Since I last saw Menomena perform with Suckers at El Rey Theatre on 9/16/10, there have been a lot of changes within the band. Brent Knopf left to focus on Ramona Falls but, luckily, Justin Harris & Danny Seim stuck together &, eventually, added 3 new members to the band.
I wasn't quite sure what to expect last night but it turns out I should've expected just what I got which was pure AWESOMENESS. Somehow, I didn't find out Menomena had released a new album until only a few days before last night's show so I didn't get a chance to even give it a listen but, on the bright side, getting to hear a bunch of their new material for the 1st time LIVE wasn't too bad at all :)
Fun fact: Menomena popped most people's "seeing a tap dancer used as an instrument" cherries! See a glimpse HERE:
And PVT (previously known as Pivot) was SUCH a good opening act! I would pay just to see them on their own so getting a PVT/Menomena doubleheader was an extra special treat.
PVT
AND, after the show, I got to meet & chat with Justin Harris for a few minutes & he was SO nice! He took a photo with me, signed my friend's concert poster & just shot the shit with me & a few people for a good 10+ minutes. It was definitely the icing on the cake!
As I predicted a while back after 1st discovering them, Django Django knocked one out of the park last night at The Echo. The small, intimate venue was completely PACKED & the sold out crowd danced their asses off throughout the entire set. I also discovered a cool, new band (with a totally different, more moody yet really awesome sound) called Vinyl Williams. More to come on them later!
P.S. The nerdy guy in Django Django (on the far left) was my fave. He had the biggest tambourine I've ever seen! LOL
I wanted to hit up all 4 of The Muddy Reds' Tuesday night shows in September at Santa Monica but, unfortunately, due to Gotye at The Greek on 9/4,My Morning Jacket at The Wiltern on 9/11 & an overnight work conference in Carlsbad on 9/18, this past Tuesday was the only show I could swing & I'm SO happy I was finally able to catch them!
There have been some changes within the band over the past couple years but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The Muddy Reds' sound has evolved &, although I was already a big fan of their old sound, I heard a LOT of new, impressive stuff on Tuesday night. Looking forward to the next one...
I'm definitely going to make a point to get to El Rey early tomorrow night to check out PVT (aka Pivot) before Menomena! I have a feeling it's going to be a pretty stellar doubleheader.
PZB & Friends III on Saturday night at Central in Santa Monica was THE best PZB & Friends yet! The place was PACKED, PZB's super special birthday set (which included killer tracks from Chemical Brothers, Underworld & even Bob Marley) was SICK & everyone had an absolute BLAST! Plus, all the glow bracelets & ring pops I brought were a hit. A few people even asked me if I worked at Central. I should've told them I did in case they wanted to give me tips! ;-)
I'm already greatly looking forward to PZB & Friends IV!!!
To take advantage of being able to appreciate Bon Iver's unbelievably beautiful & moving live performances while you still can, check out a full set from 1 of their Radio City shows last week. The link will expire in less than 48 hours so get on it ASAP!
!!! It's my Vibe Fest headliner DJ PZB's Birthday this weekend!!!
The last two PZB & Friends have been a blast thanks to all of you who have come out & the 3rd PZB & Friends is going to be even better. Tix are $8 pre-sale or $10 at the door BUT, if you buy your tickets online & share the event on Twitter, Facebook &/or Google+ at the time of checkout, you get a $2 discount!
I'm really excited to see Typhoon for the 1st time on Friday 11/16 at The Echo! If they sound this good playing IN/around a giant tree in someone's backyard in Texas, I can only imagine how great they'll sound inside a proper concert venue. Plus, there are SO many people in the band (they regularly perform with 10-14 members) &, generally, the more musicians/instruments in a band, the better...at least when done right. Luckily, Typhoon does it right!
