The Arcade Fire @ Radio City Music Hall - 5.9.07

Ah, Arcade Fire - the critical darling band that's actually worth all the hype. I'd seen them twice before, once at Central Park Summerstage (with the special appearance of Mr. David Bowie) and at a Fashion Rocks show at Radio City - where Bowie showed up as well...I think he might like them ;o)
But this time my friend and I somehow snagged 6th row orchestra at Radio City, which was amazing. Best seated tixs I've ever had.
The opener was The National, which has been lauded everywhere. Uh, sorry but I don't quite get all of the hoopla. I hate to judge them from this appearance, but to me they'll just be the band that practically made my ears bleed. The bass was turned to 11 and since we were close to the stage, we spent a very uncomfortable 45 minutes or so squirming in our seats. Everyone else around us seemed fine though, so what do i know?
But onwards to the main attraction - the lovely Canadiennes of Arcade Fire. I can't remember a setlist, but I do remember having a great time. One will never mistake one of their shows for anyone else's. They're amazingly unique. I've never actually checked, but it seems as if each member knows how to play everyone else's instruments. Or at least it looks that way when they suddenly exchange them mid-song. Damn virtuosos.

And the passion in those voices...
There are a few, can count them in one hand, bands that make you feel like you're in church when you see them. The first one for me is U2, and now coming a very close second is Arcade Fire. It all feels so intimate, yet part of something greater...and if you know me personally, you know i don't mean this lightly.


There's never a moment when it feels as if the band is just going through the motions - they seem to be intuitively connected to each other and to every song at every moment. A friend of mine has described them as, 'Imagine if the special bus kids all got instruments'. Just a kind of eccentricity and talent and creativity and joie de vivre all mixed up in one place.


They're innate anarchists and caused quite a problem during their set. There was a lot of security around - trying to secure fire exits and such - and people had been told they could not stand in the aisles. And then Win and co. start telling everyone they should come on up as close as possible. Cue to a Three Stooges/Abott and Costello gag - crowd moves up, crowd gets kicked out by security, band tells crowd to come back, and then it starts all over again.
I'll say this for an Arcade Fire crowd - everyone was very agreeable - that back and forth crap could've turned scary with a different sort of people. In the end, Win apologized for the mess and the guards relaxed a bit as well.


It was once again an amazing experience not to be missed, b/c again, how often do you get to see the special kids rock out? :o)

The Stills @ Maxwell's - 6.26.07

This time I only managed a couple of pics. If you kind reader, have never been to Maxwell's, just know one thing, it is tiny. Like, high school friend's parents' basement tiny. The band has to go through the crowd in order to get on stage and instead of going off backstage ('cause there isn't any) to rest momentarily before coming back for an encore, they just huddled on stage for a bit - quite funny actually. This wasn't that long ago so I should remember a bit more...let's see.
I'd been wanting to see this band for ages, ever since I picked up their first album. I'd actually gotten tixs to two of their gigs before, but either b/c of illness or some other unexpected circumstance, I somehow always ended up missing out. It looked like the same was going to happen. I'd gotten 2 tixs and was going to originally take a certain someone. Well, that wasn't meant to be and I was left holding an extra tix and no idea of whom to take along. Thankfully a friend was gracious enough to escort me and I broke my no-show streak with the Stills.


I enjoyed myself - they were pretty much what I expected. Played my favorites, which is pretty much all of Logic Will Break Your Heart, some of which are just heart-breaking. I thought they had a good stage presence and the crowd - apart from an over-zealous, arm-flinging girl next to me - was pretty good. Plus it's always cool to go to a really small show once in a while and be within spitting distance of the band...again, not that i do that, it's just a cool thing ;o)

Manu Chao @ Prospect Park, Brooklyn - 6.26.07

So, I have all of these photos that I've been taking at shows and they're just gathering virtual dust in my overloaded mac. I can't post a true account of these shows since it's now been a while and i don't feel my memory would serve them well. But I can share some photos. Here are some for the amazing Manu Chao, a polyglot 8th wonder of the world, bringing joy and fun to everywhere he plays with his energetic band.

Gogol Bordello @ Irving Plaza - 7.20.07

Ok, where to even begin?
I had been super excited to see Gogol Bordello again. Ever since I saw them for the first time last year, I'd been spreading their gospel to any and all who'd listen. Some listened and decided it wasn't their thing, but most just fell for them heads over heels.
How could one not? Their music is loud and brash and clever and Eugene Hutz is one of the most charismatic crazy men in all of music.

