I only learned a week or two before the show that The Range was going to open up for Phantogram, and I was excited to see him again. His album Potential is likely to make my top 10 for this year. Phantogram's latest album Three also dropped the day of the show. I tried to get a listen in beforehand earlier in the day, but I was only able to get a distracted partial listen.
The Range's set was kinda disappointing, though I'm not sure that I should have expected more, especially as an opening act. There's a limit to the entertainment value of his (suspected fake) knob twiddling, lip syncing, and DJ dancing. He also didn't have any of the visuals that he did for his earlier Seattle show as an opener. The music was alright, but the sound mix could have been better.
Phantogram didn't disappoint. They played a good mix of songs from their brand new album as well as their earlier two. They also had some good visual effects, including projections on both a front see-through screen and a backdrop. Brad commented, and I agree, that they are good at ending songs at the appropriate time - I can only think of one song with any sort of extended jam and even that one was quite short. Many of their songs are good for getting the body moving, while some others are good for rocking out. Overall, I was quite satisfied.
With this being my third event at The Paramount in four nights (Sigur Rós, Neil DeGrasse Tyson), I feel like I live at the place this week...
Sitting for a Foals show is an interesting experience, as they put on a pretty energetic performance. It's a little tougher to tap into that energy from a seat in the mezzanine. Don't get me wrong, though - (being an "old man") I generally prefer sitting to standing.
The light show matches the kind of energy that the band, especially Yannis, puts into the show. To expand on that a bit, most of the band is generally not jumping all around constantly, but they're still going at it. Yannis definitely moves around more than the others (twirls, hops, etc), and ventures out into the crowd (sometimes crowd-surfing) at least once a show. The light show for this tour is heavy on strobe effects, especially when the band is going hard.
My main complaint about the show is that they apparently don't like playing my favorite songs by them. I tend to prefer their "mathier" stuff, but they seem to mostly like to rock out. That's fine, too, but I would like it if they played more than one from my top five.
As an "an evening with" show, there was no opener. Galen, Erin, and I arrived a couple of minutes after the 8:30 beginning. The show came in two parts, each lasting about an hour, with a 20 minute intermission.
The first part was slower, softer, and had more songs that I didn't recognize/recall - I didn't do much "prep" for the show besides listen to my two favorite albums of theirs (Takk... and Kveikur). The second part was more dynamic - which is my preference for their stuff - and had a couple of my jams, including Sæglópur. Somewhat unfortunately, though, I would estimate that they only played 3 or 4 of my top 10 favorite songs by them. The setlist also seemed to span the entirety of their catalog.
As was expected based on the Twitter chatter, their stage set-up was pretty amazing. They had lights or light strips on just about everything. They also had two big screens displaying stuff - one really big one all the way in the back, and another not-as-big partially see-through one that moved up/down and could serve as either a backdrop or a facade. Of course, the screens don't really add much unless they are displaying something cool or interesting, and they had plenty of that. For at least half of the songs I really wanted to take a picture to capture the feel of the chosen light/graphics scheme, but I didn't want to be "that guy" who was only snapping pics and not enjoying the show.
A random observation: there was no on-stage banter at all - they just performed the song. I'm not sure if it's for artistic reasons or because they're not native English speakers (though I know that Jónsi speaks at least decent English). They did do a double bow for the standing ovation at the end, though.
Showtime was a relatively late 9 PM. Kasey and I arrived a little after the opening act got on. Bloc Party started a little before 10:15. They played two half sets, though the first "half" was longer than the second. I thought that the second "half" was going to be an encore, not that the break was an intermission. They did end up coming out for a one song encore after the second "half".
They played a lot of older material, which I think the audience (myself included) was happy with. I guess they realize that the new stuff is not as strong, or at least not as appreciated.
Kele seemed more stacked (physically) than I recalled - I remember him as being fairly skinny.
Overall, the show was a little better than I expected. I hadn't listened to any of their stuff recently to reacquaint myself with it. But a lot of it sprung back when they played it.
The show went pretty late. I arrived around 9:30 and still saw all of the second opener (The Palms). It was after midnight when I left after We Are Scientists' main set.
Keith, the guitarist/singer for We Are Scientists, is quite talented.
The on-stage banter was almost as good as the music. And there was seemingly almost as much of it.
