This week rollcall

How many shows out of 10 would you say you bitch about?

Not many. I've only been to a few disappointing shows this year…

Originally posted by azaghal1981:
How many shows out of 10 would you say you bitch about?

9/12-Gray Matter Reunion @ Black Cat. Very excited about this one. :cool:

they are playing Take it Back EP? 6 songs?

Originally posted by andyrichter:
9/12-Gray Matter Reunion @ Black Cat. Very excited about this one. :cool:

You just saved me quite a bit of typing. Couldn't have said it better myself. My friends all agreed that the Veils blew Liam off the stage, and that the Veils should have played twice as long as they did. I left a few songs after you did.

The Beatles Birthday song was especially cheesy.

And I'm saying this as a big fan of Liam's cd.

Originally posted by wanderlust j. marshmallow:
I got robbed $14. The Veils were supposed to play for an hour, but played 30 minutes instead.

Liam Finn definitely needs a full band. But ya know, some musicians want to show us that they can play more than one instrument. So here's Liam stretching his 3 minute song into 6 minutes by playing the guitar parts first, then the drum parts…it is so pretentious. I left after 4 songs. Oh, I couldn't stand the female singer either. She didn't really help…

What does Charlie think about the show? :)

Originally posted by brennser:
i doubt I'll get better value all year than the $14 I spent last night on Liam Finn and The Veils - impressive stuff

My guess (hope?) is they'll do the EP plus a bunch of other stuff. The last time they played, they did a pretty decent set.

Originally posted by wanderlust j. marshmallow:
they are playing Take it Back EP? 6 songs?

Originally posted by andyrichter:
9/12-Gray Matter Reunion @ Black Cat. Very excited about this one. :cool:

Hoping to see Elysian Fields and Freedy Johnston at 930 then Silver Jews…

jeez, some people are hard to please! While I went primarily for The Veils and thought they were amazing and was a little dissapointed they only played for 30 minutes I was pleasantly surprised by Liam Finn whose stuff I was not familiar with - the looping etc did not bother me, kind of struck me as Andrew Bird with attitude - for me it was great to see someone having so much fun up there and I thought his energy was infectious

still think it was $14 well spent

Originally posted by Charlie Nakatestes,Japanese Golfer:
You just saved me quite a bit of typing. Couldn't have said it better myself. My friends all agreed that the Veils blew Liam off the stage, and that the Veils should have played twice as long as they did. I left a few songs after you did.

The Beatles Birthday song was especially cheesy.

And I'm saying this as a big fan of Liam's cd.

Originally posted by wanderlust j. marshmallow:
I got robbed $14. The Veils were supposed to play for an hour, but played 30 minutes instead.

Liam Finn definitely needs a full band. But ya know, some musicians want to show us that they can play more than one instrument. So here's Liam stretching his 3 minute song into 6 minutes by playing the guitar parts first, then the drum parts…it is so pretentious. I left after 4 songs. Oh, I couldn't stand the female singer either. She didn't really help…

What does Charlie think about the show? :)

Originally posted by brennser:
i doubt I'll get better value all year than the $14 I spent last night on Liam Finn and The Veils - impressive stuff

I'll never understand why looping bothers people.

Perhaps the fact that you were'nt familiar with Liam's material made you more open-minded to the performance you saw.

For me, he took what is a very good pop album (most likely on my year end top 10 list), and turned them into a bunch of wanky guitar and drum solos. I can understand that some people appreciate the latter (I don't), but I went hoping for the former.

Originally posted by brennser:
jeez, some people are hard to please! While I went primarily for The Veils and thought they were amazing and was a little dissapointed they only played for 30 minutes I was pleasantly surprised by Liam Finn whose stuff I was not familiar with - the looping etc did not bother me, kind of struck me as Andrew Bird with attitude - for me it was great to see someone having so much fun up there and I thought his energy was infectious

still think it was $14 well spent

Originally posted by Charlie Nakatestes,Japanese Golfer:
You just saved me quite a bit of typing. Couldn't have said it better myself. My friends all agreed that the Veils blew Liam off the stage, and that the Veils should have played twice as long as they did. I left a few songs after you did.

The Beatles Birthday song was especially cheesy.

And I'm saying this as a big fan of Liam's cd.

Originally posted by wanderlust j. marshmallow:
I got robbed $14. The Veils were supposed to play for an hour, but played 30 minutes instead.

