Sunday, December 10, 2023

Ramy Youssef: More Feelings @ BAM Howard Gilman Opera House (December 8, 2023)

For the second straight year, Franny surprised me with tickets to a comedy show for my birthday. And once again the show was straight fire. This time it was to see Ramy Youssef, whose TV show Ramy we had enjoyed together. This show/tour, "More Feelings" was a follow-up to his first comedy special "Feelings" (which neither of us had seen until after we saw this show). Like the TV show, the comedy show centered around his experience as an Arab American and practicing Muslim. The recent war between Israel and Hamas provided further inspiration for the new material. As I mentioned before, the show was great; his jokes were funny, and he has mastered his style of delivery even more since the first special.

A couple of additional noteworthy tidbits... His disabled friend Steve, whom we knew from a recurring appearance on the TV show, was the opening act - a pleasant surprise for us. There was also a point during Steve's act where he was describing the concept of "inspiration porn" from a disabled perspective, and asked for audience members to yell out someone who inspires them. On the second asking Fran shouted "my husband", to which I was immediately embarrassed (kinda like when she tries to start the clap after a plane lands). Thankfully Steve's on-stage reply of "Somebody hasn't been f*cked in a while" helped relieve the awkwardness. 😅

Lastly, this performance was a no-phones show (they locked up audience member phones in little bags that they unlocked afterward), so I didn't get a picture.

Saturday, October 14, 2023

Kid Cudi @ Kings Theatre (October 13, 2023)


This show was billed as "Kid Cudi Presents: Cudder’s Clubhouse", an intimate and experimental performance for the fans before he goes on a legitimate tour next year. This was one of a few hastily arranged concerts (the announcement and on-sale were the week before the first show) where Cudi would go deep into his catalog, playing some songs for the first time in a while, or ever.

One particularly novel aspect of the performance is that he set up the stage like a living room of sorts, where he eventually hosted 6 fans from the crowd. He stopped at 3 different points during the performance to select the guests based on their energy and enthusiasm. He treated them to booze and weed that was set out on the table; and of course he also partook in the goodies.

The show was very interactive with the rest of the crowd as well. He paused after just about every song to introduce the next one, or tell an anecdote, or explain how he's finally happy in life, or gush about his special guest Chip tha Ripper, or gush about how great his forthcoming album INSANO will be.

Speaking of the new album, he played 3 new songs from it, and I have to agree that they were all bangers. The setlist from the show should be here, but has not been filled in at the time of publication; but the one from the first clubhouse show seems pretty similar (though longer), so you can get an idea of what he played. Some of the songs were only partially performed, so he went through more than would be played in a typical show. He included a few songs from his WZRD and Kids See Ghosts collaborations. Unfortunately I can't say that I'm a fan of most of his rock material. But the rest of it was pretty good. I suspect that I would have preferred a standard Cudi show with a more crowd-pleasing setlist, but it was still nice to hear some deep cuts (some of which I was not up to speed with); "Balmain Jeans" was a highlight for both me and Fran. I also appreciated his showmanship and smooth dance moves on the stage. Overall a solid show which Fran enjoyed as well.

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Rating: 4.0/5

Thursday, October 05, 2023

Explosions in the Sky @ Kings Theatre (October 5, 2023)

I think this was my first proper Explosions in the Sky show; of the couple of times I can remember seeing them before, I think one was a festival set, and the other time I missed a significant portion of their performance. It was a nice and efficient 1.5 hour set with no encore. The light design was interesting (though unspectacular) - the illumination came almost entirely from the floor; and there was a lot of fog. In terms of music, they threw in plenty of classics alongside a couple of new cuts (see the setlist here). While my favorite songs of theirs are typically from the early part of their catalog, "It's Never Going to Stop" from the new album (End, which is actually pretty solid) was an unexpected highlight; it had a unique feel compared to their typical fare, and was interesting to see played live. If I could have made any changes, I would have swapped out "Loved Ones" for "Ten Billion People" (both from the new album). In any case, I'm still quite impressed by how cleanly they play their tunes. Strong work from the boys from Texas.

