en http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/ Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 60 http://www.audioscrobbler.net/data/webservices http://www.last.fm/user/Corvar/journal The Last.fm journal for Corvar. Last.fm journals are a place to talk about all things music. http://www.last.fm/user/Corvar/journal/2009/08/21/2yccbr_tracy_chapman_81409_@_pabst_theater,_milwaukee,_wi Fri, 21 Aug 2009 02:22:53 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/Corvar/journal/2009/08/21/2yccbr_tracy_chapman_81409_@_pabst_theater,_milwaukee,_wi Fri 14 Aug – Tracy Chapman, Gaby Moreno

I have been a fan of Tracy since the late 80's. I am not sure if I heard Fast Car or Talkin' 'bout Revolution first, but they are both incredible songs which I have listened to innumerable times.

When we arrived at the Pabst, we weren't positive if there was an opener. Once we got there, we found out that Gaby Moreno was playing. Neither of us had heard of her before, and were delighted with her performance.

First, I must say that Tracy Chapman still looks great, and sounds even better. Her set really spanned her entire career, from her early hits to last years album, and even covers. Tracy played a variety of guitars, an electric banjo, and even a box, mixing things up after pretty much every song. It was really a fantastic set.

My one negative comment about the night was that the crowd was weirdly rowdy. It was an older crowd (in fact older than I thought it would be). But there was a lot of weird yelling at the stage and cat calling.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/Corvar/journal/2009/08/20/2yb7rf_shellac_81009_@_millennium_park,_chicago,_il Thu, 20 Aug 2009 18:33:22 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/Corvar/journal/2009/08/20/2yb7rf_shellac_81009_@_millennium_park,_chicago,_il Mon 10 Aug – New Music Mondays feat. Shellac & Shearwater

I am terribly tardy in writing this, so it will be woefully incomplete as a review. I am still awed by how great of a performance space the Pritzker Pavilion at Millennium Park is. This is the second concert I have seen there, and it sounds absolutely fantastic. I would love to move into the city just so I could go there more often.

This show was part of Chicago's New Music Monday's series. It was originally slated to be headlined by Rokia Traore, who I know next to nothing about. Not sure if she had visa problems, or what the deal was, but it looks like all of her US dates were cancelled. So Chicago locals Shellac were announced as filling in about a month before the show. It seems that word got out, because there was quite a crowd of Shellac fans in attendance.

Shearwater was a bit mismatched with Shellac, but I don't know if the New Music Monday shows really match opener to headliner, even without a last minute lineup change. Shearwater didn't really fit the mood I was in, and nothing particularly leaped out about them.

Shellac really presents an interesting visual to me. Steve and Bob are so unassuming and so do not look the rockstars, while Todd exudes rockstar. All are fantastic musicians, and add their own personality to Shellac. They put on both a long and energetic set, possibly being the first ones to express such sentiment as, "Fucking kill him. Kill him already, kill him." over the pristine Pritzker sound system.

Shellac has never failed to overwhelm me and leave me a little limp and disoriented. Seeing them back in the day at the Congress for the Lounge Ax, Fireside Bowl, Rainbow Rollerrink, etc. to seeing them last year at the Hideout, they have always put on a great show.

Some pictures from the show can be seen on Flickr.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/Corvar/journal/2009/07/23/2w1a8k_reverend_horton_heat_72209_@_miramar,_milwaukee,_wi Thu, 23 Jul 2009 19:51:17 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/Corvar/journal/2009/07/23/2w1a8k_reverend_horton_heat_72209_@_miramar,_milwaukee,_wi Wed 22 Jul – Reverend Horton Heat, Nekromantix

I have had many great times going to see the Reverend, and I am sure I will continue seeing him for as long as he still tours. There is a whole group of my friends who cycle in and out for the various shows, and I would be really surprised if I didn't know a small handful of people who see him whenever he is in the area. Thankfully, not only is the Reverend a legendary entertainer, he is also a workhorse tourer, so we never have to wait terribly long before he is in the area.