When the Local Natives tour was initially announced, I was notified of the Seattle show on September 20. Unfortunately, this was the same day as two other shows that I was interested in (Sigur Rós and The Temper Trap), one of which I had bought tickets for already (Sigur Rós). In truth, Sigur Rós would be my first choice out of the three, but Local Natives wouldn't be too far behind (The Temper Trap would only be in the running if it was a weekend and I had nothing else going on), especially since they were the only ones I hadn't yet seen. Fast forward to Friday (3 days ago) when a Do314 e-mail randomly made me curious to investigate whether traveling back to St. Louis (for free) for a Wednesday night (October 5) just to see them would be worth it. When I went to their website just to see what their full tour schedule was, I noticed that the very first date listed was in Seattle...3 days away! In a delirious haste, I clicked through to buy a ticket as quickly as possible, incredulous that the show (at a bar that I hadn't heard of) hadn't sold out yet. Needless to say, the concert was sold out by showtime, and I'm glad that I stumbled across the show listing when I did. I am a little angry that Songkick did not alert me about (and still does not list) the show, though.
The show itself wasn't anything fancy - they were playing a decent sized bar, but there couldn't have been more than a few hundred people there. The stage was pretty small, and there wasn't much of a light show. But that was all fine - I was there for the music. In my typical style, I arrived about an hour after showtime, completely skipping the DJ opener. Unfortunately, though, that meant that the only spot I would be feel comfortable getting to (since I don't like pushing through people) was in the back. This was OK, but I do wish that I could have seen more of their actual playing of instruments from my vantage point.
This was one of the first, if not the first, official shows on their tour. In fact, a comment on stage made it seem that it was hastily arranged and prepended to the schedule. In any case, they used it to "road test" most of the songs on the new album. In general, I liked the new material, and am excited for the album to drop in September. I think 3 of the new songs had Kelcey on lead vocals, which was a bit of a change-up - I can only think of 2 songs from the first 2 albums where he's the main voice. While I do generally prefer the texture of Taylor's singing voice, I didn't mind too much Kelcey taking the lead. Half the set was a mixture of old material, which the crowd also heartily appreciated.
Overall, it was a very enjoyable show. While I think that I might have preferred seeing them at the Moore Theatre later in the year (in addition to being a "fuller" performance, I would have had a bit of time to digest the new songs beforehand), it was nice to at least see them in concert, and in such an intimate venue. Next time I'll try to get a better view.
As you may or may not know, I've been living in Seattle for the last seven months while on a domestic temporary assignment (DTA) for work. It's been great. I've loved the chance to live in and explore a new and interesting place, even despite not yet having the best weather of the year. But I also really like the idea of having the stability and comfort of my home in St. Louis. Reflecting on the experience so far has begun to formulate a life goal for a decade or so from now.
I imagine having a career that I can productively undertake anywhere in the world with a sufficiently fast Internet connection (not a stretch as a software developer). I imagine being completely debt free. I imagine being able to decide without hesitation that I want to spend the next couple of months in some new place in the world - living, working, and exploring as I desire. I imagine having the ability to return to my comfortable home when each adventure is complete.
I realize that I am very fortunate to be born into a position where this is a possibility. But why not seize the opportunity to make this happen? We'll see what the next ten years bring.
OK, maybe I've gotten too lazy and nonchalant about getting to shows on time. This time I showed up after Moderat was already on stage, but I think it was only their first song. This was the second show in a row that I got a ticket a couple of days beforehand and the show ended up selling out. And like the previous show, it turned out to be a good decision.
The show as a package was pretty good. The big beats were bumping, and the light (and laser, and fog) show was dynamic. They played more instrumental (if you can really call it that - electronic music doesn't really have instruments) songs than I expected, and fewer ones with vocals. And they turned parts of the show into a dance party (as opposed to playing the standard songs); but this wasn't a surprise. One unexpected thing was the double encore - the first encore had three or four songs, and the second had one. Overall, it turned out better and more enjoyable than I expected.
It seems like I've gotten pretty good at showing up just in time for the main act. Anyway, I committed unusually late to going to this show - I bought the ticket only a couple of days before. In the end I'm glad I made the decision that I did, and that I got the ticket before they sold out. It was a solid show - nothing flashy or super memorable. Perhaps my only real complaint is directed at myself for picking a spot at the back - partially for the suboptimal view, but also for having to deal with all the people who couldn't find a good place to cut through the packed crowd in the small venue. One thing that did strike me about their performance was that it seemed like they used a backing track on quite a few songs - I couldn't be sure since I didn't have the best view of what was going on. I don't remember this from the first time that I saw them. But I apparently also liked that show a bit more.
