Travis @ Irving Plaza -7.14.07

Ok, first I think I have to address the fact that I couldn't give these tixs away. In a temporary state of insanity, I decided to buy two tixs instead of just the one. And then as the concert date approached, I realized I didn't have a plus one to come along. I then proceeded to pretty much contact everyone within the tri-state area - you know who you are ;o) - and in the end went by myself. The show was sold out, so I thought I'd a. sell it at the door, or b. just hand it to some kid waiting around outside. But by the time I made it back to the city, there weren't really any hangers on anymore, so I just ate the extra tix and went in by myself. And no offense to anyone I invited (which of course is everyone i know), but I had the best time on my own.

I'd been excited to see this show ever since I heard Travis was going to be coming to NYC. Last time they came to town, I saw them at Town Hall, so the prospect of seeing them in such a small place as Irving Plaza (I still can't get used to calling it by its' new moniker - The Fillmore at Irving Plaza - what pretentious crap), filled this girl with glee.
Once upon a time, I adored this band. They were one of the first bands I saw at a smallish club...well, as small as Roseland is. But my previous exposure to live music had been MSG and the Garden State Arts Center (which now goes by the so much lovelier name of PNC Bank Arts Center - sigh), so seeing Travis at Roseland was this transforming experience. I too could actually look into the pupils of singers I liked and stand within spitting distance of them (not that I spit - yuck).
But back to saturday...

They were on from the first moment, coming onto the stage through the crowd to the tune of the Rocky theme. I'd actually read about that earlier in the day, so it wasn't a complete surprise. As soon as the music started, I immediately started to scan the audience to try and figure out where the boys were coming from. The only problem being that I'm 5'3" and the boys aren't particularly tall either (well, except for one), so I was left to interpret the vigorous waving and snapping of digital cameras as proof that they were indeed making it to the stage. It was a nice touch, pardon the pun, to get to the stage by making their way through the throngs of reaching hands and happy faces.

I'd just bought the new album relatively recently, putting it off until I could find a decent sale. And then finally succumbed to the over-inflated Virgin prices just last week. I'd barely taken a decent listen. A lot of other music had come out within the last couple of weeks and the Scottish boys just seemed to fall to the side. That all changed as they played their first note and started Selfish Jean, which is I think, their current single. Great song - catchy from note one.
They then proceeded to do a pretty lovely mix of new stuff - really excellent - with older material. At this point I have to mention the crowd. I can't remember the last time I was privileged enough to be part of such a group. Well behaved, truly appreciative and damn loud. Frannie kept on mentioning how amazed he was by our reaction. Everyone was singing along to pretty much every song, and here's the crazy part, it was really cool. Not annoying, how it can usually be, when you have some drunk asshole making up lyrics off key into your ear. It's like we'd all gone out and gotten singing lessons. Truly lovely. I couldn't believe that I had no crowd issues the whole time. And in the spirit of fair play, i.e. i certainly can go on about the bastards that usually frequent shows, I'll mention the really sweet girl who went out of her way to pick up my dropped tix during the middle of the show. Just a piece of paper falling on the floor, no big deal, and this girl just bends over in the middle of a really crowded show to pick it up for me. It sounds banal enough, but it's really unusual enough to merit mention. Maybe it's b/c Travis is not on any hit list or hip blogs. They don't make the news for their dastardly behavior and just put out wonderful melodic music which is then co-opted by others and makes millions - that's right, i'm talking about you Chris Martin! ;o)

So the people there were just fans. Not poseurs, or hipsters, or wannabes, just pure fans who'd really missed seeing Travis - they hadn't been in NYC for at least 3 years - and wanted to have a great time.
Onwards to some highlights: Frannie introduces My Eyes (a new song), by talking about how it was inspired by the birth of his first child and then promptly forgets the lyrics a few verses into it, and apologetically makes everyone start over.

Andy jumping into the audience during All I Want to Do Is Rock.

The boys all coming to the front of the stage and performing Flowers in the Window acoustically.
During the encore, they decided to play Selfish Jean again (which is a bit unusual). The last time I was at a show in which that happened was when I saw Dido back in the day. And she repeated her then hit single at the end...b/c she didn't have enough songs. Seeing as Travis as quite enough material, this seemed like an odd move, until they bring out the surprise guest. Now, I wasn't actually familiar with the current video for Selfish Jean that has been making the round at youtube, or as Fran put it, it certainly hasn't been on mtv, that's for sure.
Demetri Martin was in the house, and proceeded to re-enact the video, much to everyone's delight.

