Wolfmother

Ok, sorry about not posting in the last few weeks, it’s been hectic...

Went to a Bob Dylan Tribute show with a killer line up, @ Lincoln Center, it was great.

Anyway, today I spent my day in the city, I went to the Chinese consulate here, to pick up my visa for my upcoming trip at the end of next month (I'll be blogging my china trip, while I’m there for the month)

after that, went to the gap, and got a scarf b/c I was cold, and well its a nice scarf, but is like 6 feet long, quite impractical...

I had another concert tonight, and needed to kill time, so I went to see a movie, James Bond: Casino Royal. it was a fun movie, but unlike the past Bond films, its ending was left open, and well apparently it continuation is already in the works... that will probably be quite a poor production, we'll see....

So I left the film at around 5:00 and went acr
oss the street to Hammerstein Ballroom, and well doors were called for 6:30, and the first band was to go on at 8:00, but there was already a huge line so I got onto it... then it started raining... I got in around 6:40 and went to check my coat and went into the main area, and well it was crowded, I was about 5th row, a bit upsetting, being that I was out there for 90 minutes or so, and did not get my spot up front.

the first band on was Dead Meadow, and it seemed like nobody liked me, and well I didn’t either, but I brought my new camera, and I was testing out settings and what not so I didn’t care how bad it was, I was occupied.

The next band on was Silversun Pickups, and I loved them, they just got up there and jammed, it was cool, hard and enjoyable. There was a great drum solo in the last song they preformed, and well who doesn’t like a good drum solo....

Wolfmother went on at around 9:50 and well I had my camera out, but apparently the crowd decided this was great music to mosh to, and well I quickly put my cam back into the case just in time before I got shoved. This worked for me, because I was able to push my way into second row, and the first row was not going to budge so I remained second row for the set. Wolfmother as great as their album was they are ten times better live, they really know how to perform, and how to out on a performance, it was out of this world.


well two more thing that are worth note, while waiting for the first band to go on, some one blew up a condom and was tossing it around like a balloon, and that’s not the fist time I saw this, it got the entire crowds attention, and it was funny to see 500 or so grown adults go so crazy over a balloon, it was a sight to see.

the next not worth incident was during the Wolfmother encore, this dude kept on elbowing me and the guy next to me and well it was really annoying, and as much as we hit back he didn’t stop, so we both went down and boosted over the security gate, it was a great way to deal with the problem, and I was laughing after the security guard caught him... after this I wiped out my cam for the final two songs and snapped like a madman, hoping to record some memory of the show, and of the band. (Here are two shots I liked of Wolfmother)


ttyl

EDIT: well i made a mistake on which opening bands i liked and disliked, in fact i did like Dead Medows, who went on second, and Silversun Pickups went on first so indeed did not like them.
Thanks Shtnstar

have another choice too make

ok, I will be getting a new camera bag for all my new equipment

i decided on the bag, but more importantly i need to choose a color, it comes in 4 colors, black, brown, blue, red

i am leaning toward red or blue... what do you think is red not really what a guy would be carrying around?

help all....

Thanks,

ttyl

Forgive me father for i have sinned....

forgive me father for i have sinned, it has been 3 hours since my last confession, I have spoken slander against an innocent parties....

ok enough of that, strait to the punch, i have been quite mistaken, not thinking back to the Piano's show on Halloween....

the bands Monsters are waiting and Irving deserve a second chance. well I was thinking about the other two shows i went to this week, one at the Bowery the other at Nokia, and both of those venues have huge stages, something Pianos does not have, so there performance could have been marred by this fact, and well the music was alright, and i will defiantly try to catch them at a larger venue, in the near future.

on the same note, I have seen Birdmonster tear it up, in the smallest of venues, Knitting Factory Tap bar, that is a room that could hold 60-75 people!!! and they rocked that show... then never have a problem in small places.... such a great group..... you all have to go see them, they are playing both Friday and Saturday, check out their myspace page for details www.myspace.com/birdmonster


ttyl

Alice in Chains - Nokia Theatre - NYC

wow, day three of CMJ, i did not attend any CMJ today tho... had more then my fill in the last two days!

wet to see Alice in chains, Tickets cost a allot, but they were well worth it. i went with 3 friends, and we got there early enough to get front and center stage, we waited for 2 hours or so until Alice in Chains went on, Hurt opened for them.

Hurt - this is a easy review, they suck, i hated them. and their sound was way messed up and uneven coming out of the monitor. and well it was tough listening, it was like being held hostage knowing that if i left i would lose the stage position i came early to get... hate when that happens.