I almost didn't go to this show, for a couple of reasons. First, I knew nothing about the main act, Rome Fortune, and was only interested in seeing The Range. Second, it was a Sunday night, and I've been going in to work earlier, so I didn't want a lack of sleep to lead to a sluggish Monday. When I'm indecisive enough to not buy a ticket ahead of time, it almost always means that I'm not going. This time was different, though - I decided over the weekend that I would only go for The Range (whose album will likely end high on my list for 2016). This would avoid the boredom of not knowing the other acts, and would (hopefully) also allow me to salvage some sleep.
The plan almost worked out. I arrived promptly at 8 PM, thinking that I would be able to immediately catch The Range and then bounce. Unfortunately, the first act was a DJ set, and The Range wasn't due on stage until 9:15. I made the best of the situation, though, and walked over to a nearby Chipotle to grab a late dinner, and then up the street to check out the apartment in Capitol Hill that my buddy Mike had just moved into. I made it back to the venue just in time to catch The Range for his hour on stage before finding a bus back to the apartment.
After all that preamble, I should probably say a word or two about the show. The venue is pretty small - it's really just a bar in a basement (of another bar and small concert club) with a small, slightly elevated stage. The crow was also quite small, though it sorta filled out to maybe 50 people by the time The Range was done (which I would guess was below 25% capacity). Those that were there did seem to enjoy him, though, but I couldn't get a read on how many people where his fans vs Fortune's.
Musically, there was much to like about the set. Most of the tracks off Potential made an appearance, and as did one or two from Nonfiction (plus at least a couple that I didn't immediately recognize). As expected, though, the performance aspect was not particularly intriguing. He (James Hinton, aka The Range) did hop about quite a bit and mouth most of the lyrics in between pushing buttons and twiddling knobs. And there were a couple of projectors involved - one for a transparent screen in front of him, and the other (which he almost knocked over once while jumping about) for the white screen behind him. It was a decent visual spectacle for being such a small electronic act, but it wouldn't blow many (if any) minds. In any case, I was satisfied just to hear those beautiful big beats bumped loudly. I also got a chance to ask him a quick question (about when the documentary for Potential is due out - screenings in June, generally available in July) and shake his hand while he was breaking down his equipment after he was done.
A Beach House show is a Beach House show, so it's gonna be good. However, something was a little lacking about this one (even being their first in Seattle in 4 years). I think it's mostly a matter of setlist preference, though - they didn't play any of my favorite 3 songs from either of their last 2 albums. And I guess there were a couple of songs where Alex's guitar should probably have been mixed in a little louder. Victoria also seemed frustrated on the first few songs with the sound levels on the stage monitors, but that was mostly unrelated to what we could hear in the audience.
Overall, maybe a teeny bit disappointing, but only because they're one of my favorite bands.
I intended to show up in time for the opener (Kaneholler) tonight - I even checked out some of their music earlier in the day - but events conspired to make me miss them like I've seemingly missed all openers as of late. Oh well.
Another recent trend is that I haven't particularly liked the latest album from the acts that I've been seeing, despite being a mid to long term fan. Unless further listens cause a change of heart, that appears to be the case with Miike Snow as well. Thankfully, their setlist contained plenty of older songs to keep me satisfied; and a couple of the new ones didn't come out too badly.
I haven't quite made up my mind how I feel about their live performance. Their better (and usually older) songs tend to be mostly electronic, which diminishes from the performance aspect. The newer songs are generally (but not always) more guitar driven, so they allow for more showmanship - too bad I don't like these songs as much. In any case, I give props to the traveling drummer, who I thought did a pretty good job on the songs, electro or otherwise.
The lead singer (Andrew) is also a puzzler. His heart seems to be in the right place in terms of being animated and attempting to put on a show, but there are aspects of the execution that cause me to scratch my head a bit. For example, I don't understand the unnecessary transitions between the microphone up front and the seated position behind the keyboards on the left - sometimes multiple times in a song. This is further exacerbated by his seeming lack of respect of microphones and wires, which cause a stagehand to have to come on to fix a tangled situation just about every song. One of these events involved Andrew taking a tumble, which at least resulted in additional support from the crowd when he got back on his feet.