But there was still more fun to come. Fran requested that we all pogo stick during one of the verses for Why Does It Always Rain On Me? And hey, for those who know me, you don't have to tell me twice :o)
Looking around and seeing the entire sold out crowd at Irving Plaza just go pogo-stick spastic was just, it's sentimental but i'll say it, beautiful moment.
The band seemed to really enjoy themselves and were truly appreciative of all the love flowing to them. They mentioned they'd be coming back soon, and I'll certainly be there, but I don't know if any upcoming show will be able to better saturday night's. Not too often one can say something was perfect, but to this sometimes jaded live music fan, that was pretty close to it.






















SET LIST:
SELFISH JEAN/EYES WIDE OPEN/
WRITING TO REACH YOU/
LOVE WILL COME THROUGH/
AS YOU ARE/MY EYES/
BIG CHAIR/SIDE/DRIFTWOOD/
GOOD FEELING/
CLOSER/SING/BATTLESHIPS/
ALL I WANT TO DO IS ROCK/TURN

ENCORE: FLOWERS IN THE WINDOW/INDEFINITELY/
SELFISH JEAN/WHY DOES IT ALWAYS RAIN ON ME?

p.s. during the pogo-sticking finale, i happened to look up into the balcony v.i.p. area and spotted a very enthusiastic (and cute) Zach Braff just rocking out like mad. just thought it was sweet :o)


2.10.08 Update: Not one, not two, but three Travis mini-films. I actually took a few more, but I think these are the best :o)

Art Brut @ Highline Ballroom - 7.9.07

My friend and I got to the show a bit late, which seems to have become a habit, but I actually don't think we missed more than a few songs. The venue is amazing. This was my first time at the Highline Ballroom and it did not disappoint. Sightlines as good as the Bowery, but an even smaller club, yet wider. Killer lighting, the whole works...well, except for the sound, which i guess was a bit of a problem. It didn't happen constantly but Eddie Argos was hard to understand a couple of times...and no, it wasn't b/c of the accent. As for the show itself, it was as always dead on. They always seem to be having the best time, which is incredibly refreshing for a rock band. I guess I've just seen one too many sourpusses in my time, looking miserable while performing to sold out crowds, so seeing Eddie and the gang really get into it totally warms the cockles of this music fan.

They played a good mix of the newly released songs, like this great bit:

I'm taking it slowly

I've been reading the signs

I found my hand in a place

Where I can't tell if she minds

Rolling around amongst our clothes on the floor

I can't help it:

"Have you heard this song before?"

I know I shouldn't

Is it so wrong

To break from your kiss

To turn up a pop song

How can you not love a song about being distracted by pop songs while making out?

Or this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgcDaYqOaGI

Once they left the stage for their encore, the crowd started yelling out "Art Brut, Top of the Pops", which for the uninitiated, is a refrain/band's wish from a ditty on their first album. So ingrained has this song become in my psyche, that when I heard about TotP going off the air, Art Brut is the first thing that came to my head. 'Oh no' thought I, 'now they'll never be able to be on Top of the Pops.' That's how crazy catchy their music is. It's silly, funny, and just plain fun. While doing a medley of songs, during which they do the Top of the Pops bit, Eddie starts calling out where that song had hit number 1 - Estonia, Brazil, Jamaica, former Yugoslavia, Disneyland, Disneyworld, and progressively sillier and sillier. But it's not just Eddie that makes up the band, although he is quite the showman. I have to also point out Jasper Future, one of the guitarists. He seems to have walked out of a 70's Bowie session and to my mind, could fill in for one of the excellent Hives, if one of them should ever have some sort of odd sledding injury. He has that kind of smart-aleckiness that I so love and treasure in the Hives' Nicholaus Arson.

On a side note, I'm sure I would've gotten excellent photos, since the lighting was so good, except, oh, I left my camera on during the ride over and so had no battery left. I attempted to take a photo with my cell phone but the results of that were too pitiful to post.

The crowd was decent enough, although for a while I was wishing bloody murder on the magpie couple in front of me who proceeded to canoodle without actually making contact, throughout the entire show. I think the show was just an elaborate set music piece background to their enchanting banter/flirtation. Grrr. Look, it's obviously ok that you go to a show on a date (although a bit stupid, since you can't really, or shouldn't, talk while the band is on), but don't ruin it for everyone else behind you, i.e. poor little me who had nowhere else to go. But I digress...

End result: Band was in top form as always - this was the third time I've seen them and they haven't disappointed yet. I had a great time jumping around a bit and yelling out obnoxious lyrics. And I hope they can come back soon so I can do it all over again. But next time I'll definitely show up earlier so as not to miss any of the fun.