The Nekromantix were the openers, and I have never had the privilege of seeing them before, though I have seen Kim Nekroman perform in his guise as the guitarist for the HorrorPops a couple of times. With the death of Andy DeMize in January, I really wasn't sure if the Nekromantix were going to follow through with this tour, thankfully they did. Andy was replaced by Lux, who did a solid job and definitely made the band a lot cuter. They put on a solid performance, and I will keep an eye out for them in the future.

I didn't realize that Reverend Horton Heat had a new album out, until the Reverend mentioned it on stage. The set was primarily old classics, with a smattering of the new songs tossed in. A special treat was Hoss (the light engineer) taking the microphone for a cover of Motorhead's Ace Of Spades (in honor of the impending tour with Motorhead this fall).

It was another wonderful hot smelly evening, courtesy of Elektrotrash. My only negative comment is the annoying paypal receipt tickets, requiring the entire group to be present to get in. Of course, that is just sour grapes because I got stuck with tickets. One of the bonuses, is that cameras were allowed, so I have posted a handful of pictures from the evening here.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/Corvar/journal/2009/05/12/2pw9as_flight_of_the_conchords_5209_@_riverside_theater,_milwaukee,_wi Tue, 12 May 2009 19:12:47 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/Corvar/journal/2009/05/12/2pw9as_flight_of_the_conchords_5209_@_riverside_theater,_milwaukee,_wi Sat 2 May – Flight of the Conchords

It is really silly to write a review of Flight of the Conchords as a concert review, but here I am. I guess Flight of the Conchords are sort of a dual surprise attack, are they comedy? are they music? They are both, and kick your butt, or something like that.

The act requested that all of the best seats be held for will call only, buyer must be present and you must immediately enter the venue. This cut down on scalper problems, but meant the people who cared enough to jump on presales right away to get good tickets had to stand around like cattle to get in. I am really torn about this, and think there has to be a technical fix to scalper programs, but what do I know.

The warm up act, opener, whatever you want to call him was Eugene Merman. He plays the landlord in the series, but his act had nothing to do with that (which is no surprise). He had a number of good bits, especially the Delta airlines one.

Brent and Jermaine put on a solid show, alternate comedic banter with songs that were featured on the show. They were joined by Nigel Collins on cello, bongos, backing vocals, etc. Nothing specifically stands out in my mind about the performance, but it has been an action packed week since I saw them. Definitely a couple of funny chaps.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/Corvar/journal/2009/04/27/2oleom_neko_case_42509_@_riverside_theater,_milwaukee,_wi Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:32:30 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/Corvar/journal/2009/04/27/2oleom_neko_case_42509_@_riverside_theater,_milwaukee,_wi Sat 25 Apr – Neko Case, Crooked Fingers

This was one of the most highly anticipated shows for my group of friends and I in a long time. I jumped on the pre-sale the day it started, and got tickets near the front of the balcony. Unfortunately, Neko sold out the Pabst incredibly fast and they moved the show to the Riverside. That was the beginning of my ticket frustrations. I received the email that the venue was being changed before I received my tickets for the first venue. The email said they would be re-issuing seats and you should get comparable seats to your original, I got the exact same seats, and the Riverside's balcony is closer to the stage so I won't complain about that. I will complain that I didn't hear anything more about my tickets until 2 weeks before the show, when I got another email saying that my seats would be the same and that tickets were printed and should arrive in the mail. It also had a caveat that if the tickets didn't make it I could go to the boxoffice the day of the show and get new copies printed. Now a smart and cynical person would read that to mean, we didn't actually mail your tickets, they will be at will call and we are just fucking with you, but I actually eagerly checked my mail daily and on a daily basis swore at them. When I got to the boxoffice, my tickets were already printed and waiting with what seemed like a whole theater of other peoples, so I call Pabst/Riverside/Turner/TicketWeb a bunch of lieing asses.

Once I got the tickets in my hot little hands, and my ticket anxieties vanished, my experience picked up. Riverside of a beautiful venue that sounds great. We had good seats (though I am a big boy and old theater seats are not spacious). After picking up the tickets, we met the rest of the group across the street and Mo's and had a drink. I was sort of prodding people to get them moving so we could see the opener, and we still ended up missing a song or so of them.

