Going out on a Monday night is ambitious but, when you get a chance to see The Ross Sea Party FOR FREE, you have to take advantage of the opportunity. My friend Casie & I were only at The Satellite for about 1 hour last night but, fortunately, we managed to catch RSP’s entire fabulous set before we had to hurry back out the door to move our car by 11pm.
The Satellite (previously known as Spaceland) in Silverlake is a really great venue (I’m going back on Friday night to see Other Lives & The Rosebuds!) but their parking situation SUCKS. Pretty much every single street within an even moderately close vicinity of the club is “No Parking 11pm to 6am” unless you have a permit.
Lucky for us, The Ross Sea Party finished around 10:45pm so we didn’t have to leave before the end of their set but we did have to sacrifice seeing The Californian for our 1st time in order to avoid getting a ticket. The Californian was playing the last night of their June residency & the place was packed. I’m definitely gonna have to check them out in the not too distant future!
And, if you’re going to be in LA area this weekend, I highly recommend going to see The Ross Sea Party at Malibu Inn on Friday night! If I didn’t already have tickets for Other Lives, I’d totally be there! I’m sure I’d have much better luck parking in Malibu than I’ll have parking at The Satellite again :-/
Out of respect for the wishes of my friend Michael Feld, the brilliant director of the My Morning Jacket 30-minute documentary One Big Holiday (included in the Circuital album box set -> get your copy today!), I decided to find out what it's like to see one of my FAVORITE bands live without taking a single video so I could focus solely on the music & the experience.
Of course, I HAD to take a few photos of My Morning Jacket at Pantages Theater last night so I’d at least have something to make my blog look pretty (speaking of pretty...the interior of the Pantages Theater is STUNNING!). But, despite every natural instinct pushing me to record even just ONE dazzling song, I managed to stick to my no video plan & I gotta admit…it was slightly liberating.
If I had wanted to record every impressive part of MMJ's show last night, I would've had to record the entire thing! Besides there's no way my footage would've been able to do THIS particular show justice. There were too many factors contributing to the overall radness i.e. the SICK lighting & visual effects, Jim James' angelic voice & crazy energy on stage, the brilliant set-list, the overwhelming feeling of pure bliss that'd overtake your entire body as MMJ would straight-up JAM OUT towards the end of a song, etc...haha. You know, the usual ;-)
If there has ever been a band that deserves 100% of my attention & appreciation, it is My Morning Jacket! Jim James & co. blew me away…for the 5th time! I will never tire of MMJ’s music or their live shows. Jim James’ voice is a miracle. That’s why I’m going to see MMJ again next Saturday 7/2 at The Santa Barbara Bowl & AGAIN at Lollapalooza in Chicago in August!
P.S. As much I enjoyed temporarily freeing myself of my self-appointed obligation to take at least 1 or 2 video clips of every show I see, I will definitely be taking a few videos of MMJ at The SB Bowl next Saturday. There will always be a debate between concert-goers who think they’re entitled to capture footage of a concert & those who think it is wrong & takes away from the overall experience. Personally, I view my footage as a souvenir & an everlasting memory that I rightfully deserve because I’m a true fan & I spend SO much money on concert tickets! I don’t use my footage for commercial purposes or financial gain. I just share it with my viewers so they can see what is so fabulous about the artists I love. In the end, I just want to help promote talented musicians & I hope most of them don’t mind ;-)
I've recently been told by a few friends that I might want to consider occasionally blogging about concerts &/or music that I DON'T necessarily enjoy. I understand that could potentially give my positive reviews a little more clout but I still don't really want to do it. My response to those suggestions has basically been something along the lines of, "If you don't have something nice to say, you shouldn't say anything at all." Plus, I barely have enough time to blog about everything I do like! AND, as far as concerts go, I won't pay good money to see a band or artist unless I already have an inkling that I'm probably going to at least KINDA like them live. Every once in a while I'm wrong but those instances are fortunately few & far between.
But I digress...
The main topic of tonight's post is Kid Cudi who I LOVED when I saw him at Sasquatch 2010. At the time, I only knew 2 or 3 of his songs but, after getting really into his set & deciding I have a crush on him because he's super cute & charismatic on stage, I became at big fan. That's why I decided I absolutely had to see Kid Cudi on June 20th at Nokia Theatre L.A. Live. I was originally deterred by overpriced tickets ($63 a pop!) but I still ended up dropping $126 on a pair back in early April because I convinced myself I'd be more upset about missing Kid Cudi's LA show than I'd be about not having that $$.
And it turns out Kid Cudi put on a really great show last night! He was just as talented, sexy, charming & energetic on stage as I remembered him being at Sasquatch. The crowd was eating it up & going wild! My 1 big complaint though is the acoustics inside the Nokia Theatre (not to be confused with Club Nokia) were totally fucked up! :-(
I'd never been to Nokia Theatre L.A. Live before so I don't know if the sound in there is usually so shitty but, last night, it was terrible! It was just SOOOO loud that I could barely understand a single word coming out of Kid Cudi's mouth! Since I knew most of the songs already, I was kinda able to fill in the blanks & still have a good time dancing to my favorite tracks but the messed up acoustics definitely put a damper on my good time. Kid Cudi even acknowledged the problem at one point saying, "Someone really fucked up." I feel bad for whoever ended up being held responsible for the audio problems but, at the same time, I also blame that person for more or less sabotaging Kid Cudi's show.
I've still got MAD LOVE for Kid Cudi & hope I get another chance to see him live! The venue will just have to be different & the tickets will have to be cheaper but Cudi's mojo's still dope in my book.