Snow Patrol w/Ok Go + Silversun Pickups @ the Theater at MSG - 3.26.07

Ok, so here goes post 2 in my lame attempt at sort of catching up...

Most of the other subsequent posts are just going to consist of a bunch of photos (i finally managed to upload all my photos to my mac) and maybe even video, if I manage to figure out how to do that ;o)

But I did manage to take proper notes for the Silversun Pickups/Ok Go/Snow Patrol show, so in order that they don't go to complete waste...

I'd been looking forward to this show, but not as much as usual, simply b/c of the location, at the theater at Madison Square Garden, which I think has just been rechristened the WAMU Theater - blech!

The sight lines are decent, but this place seems to attract the dilettante amongst music fans - the folk that come out b/c they know 'that one song', or heard that it was 'the hot show in town'. I hate these people. I know that sounds harsh, but they just piss me off. These are the people that will yell at me to sit down even if everyone else in front of me happens to be up. Or the people who'll insist on having a full concert-length conversation with whomever they came with. Pretty loudly too. So that instead of remembering the great live music I just experienced, instead I'll have their annoying talk about that 'hot chick they know from work' in my head. Grr. But enough about annoying people - they take up too much space as it is...

Silversun Pickups started out the show. They've been doing pretty well since their cute androgynous pubescent girl video - Lazy Eye - has been on heavy rotation on Mtv and Fuse and IMF and who knows where else. It's a really catchy song, and even catchier video, so i'd already gone ahead and dropped a few bucks on their cd.

They had tons of energy, but unfortunately were dwarfed by the location's usual lack of any sort of proper lighting and sound. Opening bands might as well not exist, that's how much attention their setup was given here.

The lead singer had a good rapport with the audience, mentioned that we really should stay and give Snow Patrol a chance - to not just leave as soon as their set was over, since it was becoming a bit embarrassing.

They only played for about 25 minutes, which actually i guess is typical for an opener. They were lively throughout and did try and engage the crowd which although dead as far as any sort of movement (would it kill them to bop their head a bit?), did react audibly to their calls.

Ok Go was next and were excellent as always - pretty much a guaranteed good time. I was a bit disappointed they didn't do their treadmill choreography like they had at an earlier headlining show at Irving Plaza, but they did end the show once again with their inflatable, blowing, pink, phallic, rubber thingies (I'll post a photo later - they're hard to describe), which is always fun. The crowd had filled out a bit more by then and was definitely more energetic.

And then Snow Patrol started. Btw, I think this is one of the few shows I can remember, when I both knew of and liked all of the openers and headliners alike.

Snow Patrol is definitely trying to usurp the the stadium gods' seat away from u2 and the like. Gary Lightbody (the lead singer) is becoming more and more comfortable with the role of ringmaster - who even notices the other band members? - does the lighting crew even bother to set up spotlights for them? It did seem like all the lights and attention were wholly focused on Gary's shenanigans.



I'm never very good at keeping precise track of which songs are played and/or missed, but I do know they missed 'Chocolate' and thankfully spared us any songs from their first two albums, which bless them, suck.

They did play the yuppie crowd's favorites as was evidenced by the noticeable walkout after they finished playing the 'grey's anatomy' song.

Best moment of the evening: Gary pointed out that there was a girl in the audience with a sign saying something like "I spent all my money on a ticket from Glasgow and now I'm skint'. He asked her what she wanted to be picked for and later on asked her to come on stage and help out on the duet that was performed in the album my Martha Wainwright. Anna from Belfast (I think) then came on and did a bang on job of belting it out. She knew all the lyrics, didn't just stand there gushing at Gary, took it all serious like and did an excellent job of it.

Afterwards Gary mentioned how she'd been the best one so far - how each girl along the tour had put her individual stamp on it, sometimes doing a little dance or enhancing the song with some Christina Aguillera touches. How some of them had been a bit scary like, but all fun.


I'm not sure how many more of their shows I'll be able to go to though. Their rising star means they'll be playing ever larger venues and if the crowd at the Garden was any indication of what's to come, I might just stay home. But no matter what's going on with the audience, it was really refreshing to see that Gary remains as emotional and devoted to the music as ever. He always seems to truly enjoy himself and is never contemptuous of the audience. Always grateful and joyous.

Waaaay late review of Rhett Miller @ Hiro Ballroom, 3/23/07

Ok, so i realize that I'm woefully behind in posting anything at all about my recent shows. I'm not even going to begin to attempt to catch up. But I do want to post on a few and thankfully (since my memory can suck) I actually took notes on a couple of them.

