fifth anniversary of the release of one of the greatest albums in the annals of hip-hop, Jay Z's "The Blueprint") in Nashville, and reach the bay area exactly a month later on 10/11. Now I will quote Billboard quoting the press release:

...on stage, he'll be joined by a "small string ensemble (ranging from four to eight members in different cities) and brass section" in order to perform his songs "in a new symphonic context," according to a press release.And the best news: "Sufjan will also be performing five to six new songs on the tour." Yes!

I'd really like to see him, but I'm unsure about this whole Zellerbach Hall thing. Why can't he play The Fillmore like a Christian? Zellerbach Hall sounds like one of those places where you have to sit down and you can't drink beer while you listen.

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MMJ live album/DVD

nobody@vox.com(djchall) — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 15:37:26 -0700

A title and release dates are now set for My Morning Jacket's forthconing live CD and DVD, according to Billboard. I went to one of the shows at thte Fillmore they filmed for the DVD (it's not clear if the live CD was also being recorded at those shows, or whether it's a compilation of performances from that tour) and blogged it on my Typepad blog. From the Billboard article:

...an MMJ live album and DVD, "Okonokos," will be separately released in the fall. The double-disc CD is due Sept. 26, while the DVD will arrive Oct. 31 and will also be screened at select U.S. movie theaters. Eschewing the straight-up "film the show" approach, the latter follows a storyline that transports fans to an MMJ show in the middle of a forest.

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