Pearl Jam @ Los Angeles Sports Arena - 11/24/13

How I adore Eddie Vedder, let me count the ways (for the purposes of this particular post, based solely on his performance with Pearl Jam on Sunday night at Los Angeles Sports Arena).

For one, the man is incredibly limber. He can practically do the splits mid-jump while singing (I'm not exactly sure what they call it but let's go with the "rockstar splits kick") & he can do a backbend & hold it for a long time while STILL singing! He often acts like a big kid climbing around on equipment, swinging back & forth on a large hanging lamp, crowd-surfing, etc. He drinks wine straight from the bottle on stage & even makes trips down into the crowd to pour wine for people! He does incredible covers of songs most people wouldn't dare try to replicate including tracks originally by Pink Floyd, Velvet Underground, Neil Young & The Who. He & Pearl Jam don't stop playing until the venue shuts them down. 

Eddie worries about & tries his best to protect his fans. When it looked like someone was in trouble in the crowd on Sunday night & that person was escorted by security to somewhere away from the main floor, Eddie asked everyone to enjoy an extended electric guitar solo while he left the stage for several minutes to go check on the person. I also heard he kicked a rowdy concert-goer out of the show completely on Satruday night because the asshole was causing such a disruption.

Eddie Vedder is the epitome of ROCK STAR. He is 1 of THE most talented, charismatic, consistently relevent & genuinely honorable musicians I've ever been lucky enough to see perform live.

Last Sunday night was only my 2nd Pearl Jam show ever (the 1st was 5 years ago at Outside Lands) & I now realize why there are people who follow them all over the country. 3+ hours, 33 songs (including the song George wanted to hear most, Daughter, the song I wanted to hear most, Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town, & 5 amazing covers) & it still didn't feel like enough. I guess there's no getting enough of Pearl Jam live. I hope I get to see them again &/or Eddie perform solo because I'm obsessed.

Corduroy


Daughter


Mother (Pink Floyd cover)

Hip To Be Square by Huey Lewis & The News (Featuring Joe Montana & Ronnie Lott)

I have always associated this song with the San Francisco 49ers becaue Joe Montana & Ronnie Lott provided backup vocals on it & it was what my dad & always used to listen to in order to get pumped up for 49ers game so...that's what I'm doing right now!

Monday Night Football begins in 40 minutes! It's all or nothing, Niners! If we don't win tonight, our hopes for snagging that wild card spot are as good as gone. PLEASE beat the Redskins!!!

Bullet Train by Gardens & Villa

A fun, new track from Gardens & Villa...

Afterlife by Arcade Fire (NEW OFFICIAL VIDEO!)

Have I mentioned how much I love Arcade Fire before? Oh I have? :) Well then I'll just leave you with the BEAUTIFUL, brand new, official video (written and directed by Emily Kai Bock) for AF's 2nd single off their latest album Reflektor.

OutKast (ALMOST 100%) Confirmed for Coachella 2014!!!

The news that OutKast might be reuniting for Coachella 2014 began to break yesterday &, as of this morning, it's being reported as ALMOST 100% confirmed. This now means both Arcade Fire AND OutKast are most likely headlining my 10th (& intended-to-be final) Coachella!

That's cooler than a polar bear's toenails ;-) OH-YAY-YER!!!

ATliens


SpottieOttieDopaliscious


The Whole World

B.O.B.

Players Ball

Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town by Pearl Jam

Here's a little old school, classic Pearl Jam for your Tuesday afternoon because...I'm seeing Pearl Jam on Sunday night & praying they play this song!!

Know Bout Me by Timbaland Featuring Drake, Jay Z & James Fauntleroy

I love that the 1st new single from Timbaland in what feels like forever features both Jay Z AND Drake plus a guy named James Fauntleroy who I've never heard of but, knowing Timbaland, Fauntleroy is probably the next big thing.

Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High? by Arctic Monkeys

Arctic Monkeys must get a lot of drunk dials (per the lyrics of Do I Wanna Know) but, on the flip side, it sounds like they only call certain ladies when they're high so...maybe it's just 1 giant wasted wash? :-P

25 Bucks by Danny Brown Featuring Purity Ring

Nine Inch Nails @ Staples Center - 11/8/13

Last Friday night, I saw Nine Inch Nails perform live for my 3rd time ever but it was my 1st non-festival NIN experience & it was NIN-CREDIBLE!!!