Alice in Chains - let me start by saying that William DuVall is in no way ever going to be able to replace the late and great Layne Staley. with that being said, DuVall was superb, and well Jerry was jerry, and he put on one hell of a show along with band members Mike Inez on the bass and Sean Kinney on the Drums. it was great to hear them live and they did a 2 hour set, and about 40 minutes of that was an acoustic set. i am not a fan of their acoustic work, but it was good nonetheless. grunge is dead, but it will always rock!

i was front and center, and through out Hurt's set it was alright, but once Alice went on it turned into hard work holding my spot, and not being pushed back, or getting hit in the head by a crowd surfer. but it was fun with the exception of one fat drunk belligerent ass hole who i kept on elbowing in the chest and face, because he kept on hitting me and trying to push be back, he didn't stop, but some other got in between us toward the end, so i was able to really enjoy the encore.

after the show we met up with others from college who also attended the show, we took the train back together, i didn't fall asleep on the platform or the train this time!!! went out for a bite when we got back, and now i am writing this...

gonna do some HW now and get to bed,

took some great pics of jerry and the gang, will post em up with the others from this week over the weekend, but for now here is one of my favorites from the evening


Jerry Cantrell


ttyl

the best concert i have been to this year!!!! (CMJ Night 2)

The best concert I have been to this year!!!!


Ok I had another great night out, CMJ is still young, and on night two of CMJ I headed down to the Bowery Ballroom, to hear an amazing lineup

-What Made Milwaukee Famous
-The Bird & the Bee (Inara George)
-Robbers on High Street
-Elvis Perkins
-Dr. Dog
-Cold War Kids
-Tapes N Tapes



The show started with "What Made Milwaukee Famous" they took the stage at 7:00pm sharp the show ended with the "Tapes N Tapes" leaving the stage at 2:00AM. This was a damn long show, but worth the $20, and for such an amazing show.... I am quite pleased.

I went to this show initially for Tapes N Tapes and Cold War Kids, because I saw them back in June and they rocked. Dr. Dog I saw open for The Raconteurs they were so/so then, but tonight they were amazingly fun to watch, the music wasn't that great but allot more entertaining then the previous show. I was also looking forward to seeing Inara George, cause she has one great set of pipes, I mean her music is so not my speed, but she is so talented, she is a great listen, check her out on itunes.

Anyway, it’s late once again, so I am gonna go through the bands quickly



What Made Milwaukee Famous - here from Texas, they are not an indie band by any means, more like the killers, heavy synth and pedal usage. They sounded fine, and they were a blast to watch,


Robbers on High Street - I saw the set, and I remember I liked it, but really cant remember all that many details about the set... it was the second set of the night, and well it was a really long time ago. Bummer I should start bringing a pad to these shows... I think I will.

The Bird & the Bee - Inara George and band... she is only of note, and well her slow melodic tunes were great listening, way to slow for my liking, but wow, I love to hear her sing even if I don’t like the song!!!! She is that good, I spoke with her briefly after her set, and she said she's opening for Sia later this month, so I will definitely check that out, not because I like their music, but because Inara and Sia are both extremely talented vocalists whose talent I most certainly appreciate. Her set was 45 min or so, and well I enjoyed here solo more then when she had the backup vocalists in the song.

Elvis Perkins - this was a most welcome surprise, I have never heard them before, read about them on blogs and such, but never really listen to any of their material, but wow what a great band. I really enjoyed their extended set, they even did somewhat of an encore, and it ran about an hour the set,

Cold War Kids - they did the same great set last time, I still enjoyed. They have refined their stage antics, so it’s quite a fun set to watch.

Tapes 'n Tapes - a great band, but by the time they got on they were told to cut the set in half, they only did a 40 min set, and it was great, and surprisingly they did allot of stuff off their EP's, last time they just preformed their album, so it was nice to see them change it up.


what really made the night was that all the bands had all the bands on stage at one point of the set, Elvis Perkins had Dr. Dog and Cold War kids on for 2 songs, and all the bands kept on coming up and going wild, and it made the show quite enjoyable.

Anyway I will for sure go and see Elvis Perkins again, as well as the Tape n Tapes and Inara George. The rest of them well I’ll most probably see them open for one band or another over the next couple of months, so I will see them again also...

anyway I was so wiped after the set last night, I went down to D line back on Grand st, and well I caught the D over the bridge to DeKalb and I needed to transfer to a Q, and well I fell asleep on the platform... it was a good 40 minutes or so, not terrible, I stood up and waited for the next Q, I got on and the next thing I know, I woke up in Coney Island, way past where I was supposed to get off, I got off the train and well waited for the next Q back the other way... that was another 20 minutes, and it started to rain about now at 3:40 or so, I did not get home until a little after 4:00 AM, and well for a show that ended at 2AM I had a nice sleep adventure, sleeping in as many public places as humanly possible... wow what a night, happy to be home.... worm and dry, ah yes dry....