So, apparently my new thingis intentionally missing the opening band(s) at concerts. OK, maybe this is not really a new thing, but I've been doing a pretty good job of it lately. Despite the late 9:00 PM start of this show, I arrived around 10:30 in a plot to miss the two openers. I was a bit worried that I would miss some of Junior Boys, especially since (as usual) I had a hard time finding parking around this venue, but my timing was on point - I arrived between the second opener and the main act.
The audience was significantly less crowded than either of the previoustwo shows that I had seen here, so I took this chance to check out the seating on the balcony level. The result was that I had a comfortable and relaxing viewing/listening experience.
Musically, there weren't too many surprises. Junior Boys is a pretty small act, so the stage setup was pretty low key. They played a mix of old and new, and the songs off the latest album (Big Black Coat) came off a bit better than expected - so far I'm digging the album less than its predecessors. I did find it interesting that the live drummer had a kit that was a mix of normal and electronic elements - the bass drum being a noteworthy electronic component. Also, the guy on the keyboard/mixer didn't seem to contribute very much to the music, despite his attempts at rapidly turning his attention among various switches and knobs.
MUTEMATH is a fun act to see live. They are energetic, even as they advance in years. They bring a pretty elaborate stage and light show, especially for the smaller venues that they tend to play. And their music ain't half bad either.
For this particular show, they once again played a good mix of old and new. The beginning was mostly new-ish, and then they took it old school for a few songs. As is to be expected, Vitalsgot the largest representation, being their latest album and all (as well as the name of the tour). In total they apparently played a whopping 22 songs(though I think that count is actually low by 1),the vast majority of which I enjoyed. The encore wasn't really an encore, in that the band didn't fully leave the stage between, but I have zero gripes with that. They closed things out with the customary "Reset"/"Typical" combo. Side note: further research indicates that they played a very similar setlist every show during this tour.
All in all, this was a more than satisfactory show. And after Animal Collective, it restored my faith that concerts can actually be enjoyable.
I'm realizing a couple of things about Animal Collective... First, I don't really like them live. This show was even less satisfying than the last time I saw them. Part of that was their setlist - they played a lot of songs from their disappointing new album, and none of their songs that I really like. Part of that isdue to their indulgently long intros and outros to seemingly every single song (I can appreciate transitions between songs, but if you know how I feel about extended solos and noodling you will understand why I think what they do is way too much). Part of it is the chaotic cacophany that is their performance - sometimes it's hard to discern the underlying melody even if I'm familiar with the song. And part of it is that apart from the drummer and the singing it's impossible to tell what any of them is doing in terms of creating the music/sounds - three knob twiddlers does not make for captivating performance.
Second, there's only one of their albums that I really like front to back - Merriweather Post Pavilion. I like some songs on their other albums, but I guess I don't think any of them is really that good.Hmmm.
Joywave was the opener for this show. As usual, I showed up late for them since I knew nothing about them. I did like the first song I heard of theirs, but the rest didn't strike my fancy too much. Maybe I'll consider checking out their stuff at some point.
The Metric portion of the show didn't disappoint. They came prepared with a dazzling, though compact, light rig that was worthy of the strobe light warning posted at the entrance to the venue. As for music, they played mostly from their back catalog, with only four songs or so from the latest album. I was fine with this, considering it's not my favorite album, but the new songs came off better than I expected - particularly "Cascades" (but that might be because the light effects were especially striking for that one). And Emily is still a goddess on stage - an articulate goddess who changes her jacket often. And enjoys spontaneous a capella.
Other highlights of the show include the band bringing out the VIP guests to sing the chorus for "Dreams So Real", including a duet to end the song with a very luck guy amongst them. They also played a comparatively long four song encore.
If there was anything to complain slightly about, it might be the unnecessary solo or extended ending that they throw in from time to time - but I'm probably the only person that's not really into those.
Even though I purposely got there an hour after show time (scheduled for 8 PM), I still had to wait through 3 different openers. The highlight during this time was Lupe coming out for a couple of songs during Billy Blue's set (they performed "Chopper", which is a Lupe song featuring Billy, and another tune which I would guess based on Lupe's instruction is titled "Fundamentals"). Needless to say, Lupe got onstage pretty late - probably after 10:30.
