This week rollcall

The New Pornographers - Sun @ The Bell House

how was SVI last night?  *siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh*

Mon - Goldfrapp, 9:30 Club
Tue - The New Pornographers, w/The Dodos, The Dutchess and the Duke, 9:30 Club 
Wed - Silversun Pickups, DAR

All three bands played really well. Soundpool are more of a shoegaze/rock band in a live setting than their most recent effort lets on. SVI keep getting better. Ceremony pierced many eardrums and sounded great doing it. It was my first time hearing bands in that room and if you think the PA sounds good when a DJ is spinning, you will be blown away once you hear a live band on there. Everything is so clear. Even the smallest details. 930 has some serious competition for best sound in town.

With you, though I think I enjoyed TPOBPAH less than you did.  All the songs had exactly the same tempo, feel…it was kind of a snoozer as a live show. I was thinking the vocals needed to be higher in the mix, but maybe it's just a weak voice.

nkotb wrote:
So overall not a bad night out.  Missed Hooray for Earth, but I'm not too broken up about it.  I like TPOBPAH much better on record than Surfer Blood, but it was the exact opposite live.  In fact, "Swim" was almost a low point in their set…the rest of the songs sounded good live.  Maybe they've worked on their live chops since that review James posted.

TPOBPAH, for such punchy songs, really didn't catch me at all.  The singer just doesn't have a strong voice live, and it left me a little lukewarm on their whole set.  Still enjoyable, but it definitely lost something in the translation.

nkotb wrote:
Not sure…both bands on album are kind of just OK, but since I had other friends interested (and my wife OK'd the time out  ;D) I kind of jumped on the chance to see the show.  No clue how either are live.

Vas wrote:
nkotb can answer this……he is seeing that pitchfork band, Surfer Blood……

BAGLEY wrote:
Any body know if the openers for the Pains are worth catching at BC wednesday?

azaghal1981 wrote:
All three bands played really well. Soundpool are more of a shoegaze/rock band in a live setting than their most recent effort lets on. SVI keep getting better. Ceremony pierced many eardrums and sounded great doing it. It was my first time hearing bands in that room and if you think the PA sounds good when a DJ is spinning, you will be blown away once you hear a live band on there. Everything is so clear. Even the smallest details. 930 has some serious competition for best sound in town.

I thought it was great.  I skipped out on SVI (too long of a day by that point), but had already seen them a few times this year and will see them a couple more before the end.  I wish each band would have got a few extra songs, as I had never seen Ceremony or Soundpool before.  Soundpool was funky, Ceremony loud.  Thank goodness I had my earplugs with me.  Any time a Ceremony song comes across on shuffle, I have to turn it down, as it always is way louder than what ever song was before. 

My only complaint was the room was a bit big for the ammount of people watching it (looked like about 20) and the back stage at BC would have been more size appropriate.  I agree the sound system was pretty dope, clear highs and lows you can feel.  Ill definitely go back as it was nice, and the staff were really friendly. 

Az, I probably saw you, what do you look like?

killsaly wrote:
Any time a Ceremony song comes across on shuffle, I have to turn it down, as it always is way louder than what ever song was before.

As you know, I've got music from Ceremony on Air Atlantic Underground Radio. Any time I want to add another song from them to the station, I always have to run it through Audacity first and lower the gain before I can upload it otherwise I have that extreme difference in sound levels between songs. Same with Skywave's music (which is 2/3rds Ceremony). That's okay in isolation but not slapped up next to some other band. Weirdly, I often have to run the 90s Shoegaze through to increase the gains because of how the standard recording practices were back then.

Still stinging from having to miss that show. Just too many scheduling conflicts to make it. The worst being that it was just too blamed early!!! Could have done it tonight or tomorrw night, but no, the show had to be early, last night. Oh, well. At least I've seen each band several times before. Hopefully, several more times again sometime in the future. Love all three of them! Hope they got some new fans.

Depreciation Guild tonight if I am feeling up to it
Goldfrapp tomorrow
New Pornos Wednesday maybe
Maybe Tortoise and or Bastard Noise Thursday
Tinariwen Friday if I do not go to NYC Saturday
Joe almost has me sold on Tinariwen and Omar Souleyman in NYC Sat.
Points Sunday

great Goldfrapp gig last night…what a setlist!

crowd could have been better esp. the balcony…they looked like they were watching a Jack Johnson gig!

Vas wrote:
great Goldfrapp gig last night…what a setlist!

crowd could have been better esp. the balcony…they looked like they were watching a Jack Johnson gig!

yeah, i thought the show was pretty damn good.  dunno where you were but people around me were definitely dancing during the whole show, it was relatively impressive for a DC crowd (i was on the floor, just behind the 4 or 5 dudes with blond wigs).  balcony did look pretty tame, but then again when i'm not feeling too high energy i often head for the balcony so i don't expect the craziest dancers up there.  from the middle of the floor sound quality went up and down - for a few songs, bass was way too loud.  good setlist indeed.

crowd was made up of an above-average proportion of gay men, and female hotties.  between them, alison's costumes and the silver half-doughnut on stage - plenty to look at :D   

Weds at Black Cat: Voxtrot on their farewell tour

Anyone going to Lightning Bolt on Wednesday?

I'll be there!  And I'm trying to hit Fort Reno tonight too, if the weather holds out.  Gotta make the most of it while my wife and baby are away..

Relaxer wrote:
Anyone going to Lightning Bolt on Wednesday?

I'd forgotten about it and was chagrined just now to see that it's sold out, but I got a line on a ticket so I think I'm going.

Yeah, let me know if you're going.  I'll wear something slinky…er, for ease of meet up purpose, of course.

FYI, Fort Reno canceled for tonight.  Bummer.

Relaxer wrote:
I'd forgotten about it and was chagrined just now to see that it's sold out, but I got a line on a ticket so I think I'm going.

Lightning Bolt!
Nobunny and The Shirks
Scream and a bunch of potheads at the DC smoke-in if I can convince anyone to come with

possibly fort reno tomorrow.
sleigh bells friday night.

Anyone tried Marah in the last couple of years?  Can't decide.

Sore today.

azaghal1981 wrote:
Sore today.

how was that lightning bolt show?

Fantastic. All the stories of their ability to make any room feel like a dingy basement are true.
I was a little disappointed yet not surprised to find out that they would use the stage upon arriving but am not sure how much it mattered. It might have made things a little more chaotic if they were on the floor but there was still plenty of savage violent fun to be had.

I would love to hear how that 15 guitars thing Buildings did was.