The icing on the cake was 1 of my dearest Coachella friends, Lyndsey, who I hadn't even seen in about 3 years flew down to LA from Portland just so she could attend the show with me (& also so we could play the rest of the weekend of course). Lyndsey couldn't have picked a better artist to make a special trip to LA to see because NIN boggled the mind of every single person inside the Staples Center for a solid 2 hours & 15 minutes. It was breathtaking.

Touring with How To Destroy Angels (Trent Reznor's most recent side project) clearly influenced NIN's comeback tour. The technology used to create NIN’s visuals is unlike anything I’ve ever seen (EXCEPT for the 1 time I saw HTDA perform at Coachella this past April). It's 1 thing to throw some cool stuff up on a screen behind a band but it's entirely another to fully engulf the band in screens layering images & lights on top of the members while they play.

Also, as far as I know, NIN has never integrated female vocals into their music but, this time around, Trent had 2 very talented female backup singers adding a gorgeous, new element to already super solid NIN material.

Finally, it must be said…Trent Reznor’s hips don’t lie. The man has got MOVES. I love him :)

Terrible Lie

Disappointed

The Hand That Feeds

Satellite ("borrowed" footage because it was just TOO good not to post!)

While I'm Still Here (also "borrowed" footage :-P)

Für Hildegard von Bingen by Devendra Banhart

Not only is Devendra Banhart a super hot hottie (who used to date Natalie Portman!) but he's also an unbelievably talented artist & visionary. I finally got to see him live for my 1st time at FYF Fest last August & he was FANTASTIC.

Holding On For Life by Broken Bells (NEW!!!)

I'm DYING to hear the rest of Broken Bells' 2nd studio album set for release in January 2014. I've already listened to the 1st single, Holding On For Life, about 20 times this week. It's SO good!!

The Reflektors aka Arcade Fire @ The Hollywood Palladium on Halloween 2013

Every once in a while, the moment you've given up hope & accepted you're going to miss a concert you'd give just about anything to see (aside from 8-10x face value) is the moment the concert gods smile upon you & a live music miracle happens.

On the afternoon of Thursday 10/24, rumors started spreading on Facebook that Arcade Fire were going to play a last minute show at The Hollywood Palladium on Halloween night performing under their new moniker The Reflektors. A few hours later, the rumors were confirmed & it was announced tickets would go on sale Saturday 10/26 at noon. There'd be no pre-sales or contests, there was a 2 ticket maximum order per person, the credit card used to purchase the tickets had to be presented at the door & each person's +1 was required to be with him/her in order to enter at the same time.

It sounded like a recipe to deter at least a few scalpers from snatching up all the tickets within 2 seconds but, due to VERY popular demand (for obvious reasons!), tickets were still 100% sold out within 1-2 seconds of 12:00pm. Not only did I try to buy tickets at the stroke of noon but I even enlisted a couple helpers who attempted to buy tix via different devices & we all failed miserably! I was VERY sad...for about an hour then I tried to let it go & went back to enjoying my weekend :)

Flash (not far) forward to 11:15pm Wednesday 10/30: While watching the last 10 most critical minutes of Poltergeist, I received a latenight phone call from 1 of my most trusted fellow LA Musicheads, Chris. LA Musicheads is a private Facebook group that comes in extremely handy quite often & it's never been more handy than it was on this particular occasion. Chris had a friend, Alex, who had an extra Reflektors ticket that he SO generously wanted to give away for free (despite jerk Craigslisters trying to sell their +1's for up to $200-300 a pop!) to someone who would TRULY appreciate & enjoy the show & Chris recommended me!! I was flattered, thrilled & literally jumping for joy.

Thanks to Chris, Alex & Laurie (another LA Musichead who also went to the Palladium solo & who I met for the 1st time when she hooked me up with the sweetest balcony spot right on the railing giving me an INCREDIBLE view of the stage, crowd, costumes, lights, confetti, excitement, etc), I had 1 of the best Halloweens pretty much ever. Btw - Every band should hire face painters to paint then faces of concert-goers while they wait in line to enter the venue!! 

The Reflektors were absolutely phenomenal. From opening with the 1st single off the new album, Reflektor, (also called Reflektor) then Win saying "We're not fucking around" & leading immediately into Neighborhood #3 (Power Out) which made the crowd go CRAZY to AF playing practically every song off the new album (minus Porno which bummed me out the tiniest bit) to them throwing in a gorgeous rendition of Haiti (see my video below for some awesome footage!!) as well as Headlights Look Like Diamonds, the show couldn't have been any more perfect.

I solemnly swear I will go see Arcade Fire perform live every chance I get for the rest of my life.