Liam Finn definitely needs a full band. But ya know, some musicians want to show us that they can play more than one instrument. So here's Liam stretching his 3 minute song into 6 minutes by playing the guitar parts first, then the drum parts…it is so pretentious. I left after 4 songs. Oh, I couldn't stand the female singer either. She didn't really help…

What does Charlie think about the show? :)

Originally posted by brennser:
i doubt I'll get better value all year than the $14 I spent last night on Liam Finn and The Veils - impressive stuff

As my friend asked, "Would it kill him to have a band?" and "How does the drum know when to come in like that?"

I'm fine with a band using little blips and bleeps from a laptop, but when the lead guitar part or the drums aren't being played by a human (and there's a second person on stage doing nothing but banging a cymbal and singing backing vocals, and two roadies sitting on the side of the stage doing nothing…can't they be in the band?), it's rather diconcerting to watch.

But the Eddie Vedder crowd he won over seemed to eat it right up.

Originally posted by azaghal1981:
I'll never understand why looping bothers people.

Eddie Vedder crowd?? :)

The roadies did end up in the band for the encore….

Originally posted by Charlie Nakatestes,Japanese Golfer:
As my friend asked, "Would it kill him to have a band?" and "How does the drum know when to come in like that?"

I'm fine with a band using little blips and bleeps from a laptop, but when the lead guitar part or the drums aren't being played by a human (and there's a second person on stage doing nothing but banging a cymbal and singing backing vocals, and two roadies sitting on the side of the stage doing nothing…can't they be in the band?), it's rather diconcerting to watch.

But the Eddie Vedder crowd he won over seemed to eat it right up.

Originally posted by azaghal1981:
I'll never understand why looping bothers people.

Back on topic!

Tuesday - Skuli Sverrisson and Olof Arnalds @ Le Poisson Rouge (early) / maybe Deerhunter @ Le Poisson Rouge (late)

Wednesday - IAMX @ Blender Theater at Gramercy

Friday - Goldfrapp @ Radio City

Saturday/Sunday - Monolith Festival!

If he's more comfortable up there reproducing the music by himself and is able to do so with the help of technology, I don't see what the big deal is. He's just using the laptop/delay pedal/whatever he uses for the looping as another musical instrument. It's not like he's hitting "play" on a cd player or an Ipod and playing/singing along. If memory serves, you weren't all that crazy about Jens Lekman using a DJ to produce all the samples in his live show. I guess I can see why looping would bother you if that did.

I gotta say that looping drives me nuts in 80% of shows where I see it. A live show should be about what the band can produce together on-stage in real-time. Having canned guitar parts is cheating – if you need another guitar, get another guitarist. Or, figure out a way to play the song without the tapes. I remember a Stereophonics show a few years ago where almost all of the most interesting guitar parts, including some of the solos, were totally canned and the singer/guitarist was just playing strum rhythms. That's weak.

Originally posted by Relaxer:
I gotta say that looping drives me nuts in 80% of shows where I see it. A live show should be about what the band can produce together on-stage in real-time. Having canned guitar parts is cheating – if you need another guitar, get another guitarist. Or, figure out a way to play the song without the tapes. I remember a Stereophonics show a few years ago where almost all of the most interesting guitar parts, including some of the solos, were totally canned and the singer/guitarist was just playing strum rhythms. That's weak.

I bet you wouldn't be too into Battles' live show if you haven't seen it already. ;)


Guess I'm in the minority.

Originally posted by brennser:
i doubt I'll get better value all year than the $14 I spent last night on Liam Finn and The Veils - impressive stuff

Sounds like The Veils had a really great show. I saw them last week (not sure if it was before/after that show - on thursday night) and Finn was having a really bad night.

He kept saying how nervous he was that he couldnt even form sentences. He was having issues with the mic the whole night and his hands were terribly shaking. I kept wondering what the hell he took before the show.

He sounded better than ever and I love how emotional he gets when he sings and plays. It just shows on his face. Regardless, Lavinia and their other songs sounded great. Im quite sure we got 45 mins (perhaps more) when he was here.

Didnt stay for much of Liam Finn's set, but he sounded great. Not crazy about the woman he plays with. Alberta Cross playing acoustic made for a great opener.

and back to the topic:
tues - stereophonics/people in planes
wed - the kooks/stellastarr*/illinois
thurs - fly home to Cali

Originally posted by azaghal1981:
bet you wouldn't be too into Battles' live show if you haven't seen it already. ;)

Guess I'm in the minority.

Y'know, it never struck me when I saw them, and I thought it was very good, especially that cymbal that was like 50 feet in the air. Granted, it was a festival set.

goldfrapp!!. it has been a long time since i've been to nyc. excited and nervous. :) but since goldfrapp will not play anywhere else I have to see them.