I've been meaning to see The Ross Sea Party perform live for months but, for reasons I can't explain, Thursday night was the first time I was finally able to catch a Ross Sea Party show. My friend Mike is the drummer in both The Ross Sea Party & The Muddy Reds &, although both bands are extremely different in style, they're both uniquely awesome. I'm officially a new Ross Sea Party groupie so expect to be hearing a lot more about them here :-)
And the icing on the cake that was my Thursday night at The Bootleg Theater was discovering both Jules Larson & A House For Lions. Jules Larson is a super hot new singer/songwriter who plays both guitar & piano. I had heard a little bit of buzz about her before seeing her live on Thursday &, after only hearing 1 or 2 songs, I totally got what all the buzz was about. She f*ckin rocks!
I intended on going home early before A House For Lions even started because I was/am still trying to recover from my Coachella-induced bronchitis (it was still worth it!!) but, on my way out, I couldn't help but get into A House For Lions' set. Their music's got a sorta indie rock/alt-country feel & they totally JAM OUT which I love.
I went to The Bootleg Theater on Thursday night expecting to see one good band but I ended up being MORE than pleasantly surprised by all 3 artists on the bill!
P.S. You can't see much in my videos because the lighting was pretty dim but the audio's ALL good!
OK so I'll admit, when I first saw Lollapalooza's lineup announcement late last night, I wasn't initially thrilled with the headliners...but now I've totally warmed up to the entire lineup! Muse is INCREDIBLE live. I saw them at Coachella 2010 & they're also headlining Outside Lands in SF the week after Lolla. I'll see them in both Chicago & SF though & I know they'll be great. I've never seen Foo Fighters before but I'll be seeing them for my first time at Sasquatch at The Gorge in Washington next month. I'm convinced they'll kick ass at both Sasquatch & Lolla so I'll be seeing both sets for sure.
As for Coldplay & Eminem...I've never seen either live &, although I wasn't expecting them to be announced as headliners, I've decided I'm actually kinda excited to see both of them too. Coldplay has some quality material (God Put A Smile Upon Your Face is one my all-time faves) & I've heard they put on a really good live show. And Eminem is just classic, man. I haven't actually heard his new album yet but I've been told it's surprisingly decent. I'm praying he'll play My Name Is...haha!
Aside from the headliners, there are SO many acts I am SOOO stoked to see! Some of my top favorite artists are going to be there including My Morning Jacket, Atmosphere, Lykke Li, Ween, The Kills, Phantogram, Local Natives, Deadmau5, Ratatat, Fitz & The Tantrums, Sleigh Bells, Kid Cudi, Pretty Lights, Black Lips, Damian Marley & Nas, Delta Spirit, Girl Talk, Titus Andronicus, Foster the People, Explosions in the Sky, etc. I'm especially pumped to see A Perfect Circle & Deftones for my first time. And I've heard positive things about Manchester Orchestra, Two Door Cinema Club, Cage the Elephant, Portugal, The Man, Beats Antique, The Drums, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart & Mayer Hawthorne so hopefully I'll get to check all of them out as well!
Good thing I already bought my 3-day pass & booked my flights months ago! :-)
The full, star-studded, 30 minute film Fight For Your Right (Revisited) has finally been released!!! It features Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Seth Rogen, Elijah Wood, Danny McBride, Jack Black, Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci, Will Arnett, Jason Schwartman, Ted Danson, Steve Buscemi, Amy Poehler, David Cross, Rainn Wilson, Adam Scott, Rashida Jones, Shannyn Sossamon, Alicia Silverstone, Mary Steenburgen, Laura Dern, Chloe Sevigney, Kirsten Dunst, Maya Rudolph &, of course, THE BEASTIE BOYS as Cops 1, 2 & 3!!!
I can't wait to download the new album when I get home! I'm also keeping my fingers crossed that The Beastie Boys will be announced as one of Lollapalooza's headliners tomorrow when the lineup is officially released! Please let the concert gods be kind!
