Monthly Archives: September 2006
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Yes, I made this. (and all of these)
[note color="#D1F26D"]Official rating: 89 + 6 incredonkulous points = 95[/note]
It had been a while since I’d last seen the Flaming Lips live. It was from the side grass after I passed out at Coachella 2004. This time, we were 5th row center on a cool night at the BoA Pavilion, a great big tent for the circus-y Lips show. The stage was set up with two sets of cheerleading choirs, one group dressed as aliens and the other as santas. Ol’ Wayne was in his usual white suit, Michael was in a skeleton costume, and I forget what Steven wore. Relatively minor details…
They came out and blasted us with confetti and big green balloons that we batted around during the whole show. There was a massive videoscreen behind the band showing Wayne’s face up close among other strange visuals. With all of the sensory extraload, it was more like a party than a concert. “Race for the Prize” was the 1st real song and rocked serious sockage. The sing-a-long to “Yoshimi Pt. 1″ was amazing and same goes for the “Yeah Yeah Yeah Song”. The sing-a-long for “She Don’t Use Jelly” was backed by hilarious old videos from The Jon Stewart Show and 90210. “Do You Realize?”, my all-time favorite Lips track, finished the main set, and pretty much finished me.
The encore consisted “A Spoonful Weighs a Ton”, and the second encore was a Beck-baby-esque happy birthday song to a gal named Emily, and “War Pigs”. I left with confetti and streamers stuffed in pockets, completely satisfied, and perma-grinned from the superfun spectacle that is a Lips gig. Whew.
[note color="#D1F26D"]Official rating: 59 – 9 put me to sleep points = 50[/note]
After several months of touring, Band of Horses finally made it to Boston. I, for one, was looking forward to crossing them off my to-see list, and anticipated a show confirming the excellence of their album, Everything All the Time.
Boy, was I wrong. To be blunt, there were three major problems with the performance. First, the reverb on Ben’s vocals was out of control. The high end continuously stabbed our eardrums, despite pleas from the crowd to turn it down. A far cry from the constant reverb adjustments Cat Power made on Tuesday. Second, the sheer amount of new and cover songs dissipated most of the fervor, like some adrenaline sponge. I’m not a big fan of bands playing new songs at shows, and this show was especially disturbed by them. Finally, the stage banter was painful. Among the bland yapping were the multiple Seattle pride statements about how that town gave us David Ortiz and Jason Varitek. Seeing as neither Red Sox superstar ever played a game for the Mariners, these were absolutely idiotic comments, worthy of a stage-storming and destruction of BoH property of persons. There was a clear disconnect of emotion from the crowd, as frat mooks drunkenly ended up doing most of the clapping.
There were a few, sparse high points in the show, but too rare to bear mentioning. I’m glad I got to see the band, but beyond that, left highly unimpressed and downright disappointed. The theme of the horror stories of past tour stops about amateur night-esque follies, much like with Cat Power, seemed to continue with this gig, and frankly, they need to get their act together before bothering to come back. In a sort of ruinous justice, the people who stayed for the final cover and last song of the show missed the last train in town. An appropriate way to finish off a night that was a pain in the ass and ears.
Yo yo yo. Updating’s been kinda slim lately since I don’t have the intarwebs at my new apartment till Sept. 16. But in the meantime, a side project of mine, QRO Magazine is getting more and more legit, so you can check it out now.
[note color="#D1F26D"]Official rating: 50 + 20 crackhead points = 70[/note]
Not even sure where to start. We hit the 10pm show in the MFA auditorium, and it was… ridiculous. Cat Power, much like the homeschooled Spelling Bee winner, Rebecca Sealfon, gave one of the most socially awkward performances ever. Crack Power started off by playing half a song before stopping and apologizing and requesting more reverb. Then less reverb. Then more. And so on. She kept the crazy going by going a few bars into “House of the Rising Sun” before quitting again. Afterwards, another half of a song. Then she told the sound guy to stop staring at her.
After a few starts, stops, pee breaks, and apologies for being angry, out of tune, equalized, etc… she pretty much played every song again. We left after about two hours. She claimed to mess up five out of seven songs. It was amusing, annoying, sad, silly, serious, and one hell of a trainwreck. She may be a drama queen, or just plain crazy, but either way, truly memorable.