Anyway, got a photo show tom and Friday at the Javits Center and an Alice in Chains show tonight.... going with a whole bunch of friends... can’t wait... just hope I get home before 2 this time.... I need some quality sleep this week.

Yea I took like 300 pictures there, and well I had another case of gear envy, lots of canon’s tonight, the main lens I saw was the 17-40mm L lens, a real nice lens, not for concerts, unless you have a good flash, which they all did. My gear envy was quelled when I started talking to this photoropher taking pics for Playback and we were discussing Glass and other picture details in general for shooting a canocert in low light, and he was shooting with a Nikon D200, that’s a real nice camera, but he told me that the Canon XTi that I have would do a fine job, I just need to use a wide open lens and bump my ISO all the way up, it kind of gave me the confidence to shoot a show, not Alice in chains, but if I go the next Sia show I’ll shoot that, why not…. Anyway, it was nice standing front and center stage, as always, but until Tapes n Tapes got on there was an imaginary photographers trench, it was like the audience gave all the photographers about 2 feet and they all moved back it was kind of cool, watching the photographers work was a bit distracting for me, cause I like to see what they shoo with, cameras and glass, I mean one guy was shooting with a 70-200mm f/2.8 IS, and it is open enough, it is too big to be shooting with when you are 10 feet from the subject…. Whatever nice piece of glass anyway. Regardless, I will post pics over the weekend, have no time to post and edit this week, too much going on.



ttyl

Wow, another great night out (Halloween 2006)

I don’t know wear to start...


For starters it is Halloween, so freaking awesome, costumes, parties and CMJ; it doesn’t get better then that, three great things....wow


So tonight; the first night of CMJ I went to Piano's NYC and saw Run Run Run, Monsters Are Waiting, Birdmonster, and Irving.


Run Run Run - there music is alright, there presentation was good, didn’t like there costumes per se, but they tried. Anyway back to the music, Run's style is just another band, nothing spectacular, yet entertaining. I won’t be running to go see them again.

Monsters Are Waiting - they were not in costume as far as I could tell. their music rocked, it was fun and enjoyable to listen to, the crowd was really into it, but the lead singer Annalee as talented as she is very frustrating seeing her perform, she was really into the music and all, but she looked like she was on meth and was really weirding me out, I started laughing every time I took a glance at her. But I will definitely keep my tabs on this band, but never see them live, the music rocks but I can’t look at Annalee again, just cant bring myself to do it.

Birdmonster - you know how much I love this band, this was the fourth time seeing them live this year, and well this show was great but the acoustics in Piano's were not too great. But Peter and the gang rocked it up, and it was great to see them again, and I finally got my pic taken with the band. on a side note, Birdmonster packed the house, the first too bands didn’t get a huge crowd, and it was really empty when Irving came on, Birdmonster was really great, and well you all have to go see them.

Irving - I liked their style, and the music was good, but their stage presence is non existence, toward the end of the show, Steven Scott got into it but for a band with 5 members, they should all be into it, great music, but again not a great band to see live, even though they perform well.

so I finally got my self the dSLR I have been yearning for, but didn’t bring it to the show... but at the show I was talking to all the photographers, and asking what lenses and settings they were using to get great shots... and the first thing that I noticed is that the bulk of the photographers were using canon dSLR's and all of em, a 30d, 5d, EOS-1, but no Rebel's... a but discouraging, there was a fast array of lenses being used, and most of them were zooms, there was a Sigma 18-125, Canon 17-40 L, and others, but no Primes... also discouraging because I just got the rebel with a 30mm prime. Oh well, I’ll make due with what I have.... not much of a choice anyway. I have a serious case of Gear Envy.

So one of the photographers I was talking to is worth mentioning, only because she has really shot lost of bands, and has a reputation... Piper Ferguson (www.piperferguson.com) check out her site, she her works, she said she was shooting for Spin Magazine, so I thought that was kind of cool.

lastly I am kicking myself for not getting a CMJ badge, its a real pity, I mean it was like $275 and well its 5 full days (12pm - 2am) of music, oh well next year, but I am most defiantly going to go to SXSW 2007, in Austin, TX. I just need to convince a friend that SXSW is worth missing a week of school for. Not so much, as convince rather find someone who is as in to the live music scene as I am.

It’s amazing, I have been a concert junkie for the last 9 months and well I still have yet to find someone to go to shows with me. I seriously need to find another concert junkie... the intermissions can get extremely boring...

I’ll post pics tom or probably after the weekend, just really tired, sorry for any typos or incoherent ramblings, its 2:30 and I need some shut eye,

ttyl