Prince at Coachella 2008 will forever remain one of THE best shows I've seen but, unfortunately, I can't QUITE say the same about his performance on Friday 4/22 at The Forum in Los Angeles. I don't mean to say he didn't put on a great show because he certainly did (his duet with special guest Alicia Keys was particularly fantastic) but he kinda gypped Friday night's crowd.
Friday was the 3rd show of Prince's 21 night residency in LA &, on both night 1 (on 4/14) & night 2 (on 4/21), after turning on the lights for about 20-30 minutes & tricking everyone into thinking he was done, he came back out & ended up played hourlong encores. I knew a lot of people who had been to one of the 1st 2 shows & I was specifically instructed to wait for Prince to come back so my roommate Stephanie & I waited for a full hour along with about 2,000 other people who were still holding out hope that he'd return. There were some serious holes in Prince's set-list (he hadn't played 1999, Kiss OR Little Red Corvette yet) so we were extra convinced he wasn't done but, much to our chagrin, Prince NEVER CAME BACK! The ushers finally came around & kicked us all out. Everyone was PISSED.
Waiting...
I heard Prince ended up playing another set for all the VIPs underneath The Forum but I'm not 100% sure that's true. I wouldn't be surprised though. Prince is an incredible performer who SHREDS on electric guitar & has countless classic hits but he's also a little diva who does whatever the f*ck he wants. I'm sure he played a 2 hour encore last night for his night 4 crowd because that'd be just my luck but whatever. I still had a FABULOUS time dancing up a storm with my roomie in our sequined outfits :-)
Prince will most likely have all my Youtube videos removed from the Internet within the week so please watch them asap (because they ARE good!). Once Youtube nazi Prince has them taken down though, I'll put them up on my Facebook page instead. I'm hoping/thinking he might not be able to get to them that way but we'll see.
Coachella 2008 (when I saw The Raconteurs, Hot Chip, Portishead, Prince, My Morning Jacket, Roger Waters' 2 1/2 hour Dark Side of the Moon extravaganza & Justice) & Coachella 2011 are officially my top 2 favorite Coachellas EVER! I've been to Coachella 7 years in a row & it just keeps getting better! The new lighting/visual systems in The Sahara Tent & on The Main Stage were unbelievable!
Last year, the system kinda broke down when counterfeit tickets were sold & accepted & thousands upon thousands of people managed to sneak into the Empire Polo Fields. This year, the new high tech scannable 3-day pass wristbands were mailed out only ~2-3 weeks before the show (in a BEAUTIFUL, treat-filled package btw) & people without wristbands weren't allowed within a 1 mile radius of the festival. I never waited in a single port-o-potty line, food & beer lines were short & quick & there were was WAY more shade available for concert-goers to rest underneath. I never once felt crowded &/or annoyed & I saw an obscene amount of amazing live music.
Animal Collective
Afrojack
Arcade Fire
Trentmoller
My favorite acts of the festival included !!!, PZB in The Energy Factory, Afrojack, Cut Copy, Magnetic Man, Sasha, The Chemical Brothers, Broken Social Scene, The Kills, Animal Collective, ARCADE FIRE (see the beautiful glowing ball drop below!), Delta Spirit, Damian Marley & Nas, Death From Above 1979, Sven Vath, TRENTMOLLER (who I thought was going to be a single DJ but turned out to be a full band that just blew my mind at sunset on Day 3), Ratatat, Phantogram, The Strokes, Leftfield, Kanye, Axwell & The Presets.
I had to skip The Black Keys & Kings of Leon to see Cut Copy, Magnetic Man & Sasha but, luckily, I've seen both bands a few times before & I'll be seeing The Keys again in August at Outside Lands. I also had to skip Duran Duran & The National to see Trentmoller but he turned out to be one of my TOP favorite acts of the weekend so, again, I have no regrets :-)
After days of camping, my camera died around 8pm Sunday so I didn't get ANY footage from Ratatat through The Presets which is a huge bummer but at least I was able to focus solely on the music! The Presets KILLED the final set of the weekend! I'd never seen them before & was SO happy I chose them over staying at Kanye. When we went to check out part of Kanye's set before checking out part of Axwell in the Sahara, we heard Jesus Walks, Can't Tell Me Nothing & Diamonds From Sierra Leonne AND of course we saw a fireworks so that was the perfect little snippet of Kanye.