Although everyone was initially pissed to be forced into the upper level of The Shrine Auditorium because the floor level was supposedly ALL VIP (even though there was NO option to purchase VIP tickets on Ticketmaster OR any indication GA meant upstairs only...for $60 a ticket!!) & despite the fact this event should have been held either at The Shrine Expo or another venue where GA meant FLOOR, I still ended up having a great time on Saturday night. There may have been logicistal issues but Pretty Lights still kicked ass. His lights really are pretty :)
Back in early June, when I first found out My Morning Jacket was scheduled to play 3 nights in a row at The Wiltern in LA in September, I thought I only needed to go to 1 of the 3 shows & I'd be good to go. For that reason, I only bought 1 pair of tickets for the 2nd show on 9/12. Then, after a rather spontaneous trip to Denver in early August where I was lucky enough to see MMJ at Red Rocks Amphitheatre (a venue I'd been dying to visit for years & that definitely did NOT disappoint), I decided, since I'd missed the 1st of MMJ's 2 nights at Red Rocks (& really wished I hadn't), it was necessary to attend all 3 of their shows in LA. I made the right choice :)
3 nights, 7 1/2 hours of MMJ, 59 songs, 9 covers & NO repeats. It was INCREDIBLE. They played every song I've ever loved & even introduced me to some new (old) MMJ material I'd never heard before (Cobra on night 2 was my favorite discovery ). And the covers they played every night were straight-up awesome. They covered The Band, Prince, Elton John, George Harrison, The Clash, Velvet Underground, Erkykah Badu & even Lionel Richie. All Night Long on night 3 was 1 of the best covers EVER. Fiesta forever!!
As a bonus & thanks to a kind friend's generosity, I was treated to a VIP ticket on opening night on Tuesday. I had a great view from the VIP viewing area & Dangermouse was standing next to me for a few minutes which I geeked out about :) AND I got to go to the backstage after party where I drank a free beer & chatted with MMJ's drummer, Patrick Hallahan, about Coachella 2008 & how rad it was when MMJ played the sunset set on the main stage on Sunday night before Roger Waters' 2 1/2 hour Dark Side of The Moon extravaganza where crop duster planes flew over the polo fields dropping confetti in the sky & the giant pig floated away into the night...THEN Justice closed the entire festival with a 1 hour badass set in the Sahara tent.
Coachella 2008 will forever remain my FAVORITE of the 8 Coachellas I've been to & MMJ is a huge part of the reason why. It was my 1st full MMJ show (I'd seen them in passing at a previous Coachella but hadn't given them enough credit at the time) & it was also where I fell in love. After Thursday night's show (the 3rd & final of their 3 show stint at The Wiltern), I've now seen MMJ 11 times & know it won't stop there. I'm full-fledged obsessed now.
Night 1 on Tuesday 9/11 = Circuital / It Beats 4 U / You Wanna Freak Out / Lowdown / I'm Amazed / Lay Low / War Begun / I Will Sing You Songs / Master Plan / Old September Blues / Rocket Man (Elton John cover) / Strangulation! / Evelyn Is Not Real / Easy Morning Rebel / Anytime / The Day Is Coming / Touch Me I'm Going to Scream Pt. 2 / Gideon; ENCORE: Butch Cassidy / Wonderful (The Way I Feel) / It Makes No Difference (The Band cover) / I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man (Prince cover) / Phone Went West Rocket Man (Elton John cover)
Strangulation
Night 2 on Wednesday 9/12 = Rollin’ Back / The Way That He Sings / First Light / Aluminum Park / What A Wonderful Man / Picture of You / Slow Slow Tune / Carried Away / Heartbreakin’ Man / Smokin’ From Shootin’ / O Is The One That Is Real / Evil Urges / Tyrone (Erykah Badu cover) / Cobra > Run Thru; ENCORE: Hopefully, I Will Be There When You Die / Steam Engine / Isn’t It A Pity featuring Iron & Wine (George Harrison cover) / Honest Man, Rock The Casbah (The Clash cover) / Mahgeetah
Isn’t It A Pity featuring Iron & Wine (George Harrison cover)
Night 3 on Thursday 9/13 = At Dawn / The Dark / Off the Record > Outta My System > X-mas Curtain > Thank You Too! > Tonite I Want to Celebrate with You / Golden / I Think I'm Going to Hell / Dondante > Librarian / Oh! Sweet Nuthin' (The Velvet Underground cover) / It's About Twilight Now > Touch Me I'm Going to Scream Pt. 1 > Wordless Chorus / Highly Suspicious / DancefloorsEncore: Victory Dance / Holdin' on to Black Metal / All Night Long (Lionel Richie cover) / Move On Up (Curtis Mayfield cover) / One Big Holiday
I Think I'm Going to Hell
Highly Suspicious
Oh, and Portugal, The Man was, by far, the best of the 3 openers. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing them again.