One of the best ones in recent memory was Rhett Miller at the Hiro Ballroom back on 3/23. Alas I did not take any photos - the show was so intimate that it felt rude to snap away while he was pouring himself out to us. Besides, I think I might have left the camera home that evening...

Onwards to the show...
I ended up missing a bit of the show since I only got there at 9:15. Glad I didn't follow someone's advice - Mike, I'm talking to you ;o) - and get there at 10. I'd have missed most of the show.
Mr. Miller played a whole lot of songs, tried to fit as many as he could within the set, since as always the venue had a curfew and the dance party just had to start on time.
He managed to fit so many in, that I'm not sure if he missed any from his solo albums. Rhett also played quite a few Old 97s ditties, including unreleased ones (I'm taking his word for it, since I didn't check and am not that familiar with his ouevre) like a Japan only single, whose title eluded me. He also re-worked 'America the Beautiful' into 'Erica the beautiful', which he did in 'order to get laid', which seemed to be a career theme. And it had worked since Erica eventually became his wife :o)
Rhett was very personable and very sweet, and chatted with the audience quite a bit. The audience itself was a bit sparse - there were some seats right in front of the stage - but instead of chairs, they were more like low platforms. It was pretty quiet, but definitely appreciative. There really wasn't any of the typical singing along, except for a loud group of hardcore fans seated in a booth next to me.

At one point he told us that he felt like he was in Japan (the venue, for those that don't know is Japanese temple chic, with a temple gate over the stage and lanterns everywhere) and that this show would be his own 'Live in Budokan'. When we yelled back in response, he told us we should shriek a few notes higher ;o)

Earlier on, he'd mentioned how'd he do a song that wasn't on any record. He'd written it when the Old 97s (about 8 years ago), were first signed up. How he thought that when they'd be signed, there'd be an 'Ali Baba and the 40 thieves - pirate room of loot, full of doubloons, before he realized that instead they'd just be fucked over'.

Another cute little story behind a song (might have been the same one as above, I lost a little track along the way), was the one where he mentioned Steve Miller, although not by name, just by 'the old man' moniker. He planned on performing this same song when he and Steve played their all boys' alma mater centennial celebration. But he hoped that Steve wouldn't notice that he'd referred to him as 'the old man' ;o)

He ended it by telling us about a bunch of shows that the Old 97s would be doing back in Texas (which I'm sure have happened by now) and about how he was trying to get them to play NYC this summer - which they will be doing:

http://www.rtrcruises.com/schedule/schedule.htm#old97s

I'm still not sure which show I'll be going to, but I'll definitely be going. I'd been obsessively listening to his solo albums for weeks in end, always pulling them back up on my ipod whenever possible. Rhett completely delivered an amazing performance at this show. He was funny, sweet, damn talented and hey, pretty sweet on the eyes as well. I've been trying to spread the gospel of Rhett as much as possible ever since and Mike, thanks again for hooking me up with some Old 97s as well.

The Bravery rock out at the Bowery - 3.12.07

I know, I know. I am waaaay behind in all my concert postings. Between having colds, and going to other social events and even gasp! sleeping, I just haven't had a chance to even email anyone, much less post on my brand new blog. I'm hoping that once I get the hang of all of this, I'll be able to do it on a more timely manner, rather than 3 weeks later like I'm doing now for the Bravery.

I'd seen them before, over at Roseland, and it was quite the memorable show, but for all the wrong reasons - some female patrons mistakenly thought they were at the auditions for the new WWF women's league and almost brought me in as a cameo fighter. I guess that show was ok, but honestly, I was too busy trying not to get punched in the head to really notice if the band was in their top form.
Thankfully, this time there were no such worries.

Ah, the Bowery. Where no wrong can happen. Always a good show, even if the band kind of sucks. For those who go to enough shows, you'll know what I mean. But back to this last concert. They played most of their album...although I guess they didn't have much choice seeing as they only have the one so far.

It was enthusiastically received by the welcoming crowd who was quite loud and on their top behavior. They also graced us with some new ditties, the names of which unfortunately, I neglected to jot down (I'll get better at this, I promise). The new sophomore songs, contrary to what happens so often, were actually quite good and elicited quite a lot of whoo-hoos, some even from others besides yours truly. It wasn't a very long show (see above mention of only one album), and they're not particularly known for their lyrical deepness, but it was damn energetic and fun-tabulously fun.

Which is really all that this writer requires from a night out. Oh, and they looked really yummy in their pullover sweaters - tres geeky chic.