Also, car camping is SO much fun! I can't believe I was such a huge house rental snob for 6 whole years! There is this fabulous sense of community & SUCH a positive & exciting vibe on the campgrounds. Plus, you don't have to drive at all the entire weekend AND you're allowed to go to & from your campsite during the festival so you can make cocktail pitstops instead of wasting $7 per beer &/or $13 per cocktail in the beer gardens. From now on, it's pretty much the only way to go.
In conclusion, I'm sunburnt, sore & have no voice left BUT...it was ALL worth it! :-)
COACHELLA 4 LIFE!!!
Check out all of my videos below!!!
Cold Cave
OFWGKTA = Odd Future Wolfgang Kill Them All
PZB in The Energy Factory
Afrojack
Magnetic Man
The Chemical Brothers
Sander Kleinenberg
Delta Spirit - "If you're feelin what I'm feelin, come on!"
Broken Social Scene - "This is the one that's supposed to make you feel alive."
The Kills - Future Starts Slow
Animal Collective
ARCADE FIRE - Wake Up Glowing Ball Drop!!!
Green Velvet - "It's time for the percolator."
Damian Marley & Nas - COULD YOU BE LOVED Reggae Dance Party :-)
My summertime clothes are packed & I leave for the desert in less than 3 hours! This will be my 7th Coachella in a row & I'm more excited than ever! I can't wait to see the new main stage setup as well as the new crazy light installations inside the Sahara Tent! This year's lineup is beyond impressive AND I'm camping for my 1st time ever (at Coachella) which should be interesting in 95 degree heat. I'm ready for it though! Keep an eye out for my Coachella 2011 post early next week!
YAY! The Phish rumors were true & I'm finally gonna get to see Little Dragon!!! I can never get enough of Arcade Fire & The Black Keys! And Muse is SOOO good live! Plus, Phantogram, Starfucker, Deadmau5, Toro Y Moi, The Roots, Junip, Arctic Monkeys, Sound Tribe, Big Boi, Major Lazer, OK GO, !!!, Best Coast & Beirut!
I'm more than pleased with this lineup...especially since I only spent $171 on all 3 days! Some people would pay that much for Phish alone. Also, I'm loving the fact that we get 2 sets! Outside Lands in SF will be a spectacular way to end my 2011 4-fest run!
I'd eagerly been awaiting getting to see The Dodos live for the 2nd time at El Rey Theatre in LA & for good reason. They were PHENOMENAL last night!!! Drummer Logan Kroeber was particularly impressive playing on his drum kit that's minus a bass drum. And, although I couldn't see it last night, I've read that Kroeber performs with a tambourine taped to his shoe. That helps explain at least one of the other instruments I heard but couldn't actually see.
There are SO many layers to The Dodos' music & the only way to properly appreciate those layers is to see them live. They're just like WOW :-)
Last night on The George Lopez show, Prince called in to announce that he'll be playing 21 shows in a row at The Forum in LA beginning next Thursday 4/14. As soon I get back from 3 crazy days in the desert (starting exactly 1 week from RIGHT NOW!), I'll definitely be buying my Prince tix! I'm thinking of going on either 4/21, 4/22, 4/23 or 4/24. Hopefully 21 shows will lead to reasonable ticket prices!