The crowd at Irving Plaza was nuts as always, with lots of crowd surfing starting almost as soon as the band came on stage. But I didn't see any incidents or any problems. As DJ Scratchy mentioned before GB started, they'd done a show in Cleveland (I think) the day before and they'd had a mosh pit then. And it was the only time he'd ever heard people crashing against each other and saying excuse me. I was a bit far back seeing as I'm small and didn't particularly want to get squashed. Plus I was with some friends, one of which was not an habitual rock show attendee, who definitely didn't want to be upfront. Happy to be there and enjoy it all, but from the comfort of the back wall.

I did try and keep track at first of the set list, but honestly after a while i couldn't be bothered. It's hard to write in the dark and I was just having too much fun to stop and jot things down anyway. So I can say that they played a whole lot of favorites like Immigrant Punk, Sally, Think Locally, Fuck Globally, Santa Marinella, Not a Crime, and of course Start Wearing Purple, as well as new ditties like Forces of Victory, Harem in Tuscany, Zina-Marina, and Super Taranta! But I couldn't tell you in which particular order.
And since as the cliche goes, a picture is worth a thousand words, how's about some?



At this point, Eugene starts to really go mental and jumps into the audience, which has been crowd surfing and moshing all along. And somehow he's held up by them as he continues to sing, as seen here:


Just when it seems like Eugene is soon to pass out from exhaustion, he brings up yet another reserve of energy and keeps on going like an energizer bunny come to life...if the energizer bunny was tall, svelte, mustachioed and mad ;o)


At this point, sensing that running around on stage and into the audience is not quite enough, Eugene takes off, jumps unto the curved wall platform to the left of the stage, and then proceeds to jump up into the left balcony,


I couldn't see everything that was going on since it was on the same side (to the back) where I was standing. But from the reaction of some of the folk around Eugene, it seems he proceeded to vigorously snog some unsuspecting lucky girl :o) And then just hung out up there for a bit, as one would after some exhausting jumping and snogging.


The rest of the band was just as amazing as Eugene. He does take the lead obviously, but they all really get into it, particularly one of the girls. She'd actually done this same thing last time I saw them, but really it's still just as cool. She set up her drum on top of the crowd and then stood up on it, and played it (!) while standing on it.

It certainly manages to impress me every time :o)
They then played what we thought was the last song (during the encore), but DJ Scratchy comes on stage (at which point a third of the crowd have left thinking it's over) and asks if we want one more song. And they all come back! They definitely didn't seem to want to leave, which was great to see. The band was certainly having as great a time as were we all.
I was only sorry I'd only gone ahead and bought tixs for this one show - they had a second one the next night. Next time I'll know better and buy a tix for each show they do in NYC. Because there's really nothing like going to a Gogol Bordello show. It's something that should be experienced by everyone at least once.

And so to wrap things up, as I'd first posted: Fucking Amazing! :o)

P.S. I do have one question to anyone who might've gone to the show. Any idea why a kid in the back was dressed like a unicorn? He looked great and made my day - why not dress up like a unicorn to go see a gypsy punk band? - but i wondered about it all night.

2.10.08 Update - Yet another clip I found in my library. Please to enjoy Eugene and Co.

The States @ The Annex - 7.17.07

Although I love to hear about new bands, I never really seem to catch them on the way up. Even though none of my friends ever know any of the latest bands I've fallen for, they're usually pretty well known in the press (at least the UK one) by the time I get a chance to see them. But this time it was different. One of my friends told me about The States, a local band. Or rather, she made me a copy of their advanced cd. Which was great, since as even she admitted, I'm the one that usually introduces her to bands. Always great to have things reversed.

I enjoyed their album from day one. It's pretty much been on heavy rotation on my ipod ever since. So when she told me they'd be playing a local gig, I jumped at the chance to go see them. That particular one didn't work out, but they eventually managed to reschedule and the show went on last Tuesday.

I'd never been to the Annex before. Nice place, a bit oddly shaped, with the sound booth seemingly taking up half of the floor space, but still pretty cool. And they had a roomy balcony which was a pleasant surprise. Which is where we absconded to before the show began.
They started a little after 9 pm and opened with my favorite, Charm Offensive. At least I think that's what it was. I'm always lousy at remembering song titles. It was just as good as on the cd - really kicking guitar and great beat. And then they started having technical problems. The lead singer/guitarist's guitar refused to play. We were then treated to some excellent bass riffs while they tried to figure out what was wrong. The bassist was so into it, that I kidded he'd sabotaged the guitarist in order to get some solo time ;o) He was quite good though, so no harm done.

They eventually start playing again, but then it turned into a half-hearted episode of Top of the Pops, as in the guitar wasn't actually making any sound. Order was soon restored though and they continued to play ever better. And to an adoring crowd. At one point, a girl behind us yelled out, 'I want to have your babies'. I think that's a pretty good sign the band is going places.

http://www.myspace.com/thestatesonline