Monday, September 28, 2015

Beach House @ The Pageant (9/27/2015)



Opener

Jessica Pratt.  Missed her set.

Setlist

Beach House did something very interesting on their website - they posted a setlist creator for each show where fans could vote for their top 3 songs to include in the setlist for the show.  I voted for "10:37", "Levitation", and "Wishes" (I've worn out the first two, which are on the new album, over the last month).  I think this was a pretty great idea by them.

In any case, they played two out of my three, the exception being "10:37".  I do wonder if the setlist creator was sabotaged, though, as they didn't play a few of what I would consider classics from Teen Dream and Bloom, while they did play three pretty old songs that I wasn't too familiar with.  The final rating will have a slight deduction because of this, but overall I don't have major complaints.

Stage

They're not a super popular band, so they didn't have a spectacular light show or anything.  But they did have these three pretty cool looking light reflection chambers (for lack of a better description) made out of (I think) cloth.

Observations

They had a couple of moments of seeming self-indulgence, which is not something I recall much from Beach House - while they do switch some things up from the recorded versions, extended jams are typically not their thing.  I think I felt at the time that they extended "PPP", but now that I re-listen to the recorded version it has a pretty long ending anyway.

This will likely be my last show with the indie rock meetup group for a while.  It was good to hang out with a few of them on the rooftop terrace of the Moonrise Hotel after the show.  Hopefully they're still going to shows when I return from Seattle.

Rating: 4.4/5

Sunday, September 27, 2015

In search of a new five year travel plan

Last time I did this, I had a pretty specific list of places that I wanted to go in each of 2011-2015.  And I ended up visiting most of those places in the years that I specified - this year being the most out of tune with the original plan.

This time around, I don't have plans that are nearly as specific, and I am running out of new places that I really want to visit.  But in any case, here are some places that I am considering traveling to in the next 5 years if I am able...
  • Hawai'i
  • Alaska
    • Land and cruise
  • Antarctica & Patagonia
  • Another Nordic tour
    • This time include Iceland, some fjords, Denmark
  • Another Asian tour
    • Seoul, Bangkok, Bali
  • Middle East, North Africa, and India
    • Cairo, Dubai, Mumbai
As you can probably tell, this is a pretty haphazard list at the moment.  And it's possible that I could end up combining destinations in a different way (e.g., include India in an Asia trip).  But I'm just getting some thoughts down for now as a starting point.  The first two (Hawai'i and Alaska) may be the next destinations, as they should be easier to get to from Seattle.

Saturday, September 19, 2015

alt-J @ Hollywood Casino Amphitheater (9/18/2015)



Opener

This was a 105.7 The Point summer series concert, so there were actually 5 bands on the bill and the show started at 5 PM.  We didn't arrive until after 7, though, so we only saw some of Matt and Kim, Walk the Moon, and alt-J.

Setlist

As expected, they played a good mixture of old and new, and included pretty much all my faves.  They ended their 5-song encore with "Taro" and "Breezeblocks", two of Kailie's favorites (so she was over the moon about that).

Stage

They've apparently stepped up their light show since I saw them the first time at The Pageant nine months ago.  They've also been nominated for a Grammy award since then, so it makes sense that they're playing bigger venues.

High/low-lights

I'm still not a huge fan of the live rendition of "Hunger of the Pine", but that's just me being picky about one of my favorite songs of theirs.  One brief but noteworthy highlight was the "Interlude I (Ripe & Ruin)" lead-in to "Tessellate" - it's a short a capella harmony by the two vocalists, but they absolutely nailed it.

I'm really glad I ended up going to this show after months of indecision, and my thanks go to Kailie for accompanying me.

Rating: 4.5/5