The Spree

I'll be there

Originally posted by kosmo:
so who's in for tonight… my tragically hip self will be in attendence sans kosmette. who is sitting on the bench for ash.

>I'll be there by 8:30 or 9:00……

Well, I was planning on going to see The Pattern but remembered that I will see them at the Siren Fest. So I may go see the Spree. Still undecided.

look for me in my oh so hip dino jr. golf shirt…

Will they do Prelude's arrangement of Neil Young's "After the Gold Rush"?

http://www.viceland.com/issues/v9n10/htdocs/my_america.php

Cross on The Family….

Great show last night. Some thoughts:

Slideshow Players- They were pretty funny and entertaining. Was it me or did the lead singer look an awful lot like Rick Moranis?

Why are DC crowds so damn lame? The Spree were up there putting on a great show and the urban hipsters in the crowd can barely muster a head nod.

I think that has been brought up before and we came to the conclusion that DC audiences are "the worst". Funny how the "best venue in the nation" according to pollstar is home to the worst audience. I thought there would have been a little contagious dancing and flailing that would have rubbed off onto audience as well. I for one was simply a toe tapping head nodder. I hope that doesn't make me a lame audience member. :D

I was blown away buy all of the acts last night. "Rick Moranis" had me in tears I was laughing so hard. After never really listening to the Spree before the show I am truly amazed. Talk about leaving it all on the stage! They are top notch musicians with an enormous sound. Loved the tribute to David Bowie by playing Five Years. Did anyone catch what they were recording for? There were multiple video cameras and mics being used last night.

Helluva show last night!……..Pretty cool evening of "uncoventional rock"……crowds are always kinda dead…….got to meet "the family" after the show and shake little Rachel's hand!……she's a little rocker!…….thanks Kos for the disc!! It will be getting rotations on the way to the shore today……good to see Kurosawa enjoying herself……I'm out……."rotten"

still clearing the cobwebs out from the gig last night…

one thing is for sure the next time the P. Spree hit this town the tickets will be more than $10 smackers. like the crack dealer trying to get yah hooked they succeeded in spades.

wish i had taken the time to read prof ggw's homework assignment as i would have taked kosmette along for the Trachtenburg Family, the combination of the slides, stories and the probably the most professional 9 year drummer around was worth my money right there. It classic when Rachel started asking for more of her daddy in the monitor. I hope they plan to release a CD-ROM or DVD because it would be tough to hear the songs without the slides.

i went into the Polyphonic Spree with no expectations, all the hype surrounding how they were better live than on record, etc. they turned out to be a real joy to watch and hear. yes the lyrics are a bit fluffy but the arrangements with the extra instruments made up for it. and the group clearly enjoyed being on stage playing for the punters.

best $10 i've spent in a long time…

Before I go…..if anyone happens to "run across" a disc of last night's performance it would be a great thing……I bet the board sound would have been the right stuff…..the way to listen to The Spree is live for sure…..

Agree that the Spree was fantastic. Couldn't wipe the grin off my face all night.

As for the "family"…it was pretty funny but did anyone else find the idea of the guy parading his kid on stage a little disturbing? I also think a lot of the girl's schtick was staged. I read about the whole "daddy, i need more vocal in my monitors" bit from a previous review.

Originally posted by eros:
Agree that the Spree was fantastic. Couldn't wipe the grin off my face all night.

As for the "family"…it was pretty funny but did anyone else find the idea of the guy parading his kid on stage a little disturbing? I also think a lot of the girl's schtick was staged. I read about the whole "daddy, i need more vocal in my monitors" bit from a previous review.

A friend of mine and I were talking about why we were a little disturbed by the little girl being there. Isn't she in school? Is she allowed in the club? What's she going to be like when she's 18? She is a very competent drummer for her age. Hell, she's better than Meg White.

The Spree were great. Our group was definitely flailing and jumping and dancing. In particular, loved watching the chorus all dance around. If Ash weren't tonight, I'd probably go for show #2. Two people in my group last night, who aren't interested in power pop from Ireland, are going back for another round. Good for them.

Was also impressed with how many people were there. The Post article helped but it wasn't the only reason.

I decided at the last minute to go to the Polyphonic Spree show, and I'm SO glad I went. First of all, the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players were hilarious. I laughed all the way through. The guy's commentary was very funny and combined with 9 year old drummer Rachel primly sitting there -great, great.

And then! The Polyphonic Spree took the stage. Let me just say that I went into the show thinking I might not like it. The album bored me. But I was so curious after reading reviews, etc. Anyway, I couldn't even count the number of instruments on stage -maybe 15-20+? A harp, upright bass, flute, french horn, guitars, drums, keyboards, etc. etc. And then of course there were about 30 people crammed up there, too. But the sound that they produced -huge and, well, JOYOUS. I have never seen so much infectious happiness on a stage. The singers/musicians were dancing like crazy (and I mean crazy) and singing/playing their hearts out. I couldn't stop smiling and danced quite a bit myself. It's very difficult to describe, but it was totally uplifting. The album comes nowhere near their live show. If I wasn't so dead (4 concert nights in a row -whew) I would go again tonight. It was that good. And the David Bowie cover -hell yeah! Oh and the moment at the end with the harp -mmm.

I agree while the audience was polite they couldve got off their asses a bit and got down but thats DC for you.

And regarding the multiple video cameras: An outfit out of Boston called Subversion was doing a multi-cam shoot and are also doing one tonight if Im not mistaken. Just a heads up: the Spree are cool with taping of any kind and if tonight is like last night, there is no need to get clearance in advance in order to tape as the club was allowing taping equipment. So if anyone wants to try and recapture tonight what they witnessed last night go for it :)
Hunter

Originally posted by imrotten:
I bet the board sound would have been the right stuff…

board recordings suck.


but polyphonic is great. they need to be teamed up with the flaming lips for a happy tour.

Originally posted by Ikarus:

Originally posted by imrotten:
I bet the board sound would have been the right stuff…

board recordings suck.


but polyphonic is great. they need to be teamed up with the flaming lips for a happy tour.

The club would probably have to double the number of employees standing the bathrooms, looking at the stalls so people don't "enhance their enjoyment of the show".

And I think board recordings can be good, but they're never a sure thing.

Originally posted by Ikarus:

Originally posted by imrotten:
I bet the board sound would have been the right stuff…

board recordings suck.

So, in other words, you haven't heard all that many live recordings. I'll take a board, or FM, recording any day over a crappy audience recording, where it sounds like you're half a mile from stage, the mic is getting knocked around, you're recording that drunk girl's off-key rendition of the song, and all of your levels go off the charts when the crowd is cheering.

i read somewhere that the some of the best recordings are those where they record the signal used to feed those wireless in-ear monitor devices many bands are using. just look for the guy in the car outside the venue with his antenna tuned to the same frequency as the personal monitors.

the other angle is to claim you are hard of hearing and tape the feed sent to the devices provided by some venues to the hard of hearing.