OK...so I'm just gonna come right out & say it: The Flaming Lips were UNfuckinbelievable on Wednesday night!!! I wish everyone could've been there. The full moon came in & out from behind the clouds throughout the entire show although we weren't lucky enough to see the lunar eclipse that couldn't be seen from anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere...darnit! It was still super cool to be seeing The Lips perform Dark Side of The Moon IN A CEMETERY on the night of a lunar eclipse. I mean, it was just too perfect!
The Flaming Lips really went ALL OUT. Peaches made a special guest appearance & belted her heart out during The Great Gig in The Sky & the crowd went WILD. It was ridiculous. And, of course The Lips played a few classic tracks after they finished DSOTM, including She Don't Use Jelly, The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song & Do You Realize. It was seriously 1 of the coolest shows I've ever been to. It's tough to rank them but it ranks WAYYYY up there...especially in creativity, ambience, lighting, special effects, confetti, dry ice, giant floating balls filled with money, etc. Hopefully the photos below will help you understand...
And something I would've known about if I'd been able to make Tuesday night's Soft Bulletin show (luckily, I had the pleasure of seeing them play Soft Bulletin at Sasquatch a few weeks ago!) was the secret Flaming Lips & Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros performance that took place in front of the cemetery on Santa Monica Boulevard at 6AM on Wednesday morning! Apparently they did a 12 minute rendition of Do You Realize amongst a lot of other very cool stuff.
I've said it before & I'm gonna say it again: The Flaming Lips are a band you MUST SEE live...before people are dancing on YOUR grave in a cemetery! Bwahahaha!!!
It's nights like Saturday night & bands like Twin Falcons that make me SO grateful for the fact that I'm rarely able to turn down a live show. A couple friends of mine who are buddies with the members of Twin Falcons had recommended I check them out because I'm currently on the lookout for artists who might want to participate in the mini music fest event a few fellow music-obsessed girlfriends & I are trying to organize for this fall. After hearing only 1 of their songs on Saturday night, I already decided that Twin Falcons MUST play our event! Their music is super fun & funky & I think it's pretty much impossible to listen to them without at least shakin' your hips a little bit. I was shakin' mine a lot :-)
http://www.myspace.com/twinfalconsmusic/music
Disclaimer: The vocals are kinda tough to hear in the clips below but I'll be getting more footage of Twin Falcons as soon as possible so stay tuned. They're releasing their new EP soon so I'm hoping that means an EP release show!
After not seeing any live music for 3 whole days, I was starting to go through withdrawals! Many thanks to The Antlers for putting on an INCREDIBLE show last night at El Rey Theatre. And, if you have not yet heard The Antlers' new album Burst Apart, I must insist you that you listen to it immediately. It is beautiful :-)
On Tuesday morning, my fave concert companion Bobby & I were driving back to Seattle from The Gorge in George, Washington & we stopped at a little diner to get our 1st real meal in about 5 days. When Bobby was up at the counter paying for our food, I overheard the cashier ask him, "So did you have fun at Sasquatch?" & Bobby's reply summed up my own Sasquatch 2011 experience perfectly: "It was pretty much the greatest weekend of my life."
After flying from LA to Seattle on Thursday afternoon, Bobby & I got a rental car, loaded up on camping supplies at Walmart (some of which we managed to return before flying out on Tuesday) & made the 2 1/2 drive from Seattle to The Gorge. We then proceeded to camp for 5 nights & 4 days with some of the coolest, most laid back & most fun Canadians EVER!
There were seriously barely any Americans at Sasquatch. 9 out of 10 people I met were from Canada &, although it's a stereotype, Canadians are all SO f*ckin nice! Most of them were even too nice to give me shit about my Sharks losing to their Canucks in the last round of the Stanley Cup playoffs which I appreciated. And I've already booked my flights to/from Vancouver so I can visit my Canadian Sasquatch crew in September! I REALLY miss them :'-(
I hate to compare festivals but, as much as I LOVE Coachella, I like Sasquatch a little bit more. Despite all the "bells & whistles" Coachella has (i.e. light art installations, fire art, lasers, fancy vegan food, celebrities, pool parties, etc), there are 2 things Sasquatch has that Coachella simply cannot beat: the view & the Canadians.
I didn't shower for 6 full days which is a disgusting all-time record that I hope to never surpass but it really didn't bother me because I managed to wash my hair with bottled water 2x, shave my legs with a cup of water 1x & take several hobo baths in my tent to help keep me from feeling TOO dirty. Every time I used the Honey Buckets (aka port-o-potties), I'd wash my hands & face with the soap & pump-able water provided &, surprisingly, there was pretty much always water to pump & ALWAYS toilet paper in the Honey Buckets! And, luckily, I never really encountered a port-o-potty that was SUPER nasty because they were cleaned regularly throughout the day. I used to be scared of camping at festivals but, after camping at Phish Fest 8, Sasquatch 2010, Coachella 2011 & Sasquatch 2011, I now feel like a vet & I highly recommend giving it a try.
Oh! And one more amazing thing about Sasquatch 2011 was...THE MUSIC!!! Highlights of the weekend included Beach House, Wilco, The Flaming Lips, MSTRKRFT, Wolf Parade, !!!, Deerhunter, Black Mountain, Other Lives (where we stood 10 feet behind Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips while he took photos of his fellow Oklahoma natives...see photo inserted below my Other Lives video!), Cold War Kids, Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings, Foo Fighters, Rodrigo Y Gabriela (who mesmerized the crowd with their flying fingers even in the pouring rain), Fitz & The Tantrums, The Decemberists, Modest Mouse & Bassnectar.