I didn't know much of anything about Crooked Fingers, but they definitely landed in the category of an opener that knocked my socks off and won me over as a fan. Before I left, I picked up a couple of their CDs and am listening to their newest album as I type this. I think everyone in my group ended up liking Crooked Fingers quite a bit. They played a really tight set, sounded great, and had a wonderful chemistry. From looking up their bio, Eric Bachmann is the constant in the band, but I really hope he keeps his two partners (Miranda Brown is one of them, not sure about the crazy percussion/keyboardist who rocked out) around going forward.

When the lights went down signaling that Neko Case and company were coming on stage, you could almost feel the anticipation. I don't know the whole band, and couldn't say if some of the members changed, but Kelly Hogan and Jon Rauhouse were definitely there. Kelly was looking and sounding lovely as always, and Jon played some crazy licks on 12 string, banjo, peddle steel, etc. I could blather on and on about Neko, how great she sounded, the witty banter between songs, etc. but really it won't tell anybody how great the show was, but instead just how big of a crush I have on her. I will say, the video that they had playing on the screen behind them was very cool, they did People Got a Lotta Nerve to the music video (which I hadn't seen before) which was great. The mix was quite well done, so if you like Neko's studio work, live would blow your socks off. They played a nice mix of old and new stuff, but I would love to near some of the stuff that reaches back to Neko Case and her Boyfriends (like South Tacoma Way or Thrice All American).

Neko mentioned that they will be touring again in the fall, and I definitely plan to catch them on that tour as well.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/Corvar/journal/2009/04/24/2ocy1w_indigo_girls_42309_@_pabst_theater,_milwaukee,_wi Fri, 24 Apr 2009 21:56:48 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/Corvar/journal/2009/04/24/2ocy1w_indigo_girls_42309_@_pabst_theater,_milwaukee,_wi Thu 23 Apr – Indigo Girls, Jennifer O'Connor

We couldn't have missed more than a song of Jennifer O'Connor when we showed up. But unless she started off real strong and faded quick, we didn't miss too much. Jennifer played well, but she just didn't grab the audience, possibly because the audience wanted nothing short of the Indigo Girls.

An act like the Indigo Girls could possibly learn something from Flogging Molly in choosing an opener. Specifically, Flogging Molly picks a quality opener that really doesn't match their style too closely, which really allows the opener to shine. I guess many acts could learn from that lesson.

I was first introduced to the Indigo Girls in the late 80's, or maybe early 90's. I don't know where my mom got it, but she had a cassette of their self-titled release. Despite being very into loud, angry, angsty boy music (industrial and punk), I liked them enough to copy that cassette and I listened to it for many years. I have intended to see them play live for a number of years now, and I am glad it finally worked.

The Indigo Girls really put on a great performance on many different levels. They sounded simply fantastic. They did a great job of mixing in old stuff with new, hits with the slightly more obscure, etc. They also did the best job I have ever seen of audience participation. During a number of songs, they stopped singing so that everyone could hear the crowd singing. And I must say, their audience could sing (I just mouth the words, because my voice would bring down the entire thing). As a sort of interlude, they brought Connie Grauer of Mrs. Fun on stage to play something on piano called Picaso's Shoes which was a fantastic aside. I wouldn't mind checking out Mrs. Fun sometime down the road. For the encore, both halves of Mrs Fun joined the Indigo Girls on stage along with Jennifer O'Connor to sing Closer to Fine.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/Corvar/journal/2009/04/20/2nxqnw_death_cab_for_cutie_41909_@_van_male_fieldhouse,_waukesha,_wi Mon, 20 Apr 2009 16:25:29 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/Corvar/journal/2009/04/20/2nxqnw_death_cab_for_cutie_41909_@_van_male_fieldhouse,_waukesha,_wi Sun 19 Apr – Death Cab for Cutie, Cold War Kids, Ra Ra Riot

It had been well over a decade since I was on the Carroll campus, and I had never previously been in their fieldhouse, so I had no idea what to expect. I guess if you would have asked me, I would have thought something closer to my university's fieldhouse than my high schools. But the later was the case, if I am off, my high schools fieldhouse was bigger. I was double pleased to find out the only thing to drink was warm bottled water with no cap. And triply thrilled that the accommodations were port-o-lets outside of the building. The only plus was that because the bathrooms were outside they opened a garage door which lowered the temperature from 1,000,000 DegF to a mere 999,998 DegF. Oh also, if you collect your ticket stubs, you were S.O.L. because they took the whole ticket at the door.