D. Palms (D'Anthony Palms) began rapping when he was only 15 years old but he took a break from music after his 1st year of college to pursue acting. In the past 2 years, D has booked 3 feature films & he was featured in ESPN's National Commercial Campaign "It's Not Crazy...It's Just Sports," Jock/Nerd reversal which is HILARIOUS:
Luckily for us, D. Palms is now getting back to focusing on his music. Check out my 2 favorite D. Palms tracks Take Me Home & Effect On Me here:
I was SO stoked to see The Beastie Boys for my 1st time ever at Outside Lands 2009 but, unfortunately, about 2 months before the festival, The Beastie Boys were forced to cancel their tour because Adam "MCA" Yauch had been diagnosed with cancer. MCA has recently stated that he's not 100% cancer-free yet but he's working on it & the fact that The Beastie Boys are about to release a brand new album (Hot Sauce Committee Part 2) gives me hope that I'm going to have another opportunity to see them live. Yay! Make some noise!!!
***And, since the video for the 1st single Make Some Noise was already taken down, we'll just have to tide ourselves over with this AMAZING, star-studded promotional trailer for The Beastie Boys' new album!!!
Why is it that I always learn about cool, new artists immediately after they've played a show in LA & then won't be back for a long time? It's annoying but at least it gives me more shows to look forward to eventually seeing. Yellow Ostrich is a band I'm definitely looking forward to seeing...eventually....
I wish I could've been there!!! Getting to watch the ENTIRE 3 hour & 41 minute spectacular online definitely helps ease thpain though. I've seen LCD Soundsystem 7 times which is the most times I've ever seen any single artist. I feel pretty lucky. I will love James Murphy forever.
I also think it is FANTASTIC that LCD added 4 extra shows at Terminal 5 in NY during the week leading up to the final show at Madison Square Garden in an attempt to screw over the scalpers who bought out all of the MSG tix in 2 seconds & then turned around trying to sell them for thousands of dollars. See James' beautiful rant basically saying, "Fuck you, scalpers!"
holy shit
this here is just to say that we were more than taken aback and surprised about the speed of ticket sales for the april 2nd msg gig, as well as the effectiveness of scalper pieces of fucking shit at getting their hands on said tickets before fans could, and it’s knocked us on our asses.
no—we didn’t have a smart paperless ticketing system in place, and no—we didn’t have the pre-sale worked out very well, but this is simply because we’ve never sold anything out so quickly in our lives, and certainly never sold out anything as big as msg. i personally thought i was being bold in suggesting to our manager that we might sell it out “in 10 days”. that was my bold claim. everyone laughed at me. it’s us and liquid liquid. that’s it. we had meetings and meetings about the “other band” we needed to “fill the place”, as we were definitely considered to be nowhere near big enough (most of these bands were, like, way bigger than us, by the way).
we didn’t sell out hollywood bowl, and that was with both hot chip and sleigh bells. there was, i repeat, no expectation of our selling this out either. my main concerns at the time were things like ticketmaster charges—how they were going to make the tickets ridiculously costly… we never dreamed some shitbags would try to get thousands for our show. it’s insane.
but it happened. we all looked at each other in horror and sat there. i mean, aren’t you supposed to be psyched? your band sold out madison square garden! i live in nyc, and that’s the place. i saw the jackson’s victory tour there when i was a kid.
but there it was—the shit was gone, and people—not just people, but fucking proper fans—were pissed. nancy from the band tried to buy tickets. failed. i tried. failed. our best friends—not wanting to hassle us for guestlist spots tried—failed. i bought 2 tickets to my own show for 3 times the value like an idiot to see if real tickets showed up. my family got burned.
it was, to say the least, weird.
we tried getting another day at msg. i’d mentioned this before and most everyone kind of rolled their eyes at me. “2 madison square garden shows, dude? really?” i thought, well, just in case, you know? maybe some people would fly from other places or something. but msg, being one of the most popular venues on the planet, was unsurprisingly booked. (for the record: just because it doesn’t look booked on the internet, doesn’t mean it’s available. just saying.)
