Videos barely do a Tool show justice, so any words that I use to attempt to convey the awesomeness will fall short. So just take a gander at a couple of the videos I recorded:
(Sorry for the dumb and high bitches that kept knocking my arm on this one.)
Their setlist was mostly composed of songs from Ænema and Lateralus, with only a couple from 10,000 Days (I expected more from the newest album, though I guess it is 4 years old) and one from Undertow.
4.8/5
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Passion Pit + Tokyo Police Club @ The Pageant (6/23/2010)
Both bands (Tokyo Police Club and Passion Pit - I only caught the last couple of Brahms' songs) were pretty solid. Neither blew my mind, but neither disappointed either. I was more excited about TPC going in, but PP put on the better show - maybe it was the fancy lights, or the crowd really getting into it. I wish TPC had played a couple more of my favorites.
Here's a video of one of my favorite TPC songs off the new album (Champ):
Because Mr. Angelakos whined about audiences taking pictures and videos at shows (he said something to the effect of appreciating the crowd in St. Louis getting into the music instead of holding up cell phone cameras), I didn't take any videos of Passion Pit.
4.2/5
Here's a video of one of my favorite TPC songs off the new album (Champ):
Because Mr. Angelakos whined about audiences taking pictures and videos at shows (he said something to the effect of appreciating the crowd in St. Louis getting into the music instead of holding up cell phone cameras), I didn't take any videos of Passion Pit.
4.2/5
Thursday, June 10, 2010
The Temper Trap @ The Pageant (6/9/2010)
Note to others: if you misplace (or in my case, never receive) your ticket from Ticketmaster, The Pageant box office can print you off a new one...even if you call Ticketmaster after the show has already started when you realize that you don't have the ticket.
So, yeah...I missed Warpaint (the opener)...but I wasn't too broken up about it. As for The Temper Trap, they put on a pretty solid show for a group with only one album out, and despite a somewhat sparse audience. Mr. Mandangi certainly does have an incredible vocal range. And he has inspired me to play a drum with water on it. I managed to capture one of my favorite songs from 2009 (which happened to be on the soundtrack of my favorite movie of 2009):
4.0/5
So, yeah...I missed Warpaint (the opener)...but I wasn't too broken up about it. As for The Temper Trap, they put on a pretty solid show for a group with only one album out, and despite a somewhat sparse audience. Mr. Mandangi certainly does have an incredible vocal range. And he has inspired me to play a drum with water on it. I managed to capture one of my favorite songs from 2009 (which happened to be on the soundtrack of my favorite movie of 2009):
4.0/5
Tuesday, June 08, 2010
Caribou @ Firebird (6/7/2010)
I was a little worried before this show that it could turn out to be two electronic-based artists (Toro Y Moi and Caribou) with good studio music but horrible live acts. Thankfully, I turned out to be very wrong.
The show was scheduled to start at 8:30, and I showed up typically late around 8:40...even though I wanted to catch Toro Y Moi, as I had checked out his album and liked what I heard. Unfortunately, there was a pretty long line to get into the small venue, and I ended up waiting about 20 minutes before getting in. I caught a few snippets of his/their music whenever they opened the door to let a few people in at a time, and was able to finally enter in time to hear the last couple of songs. The touring version of the band had 3 members - Chazwick on guitar/vocal, a drummer, and another guy. From what I caught, they seemed pretty good.
Between sets a few audience members took advantage of the intimacy of the venue, and were able to talk to, take pictures with, and get autographs from both Chazwick (Toro Y Moi) and Daniel (Caribou). When Caribou came on, they had four members on stage - Daniel on guitar/vocals/keyboard/drums/percussion, a bass player/back-up vocalist, a guitar/keyboard player, and a drummer.
Even though I was off to the side of the stage with a partially obstructed view and less than optimal sound (the tiny venue was pretty packed, so this was the only way I could get a semi-decent view without being a jerk), I could still appreciate what a great show this was. They actually performed all the songs - both the older, more guitar based songs (which I was less familiar with, having only listened to the old albums once) and the new, more electronic songs on Swim (which will almost certainly make my list of top 10 albums this year). If there were any pre-recorded samples or backing tracks, I couldn't tell.
As for highlights, pretty much everything off the new album rocked. And even some of the old stuff did as well. "Kaili", my initial favorite from the album was definitely a high point (despite the extended ending), and a couple of others ("Sun", "Bowl", "Hannibal") rose in stock after the live rendition. If any song disappointed the slightest bit, it might have been "Jamelia", which is my current alternate favorite - the live version was actually pretty true to form, but for some unknown reason I expected it to be somehow better. The other thing that irked me a little bit was that they, apparently like too many musicians for my liking, had a penchant for overly extending the endings of some of their songs...in a wall of sound thing that kinda works maybe the first time, but not too many times...and not when you drag it on and on...and overdo the dueling drums thing (except for the very last song - that was kinda cool).
But anyway...it was a pretty great show. Good enough to buy a t-shirt afterward. I wish had a decent enough view to record a couple of songs on video, but you can't win them all.
4.5/5
The show was scheduled to start at 8:30, and I showed up typically late around 8:40...even though I wanted to catch Toro Y Moi, as I had checked out his album and liked what I heard. Unfortunately, there was a pretty long line to get into the small venue, and I ended up waiting about 20 minutes before getting in. I caught a few snippets of his/their music whenever they opened the door to let a few people in at a time, and was able to finally enter in time to hear the last couple of songs. The touring version of the band had 3 members - Chazwick on guitar/vocal, a drummer, and another guy. From what I caught, they seemed pretty good.
Between sets a few audience members took advantage of the intimacy of the venue, and were able to talk to, take pictures with, and get autographs from both Chazwick (Toro Y Moi) and Daniel (Caribou). When Caribou came on, they had four members on stage - Daniel on guitar/vocals/keyboard/drums/percussion, a bass player/back-up vocalist, a guitar/keyboard player, and a drummer.
Even though I was off to the side of the stage with a partially obstructed view and less than optimal sound (the tiny venue was pretty packed, so this was the only way I could get a semi-decent view without being a jerk), I could still appreciate what a great show this was. They actually performed all the songs - both the older, more guitar based songs (which I was less familiar with, having only listened to the old albums once) and the new, more electronic songs on Swim (which will almost certainly make my list of top 10 albums this year). If there were any pre-recorded samples or backing tracks, I couldn't tell.
As for highlights, pretty much everything off the new album rocked. And even some of the old stuff did as well. "Kaili", my initial favorite from the album was definitely a high point (despite the extended ending), and a couple of others ("Sun", "Bowl", "Hannibal") rose in stock after the live rendition. If any song disappointed the slightest bit, it might have been "Jamelia", which is my current alternate favorite - the live version was actually pretty true to form, but for some unknown reason I expected it to be somehow better. The other thing that irked me a little bit was that they, apparently like too many musicians for my liking, had a penchant for overly extending the endings of some of their songs...in a wall of sound thing that kinda works maybe the first time, but not too many times...and not when you drag it on and on...and overdo the dueling drums thing (except for the very last song - that was kinda cool).
But anyway...it was a pretty great show. Good enough to buy a t-shirt afterward. I wish had a decent enough view to record a couple of songs on video, but you can't win them all.
4.5/5
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