While I am making fun of the venue, I will say that it sounded AWESOME for a gym. Hell it sounded about 80 times better than the Eagles Club has sounded in the past decade, and even better than a number of venues whose sound engineer aren't a deaf mute (I think a lot of the Eagles Club/Raves sound system if you couldn't guess). They also had a crazy number of staff running around, not sure what they were doing, but there were definitely a whole bunch of them. So if you needed venue staff, you could probably touch at least 1 at any particular time it seemed.

There was a pretty darn big crowd. The show was sold out, and it definitely seemed like everyone showed up. If the crowd was a little older (or less wee) the place would have been a whole lot more crowded. I think the average age was probably 20 and the average height was 5'2". Even with the stature of the crowd, I do think a fire marshal would have had issues with the crowd. Not sure if the number of tickets sold was based off a capacity without 400 staffers, or if they didn't take into account the room used by the stage, or what, but it seemed fuller than permissible.

On to the music at last. The first band up was Ra Ra Riot, one of the people I went with was a big fan of theirs and I could see why. They sounded really good, though Alexandra's vocals were no where to be heard in the mix. Their set was a bit short, but they were the first opener so I guess I can understand. I will be watching for them in the future, I got their CD and already have listened to it through.

Next up were the Cold War Kids. They fall into the, not bad but didn't grab me category.

Death Cab for Cutie put on a really great set. They sounded great, they hit the songs I really wanted to hear, and they played a decently long set. The first song of the encore was Ben doing I Will Follow You Into The Dark which was awesome. I was torn between wanting them to play longer, and wanting them to finish knowing how wrecked I would be at work today. But they put on a great show.

As an aside, there was a roadie (not sure if he was with the school or the tour) who looked like Hagrid and wore a suit while tearing apart/setting up everything. I also saw someone wearing a hot dog suit (like what you would wear to advertise a hotdog stand), or maybe someone slipped some acid into my open water bottle.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/Corvar/journal/2009/04/07/2mp2kp_morrissey_4309_@_eagles_ballroom,_milwaukee,_wi Tue, 7 Apr 2009 19:53:05 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/Corvar/journal/2009/04/07/2mp2kp_morrissey_4309_@_eagles_ballroom,_milwaukee,_wi Fri 3 Apr – Morrissey, The Courteeners

It had been over a decade since the last time I saw Morrissey live, and back then he was playing arena type venues so I was no where near close to him. I was sort of sad that there were no gladioli being waved and tossed about, of course I am not sure how the Rave's bouncers would have dealt with flowers. I guess the lack of flowers could have been the season, but come on, it's Morrissey get him tulips or something ;)

Mitchell was chronically late for dinner, so we pretty much completely missed the opening act. I think we heard their last two songs. They sounded pretty good, but I didn't hear enough to really form an opinion. They were The Courteeners and I do think I will check them out based on the smidge I did hear.

Morrissey started his set with authority, opening with This Charming Man. It was possibly the best song of the night. I was also pretty stoked by Black Cloud and Irish Blood, English Heart. There are a slew of songs I would have loved to hear, but there is no way to make everyone happy. The backing band did a damn fine job supporting Moz, though Johnny Mar would have been a great addition.