I'm pumped for more new music from Atoms For Peace in early 2013! AFP is a supergroup featuring Thom Yorke of Radiohead on vocals, guitar and piano, Flea of Red Hot Chili Peppers on bass & Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich on guitar & keyboards. These men certainly do make sweet music together!
New Animal has kinda been changing my life the past few days. Every single song is just SO good & super unique from the last. I am dying to see New Animal live but, unfortunately, as of right now, they have no tour dates scheduled anywhere! I'm hoping that changes sooner rather than later because I think it's safe to say I'm their newest, BIGGEST fan.
While listening to these new few songs, keep in mind each 1 is by the SAME BAND. They've got mad range :)
Anyone who doubted Hot Chip's ability to pull off headlining The Hollywood Bowl clearly had never seen Hot Chip live before. Their 2008 Coachella set & 2010 opening set for LCD Soundsystem's last show EVER in LA were 2 of the most fun shows I've ever attended so I knew I couldn't miss them last night. Hot Chip f*ckin KILLED IT! I got super sweaty dancing outside AT NIGHT which is a telltale sign of a GREAT concert :)
Passion Pit was alright but they paled in comparison to Hot Chip.
"I'm only going to heaven if it feels like hell. I'm only going to heaven if it tastes like caramel."
I was given a lot of grief for going to see Gotye at The Greek Theatre in LA on Tuesday night but I'm really happy I didn't let that stop me because he was FANTASTIC. Just because 1 Gotye song unexpectedly blew up & got popular to the point that people decided to start hating it doesn't mean the rest of his material isn't worth listening to. Plus, his visual accompaniments are incredible. Check out my videos below to catch a glimpse.
FYF Fest 2012 was the 1st 2-day FYF & it did not disappoint. The weather was beautiful, the lineup was stacked & the festival-goers were in fantastic spirits celebrating days 1 & 2 of the 3-day weekend (the last days of summer).
As is the norm with festivals, I missed the 1st couple acts of each day that I had aimed to see (including Two Gallants, Wild Nothing & Father John Misty) but I still caught PLENTY of excellent sets including parts (or all) of the following: Chairlift, Future Islands (MY FAVORITE of the entire weekend!! More to come on them in the very near future), Warpaint, Tanlines, Purity Ring, Black Mountain, M83, Simian Mobilen Disco, Refused, Aesop Rock, Dinosaur Jr., Liars, Desaparecidos, Yeasayer, Twin Shadow, Beirut, The Faint & Gold Panda.
Future Islands was my most beloved new discovery of the weekend. The lead singer is an absolute trip. I love him. Simian Mobile Disco's set was the biggest dance party of the weekend & I was lucky to be able to dance my ass off with 1 of my best girlfriends who arrived just in time to catch their set. Liars were amazing & Yeasayer's new stage/visual steup was even cooler than I'd hoped!
FYF Fest had a rocky start a few years ago but the festival planners have worked out the kinks & the fest has really found its groove so I'll keep going back every Labor Day weekend that I can!
Purity Ring Performing Amenamy
M83 Finishing Midnight City - It was audience participation time :)
Simian Mobile Disco building up the crowd for 3 minutes then making everyone go CA-RAZY!!
