11 posts tagged “livemusic”
Indie rock legends Built To Spill begin a four-night stand tonight at Slim's, and I will be there. This will be the sixth or seventh time I've seen them live-first time was in spring 2001, in the waning months of dotcom. They actually took a hiatus for a while, and even when they got back together, they took their sweet time getting a new album out. The wait was worth it, though, as "You In Reverse" is one of my favorite albums so far this year.
By dint of great effort (and Audio Hijack Pro, a program I highly
recommend) I ripped my "The Electrifying Conclusion" DVD to mp3 (via
aiff in an attempt to maximize audio quality.) I'm not sure why this
show wasn't also released on CD. it's awesome, and needs to be heard by
all fans of GBV, indie rock, live music, drunkeness, and the ROCK in general. In the words of Robert Pollard, "Watch me jumptstart as the old skin is peeled."
My DVD rip of the concert contains seven parts, each between 20 and 35 minutes long. I'll post one each day between now and next Sunday. Here is part I of the main set, featuring the following songs:
1. Over The Neptune/Mesh Gear Fox
2. Watch Me Jumpstart
3. Pimple Zoo
4. Everybody Thinks I'm A Raincloud (When I'm Not Looking)
5. Fair Touching
6. Things I Will Keep
If you enjoy listening to this, I recommend picking up the DVD. it's an amazingly good value-four hours of live music for only twenty-two bucks at Amazon (and I bet you could probably get it even cheaper used.)
There's a new page on the Drive-By Truckers website , tour notes written by group co-founder and lead raconteur, Patterson Hood.
This is what Patterson had to say about the show I saw at the Fillmore two weekends ago:
Our friday night set was a little sluggish to my taste, Brad broke his kick pedal in two on song one (Feb 14) and we had to whip out Bulldozers and Dirt (usually a late night staple when played nowadays) to cover a bit of time while he replaced it.
I didn't really notice any lack of energy, and hearing B&D so early on the set was awesome, and really got the crowd going. I like the fact that he's not complacent, though. This is something I definitely agree with:
We were starting to adjust to the shorter sets that a double bill required, although it did sometimes seem that we were just really kicking it into overdrive when it was required that we call it a night.
This is true of a lot of great live bands, like the Grateful Dead and Guided By Voices, to name two diametically opposed (GBV could play twenty songs in the time it took the Dead to play two) but equally awesome examples. With both of those bands, the first hour could sometimes drag a bit, then at some point there would be this sudden click, and then the rest of the night would be magic.
At the Fillmore show, it was the song "Marry Me" when I felt DBT really lock-in. After that point they played less of their new songs, which don't quite seem to bring it live the way their older material does. I'm not sure why-because I'm less familiar with them, or because they were, unlike most of DBT's songs, written in the studio instead of on the road. I'll have to see DBT again though, before I can really answer that question.
Right now I'm formenting plans to attend the Drive-By Truckers show at the 9:30 Club in Washington DC on July 15th. Believe it or not, this would not be the first time I've flown across the country to see a concert in DC-I flew there in 2004 to see RUSH on their 30th Anniversary Tour.
Last weekend was epic. Friday night I saw Son Volt and Drive-By Truckers at the Fillmore. I didn't have a camera, but someone else there did:
That pretty much sums up the DBT experience. Both Son Volt and DBT played full sets, so the show didn't let out until 1:30am. After that I drove to Santa Rosa and spent the night at a Motel 6, sleeping from 3am until 10. Got up and drove straight to Boonville, stopping only to buy a breakfast burrito at the Chevron station in Cloverdale, which has an epic taqueria inside it.
Here are some pictures I took when we first showed up and set up camp at the Mendecino County Fairgrounds in downtown Boonville.
I didn't take pictures of my the beer fest itself, which was awesome, but I did snap some photos of the morning after:
This weekend is going to be huge. Friday night is the Son Volt/Drive-By Truckers show at the Fillmore. After that, I drive to Ukiah and spend the night in a Motel 6, then get up thet next morning and drive straight to (hopefully sunny) Boonville, CA for the 10th annual Boonville Brew Fest. Camping in town this year since camping at Hendy Woods has gotten lame due to the alcohol ban.
They've been rather quiet lately, but this Pitchfork article has a good summary of what they've been up to. Biggest news is that the article claims they will have a new album out in September on Matador. They're also releasing an album of the WTF covers they do ever year for the WFMU fund-raiser marathon, called "Yo La Tengo is Murdering the Classics." Speaking of WTF, the article lists some tourdates, including one in Saratoga, CA at something called the "Montalvo Center for the Arts." Never heard of this place... why are YlT palying there? And why? I assume it must be some kind of special gig, like when a few years ago they played along live to a silent movie at the Academy of Arts.
Mar Olson and Gary Louris are re-uniting for a western tour, including two shows at the Great American Music Hall. Article also mentions the Golden Smog reunion, without adding any new details, unfortunately.
One of my goals for this year is to attend the 2006 Austin City Limits music festival, aka Austin's "other music festival." Actually, in some ways I think this one is better for a fan because it's really more about just bands playing life (lots and lots of bands) and less about networking, industry insiders, interactive media and all of the other stuff that goes along with South By Southwest. Plus it's cheaper.
I found this blog with rumors of who's going to play ACL 2006
to help get me psyched. I believe the official line-up will be announced in May.
In an interview with the Ireland,com, Patterson Hood talks about the Drive-By Truckers playing Ireland for the first time:
He's also looking forward to "bringing it all back home" to Ireland, a country he believes has strong historical and cultural ties with his own region. "I can't speak from knowledge, but I've been told there's a lot of parallels between Ireland and the American south. Appalachian music definitely derived a lot of its ideas from Ireland. A lot of the practitioners of Appalachian music were descendants of people who had travelled over from Ireland, my family included." And, like a true tourist, Hood can't help holding onto one particular myth about Ireland. "Aw, come on, Guinness don't give you a hangover, does it?"
Drive-By Truckers today announced the schedule for their spring US tour, promoting their forthcoming Lost Highway release, A Blessing and a Curse. Hell's yeah... two nights at the Fillmore, co-headling with No Depression prodigal sons Son Volt (DBT headlining Friday night, Son Volt Saturday.) That's going to be a huge weekend, what with the Boontville Brew Fest and all.
- djchall