At this point, there are well over a handful of bands that I have seen more often than Morrissey, but there is no one else in the running for the time between the first and most recent times I have seen them perform live. He is timeless, and Years Of Refusal really proves it. Seriously it is his best album in quite a while, and I will continue listening to it, while some of the other interim releases don't get much play. I don't know how soon I will go back and see Morrissey live though. Possibly if he did a best of tour would draw me out, and definitely a Smiths reunion would.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/Corvar/journal/2009/03/18/2ks7ey_flogging_molly_31709_@_congress_theatre,_chicago,_il Wed, 18 Mar 2009 22:12:21 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/Corvar/journal/2009/03/18/2ks7ey_flogging_molly_31709_@_congress_theatre,_chicago,_il Tue 17 Mar – Flogging Molly, The Aggrolites

It's not every year that you get an opportunity to see an act like Flogging Molly on St Patrick's Day, so I leaped on the pre-sale immediately, not knowing how many friends would want to come. So I bought 6 tickets right away, and ended up selling one of them on Craigslist. I much prefer selling tickets on craigslist to someone who will actually be going to the show and enjoy it versus selling it someone who will turn around and scalp it for a profit.

My gang of people drove down to a CTA park and ride and took the El into the city. While getting our transit passes, a CTA worker came up and asked us, "How many Irish Popes have there been?" we responded, "None." He then asked us, "How many Polish Popes have there been?" and we responded, "Quite a few." He then cracked, "Yeah we are going for a shut out."

Our plan was to find someplace to eat and have a few pints in Wicker Park, while waiting for the last of our group to meet us. We happened into the Wicker Park Tavern. Their food comes from Cafe Absinthe and was pretty good, the pints were relatively cheap, they played Irish music, and had soccer/rugby on the TVs. We were pretty happy with things, and then the Chicago Fire Department Pipe and Drum corp showed up to play a set. Tom bought them a round of shots, which hopefully didn't cause them problems later in the evening when they played at the United Center. We chatted with the members for a while, and one of them is in a band which plays traditional Irish songs, and covers of bands like Flogging Molly and Dropkick Murphys. They are called Red Rebel County, and I will have to check them out when I get a chance.

Eventually, the last of our group met up with us, and we wandered/staggered down the road to the Congress. We had pretty well missed the Dub Trio by the time we got there, but that meant there wasn't a lot of waiting around. The Aggrolites took the stage, and while I had been looking forward to them and they did sound good, their vibe just didn't match the St Pats energy. I am usually very happy that Flogging Molly chooses diverse other bands who sound different to open for them, but on St Pats, everyone is Irish, and the opening acts should have been.

I really don't have too much to say about Flogging Molly, they put on a fantastic show. I have seen them a bunch of times already, and they always do a great job. Ending their current tour on St Pats in Chicago, was certainly the way to do it. I don't know that I have seen the Congress quite as full as it was last night, and definitely the crowd was into things.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/Corvar/journal/2009/03/17/2kn2ip_the_queers_31509_@_mad_planet,_milwaukee,_wi Tue, 17 Mar 2009 15:26:05 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/Corvar/journal/2009/03/17/2kn2ip_the_queers_31509_@_mad_planet,_milwaukee,_wi Sun 15 Mar – The Queers, Poison Arrows, Jetty Boys, The Daniel James Gang

I am not sure what would possess me to start the week off with a show that is going to run this late, but there I was at Planet on a Sunday night seeing 4 bands. Now don't get me wrong, I do enjoy it, but I am getting too old for this shit when I have to work the next morning (and drive 2 hours in the middle somewhere).

The first band up was the Jetty Boys. I guess they are semi local, from Sheboygan or some such. There were some problems during their first couple of songs (no lead vocals), but after the sound guy got that fixed they sounded good. I would label them sort of a power pop punk mix. They were definitely the pleasant surprise of the evening, and I will hopefully get to catch these guys again.

The Jetty Boys were followed up by The Daniel James Gang and Poison Arrows. The Daniel James Gang is another local act, I didn't get into them as much as Jetty Boys. Poison Arrows seemed to bring a heaping dose of pretension with them from where ever they came from.

The Queers put on a solid set, as they always do. The original singer, Wimpy, was in attendance and took the stage toward the end of the night. I prefer Joe King's vocals and more laid back style, but it was interesting getting to see Wimpy's broody aggressiveness. I ended up bugging out not long after Wimpy took the stage, so I am not sure how long the set was.]]>