Lupe
The first half of the show was a condensed version of Tetsuo & Youth, Lupe's latest album. He claimed this part of the show was for himself, because he really loved the songs on the album. During this portion, he performed almost like a rock lead singer would - rapping at the mic stand, with relatively subdued movements; it also included a bunch of the interludes from the album. He later revealed that he was having problems with his voice, and was trying to tone it down to save it for the whole show. But I feel like the Tetsuo part of the show would probably be less animated anyway. There were also a couple of stoppages - one was due to technical difficulties with his earpiece, while the other briefer ones seemed to be either due to voice or flubbing the lyrics.
The second half of the show was for "us" - he went through all his classic hits, often not finishing a song all the way through since he was running short on time. He was also way more animated during this part, bouncing around in a more expected fashion. One highlight was a portion of the show where he pitted the right and left sides of the crowd against each other in a competition to see who could "turn up" more when the beat dropped. Each side had a couple of turns (one practice, one for real), before he had us all go at once. See the video below for the left side taking their second turn.
At the end of the show he apologized to the crew of the venue for going over the (apparent) midnight curfew, laying the blame on himself. He also promised the audience that he owed us 15 more minutes, and would honor that by returning to Seattle for a 15 minute show before the end of the year - he would rent out the same venue, and we would be able to get in with the ticket stubs from this show.
New for this year, I will link to the full albums (where available) on YouTube, since YouTube Music now makes it possible to find pretty much anything. I will still include a playlist of my favorite song from each album for those who want a briefer sample of them.
Also, to make up a bit
for last year, I will add a couple of albums that I totally missed from
2014 that I really enjoyed this past year.
Two bands that I've seen once or twice before. I'm more of a Phantogram fan, but Muse has been worth seeing each time.
Phantogram
As is to be expected, this venue (and stage) is bigger than Phantogram is ready for. But that's normal for an opening act. They made good use of some of Muse's lights - probably a bigger light show than they would normally have at a show they're headlining - but it obviously wasn't main-act-caliber lighting. In any case, the musical performance was solid, with the sound mix tightening up after the first couple of songs. Just like the last time that I saw them, I noticed something slightly disappointing about the live rendition of "Howling at the Moon" - this time it was that the cool rattling drum part during the chorus was part of the backing track, and was not played by the live drummer. Despite this, I have no real complaints about their 40 minute set.
Muse
These guys put on a live spectacle. This time it was all about (well, somewhat about) orb-shaped drones, to match the name of the latest album and the tour. It also seemed like there were things coming out from nowhere every other song: screens dropping, giant balloons, jet-shaped drone, piano from trapdoors, and more. And to make an observation that I've made before, these guys are really good musicians - they play very tightly and cleanly. I don't love all their songs, but seeing their show is always a good time.
I actually ended up seeing all 3 acts on the bill because I wasn't sure of the relationship between door time (8 PM on this night) and show time (9 PM) at Neumos. Ian Hicks put on a short (~25 minutes) DJ set that wasn't too bad - I didn't really expect anything from this, considering that I didn't know his work.
Pictureplane played a little longer than I expected, which I think caused HEALTH to start about 15 minutes late at 11. He threw in a pretty good mix of old and new. His diversion this time around was a video in the background that threw out some weird accusations about some people secretly being reptiles - I didn't quite get it, but it was something to look at. Other than that it was him occasionally twisting some knobs and sometimes singing, in addition to some pacing. Last time I saw him he had a solitary dancer (who had some nice moves). I don't know that his show could ever stand strongly on its own, but it's satisfactory if you're into his music. And I'm digging the latest album from a couple of months ago.
I'm pretty sure HEALTH was trying to make the audience have epileptic seizures and go deaf. And I feel dumb for not considering acquiring some earplugs for the show, considering that I knew that they are a noise rock act. Oh well...I'll just deal with more hearing loss and my ears ringing for a day or so. As for their music, some of it was pretty good - at least the parts when they weren't just making noise for the sake of it. I actually checked out their latest album beforehand during my commute on the day of the show, and I had a good first impression of it; this last minute investigation is what caused me to stay to hear them play. It seemed more melodic than some of their past stuff, and the songs on it that they played during the show (as far as I could tell) seemed to be the ones I enjoyed the most.
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