we tried calling our lawyer about the ticket scalping. “it’s legal”. no joke. it’s fucking legal. i tramped around with friends and band getting insane. i wanted to buy some expensive tickets and then track the seller down to beat him. i acted stupid. i did some classic, shakespearean vain “fist shaking”, etc. i made angry tweets. (i’m wondering now what on earth could be less effective and more of a first-world spoiled idiotic move than “angry tweets”? jesus.) i read conspiracy theories about how this was some cash-grab i orchestrated. i read that there are 50,000 seats at msg (i think our show will have 13k). i read that people had already bought flights, hotels. wanted to bring their kids. waited in the cold. i read that some people thought this was one of the reasons we were calling it quits (check). i read that this was a media stunt we planned. i read very funny comments from my friend aziz, one of which was taken seriously (that msg had given me 30,000 tickets personally for guest list). i read that i was giving all the tickets to my “new celebrity friends” (aziz is about the closest thing i have to a “celebrity friend”, and we met at terminal 5 watching hot chip when we were, well, not very “celebrated”). i read that we should cancel the show and put the tickets up on sale in a better fashion. i read that we should not do that, for fuck’s sake. i read that we should go fuck ourselves.
i read a lot of stuff, waiting to hear if we could get another night at msg, which seemed like the only option. but it failed. then i kind of sat in my house, trying not to worry for 20 minutes, and made a very, very good coffee.
i don’t know what people think about us, really. i’d love to say i don’t care, but i do. these people in my band—they are my very good friends. i love them very much. i love this band very much. everything about it. i’m very proud of it—of us, and i get defensive when people talk shit about us. i feel like we’ve been able to do something sort of special for 9 years: making music we like the way we like it. going on tour and playing, no computers or bullshit. no in-ears. a bunch of weird substitute teachers just trying to play something like the bands we loved growing up. whenever anyone said shit about us being sellouts or something, it stung, because i consider this entire thing—the band, everything—to be a communication between us and whoever is listening, and not just a thing unto itself. i remember being a fan and seeing bands, thinking “this is us. this is you playing and me/us watching” and how real that connection was, and i always wanted to honor that strange relationship with our band. so when someone felt wronged or hurt or outraged, it stung. it stung because, on some level, regardless of the “you can’t please everyone” stuff that gets rationally said to you when this shit happens, it meant that i’d failed. i’d failed to communicate. on the other hand, i’ve had my world turned upside down by a lot of amazing things people have said about us, or to us. i’ve met fans and made friends, and felt very strongly how that relationship actually works—and how we brought ourselves, each other, finally here, to where we play our last show—and biggest show ever—together, at this amazing place.
and then, this fucking ticket thing happened.
so to the point. you can’t make everyone happy, and i’m sure this will wind someone up somewhere (“but i paid $600 for one seat at msg!!!) or seem like some shitty “plan” to someone else (“they were gonna do it all along!!! it’s all a big retirement money plan to bilk the fans!!!”) or something else that someone who theoretically likes our band thinks (why are you trying to buy a ticket?? how could you even listen to a band that you think is capable of some of this shit!??) but we’ve come up with the best solution i can think of, as quickly as possible so as to deflate the market for those scalping scumfucks.
we’re going to play 4 shows at terminal 5 in nyc leading up to the msg show, and they will include most if not all of the songs we play at msg. the farewell run-up to the last dance. it’ll be the 28th, 29th, 30th and 31st of march. obviously we’re going to look seriously at the way we sell these tickets. not “paperless, (i’ve been advised that the “paperless” thing is apparently now illegal in ny… seriously—don’t ask me) but there are some ideas floating around that could be just as effective (though it’ll take a minute to get folks in the door.)
we’ll announce the shows officially early in the week, and tickets will be on sale soon after. we’re announcing all the shows at once, and if they don’t sell out, i don’t care. i just want to give people who actually want to see us a chance to see us. for a reasonable ticket price. and i want to drop the price of the msg tickets being sold by piece of shit scalpers.
oh—and a small thing to scalpers: “it’s legal” is what people say when they don’t have ethics. the law is there to set the limit of what is punishable (aka where the state needs to intervene) but we are supposed to have ethics, and that should be the primary guiding force in our actions, you fucking fuck.
and to everyone else: thank you. you rule. don’t let the shitbags win.