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Rating: 4.4/5

 

Sunday, December 11, 2022

Mike Birbiglia: The Old Man and the Pool @ Vivian Beaumont Theater (December 10, 2022)

Fran's main birthday gift to me this year was a joint celebration by going to see one of our favorite comedians, Mike Birbiglia (or Mikey B, as we call him), in his new comedy show. The show is currently in the middle of a two month run at the Lincoln Center. His last show "The New One" (which was on Broadway for a few months) centered on his experience becoming a new father. I won't give too much away, but this one continues with themes of family, health, and death. I would highly recommend it if you are a fan of Mikey B's previous work.

Saturday, September 17, 2022

I got married yesterday

It was a small civil ceremony on the Mohonk Preserve in upstate New York. We kicked the day off with a helicopter tour of NYC.

There are some pictures from the day here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/raCr15ksSEu6m58A8.

Monday, August 15, 2022

Rage Against the Machine w/ Run the Jewels @ Madison Square Garden (August 14, 2022)

Like many people back in the 1990s and 2000s, I was a fan of Rage Against the Machine. And over the course of my concert-going this was one of the bands that I wished I had gotten a chance to see live. So when their reunion tour got announced for summer of 2020 I jumped at my friend Roger's offer to go with him to see them. Fast forward 2 years, a global pandemic, and two postponements. And then Zack (the frontman) went and (according to a report) tore his Achilles tendon about a month ago - two shows into the tour. The band still powered through this first leg of the tour (ending with 5 sold-out nights at MSG), but have cancelled the European portion later this year so that Zack can heal up. As an aside, I didn't know about the injury until Roger told me in between sets at the show.

Roger got us a couple of general admission tickets on the floor. I figured (especially at Fran's urging) that this would be a good first time wearing ear plugs at a show; it's not quite the same, but I didn't miss much (besides hearing loss). Run the Jewels as the opening act wasn't too spectacular, but wasn't bad at all either. I'm a mild fan of their music, but I still think that most hip-hop performances just don't translate as well live as other genres that involve playing instruments.

When RATM came on, the band members carried their injured singer onto the stage; which was a nice touch. He spent most of the show seated in the middle of the stage, but his limited mobility didn't prevent him from bringing his trademark energy. Similarly, the rest of the band were impressively energetic for being in their 50s. It's amazing to see what Tom can do on the guitar. I also liked the clean and open set design with a big screen and lots of lights.

They played 20 songs over about 1h45m.  Their setlist was loaded with the classics, mostly from their earlier albums; "earlier" being relative, as their last album (which was all covers anyway) was released in 2000. While it was great to see and hear all those iconic songs being performed, I was ready to go by the time the show ended. Maybe my bad back and advancing age can't handle standing for 3+ hours anymore. Or maybe it's also that their music does get a bit repetitive after a while.

In any case, I'm glad that I got to see them live, even without the full spectacle of Zack jumping all over the stage. Perhaps I didn't appreciate it as much as I would have 20 years ago, but it was still pretty good.

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Rating: 4.3/5

Thursday, July 21, 2022

Beach House @ Kings Theatre (June 20, 2022)

Beach House have a lot of good songs in their extensive catalog. So many gems that it's still a great show even if they leave out a bunch of my favorites. I had a similar reaction the last time I saw them. And like then, I almost didn't go to the show this time; good thing I snagged a ticket last week.

Unsurprisingly, their setlist was heavy on the new album (Once Twice Melody, which is pretty much a double album), and this wasn't a bad thing. It was good to hear a bunch of the new tunes, most of which were solid. A couple of my favorites from the album were each a book-ending highlight or lowlight: I was excited when they started with "Once Twice Melody", but something about the sound mixing at the beginning (or maybe it's just how the live rendition is?) didn't hit quite the same; and they ended the night with a great performance of "Over and Over" (including a false ending), which is easily the track on the album I've listened to the most. It would have been nice if one of the new songs was "Masquerade", which is probably the most different (and dancy, perhaps) from the others.

The rest of the songs were scattered from their other albums since Teen Dream, which itself only had one song played - good to see them moving on from there, even though it was a fantastic breakthrough album. More standouts included "Dark Spring", "Levitation", and "Lemon Glow", but then again I thought the same last time as well. In general, the live renditions stayed pretty faithful to the album versions, save for Alex's solo on "Space Song" (I think?) - which was one of the rare times that a surprise solo was a pleasant surprise.

Overall a great performance, with little to complain about. Except maybe wishing that Fran was in town to enjoy it by my side.

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Rating: 4.6/5