Roo DVD Preview

I know it's still a couple months away until the DVD comes in the mail...and even longer until next years lineup is announced, but still...its hard not to get pumped to think that Bonnaroo 2010 is already in the works.

So for the time being I will occupy myself with the preview of the DVD. Good to see that this years DVD will include a lot of great performances...not that last years was bad (not even close), but this years looks better. Check out the preview below.

Live from Bonnaroo 2009 Trailer from Bonnaroo on Vimeo.

Now I just gotta figure out a way to get down to the Roo this summer...

Remembering: Neverender

Thursday officially marked the 1-year anniversary since the tapings of Coheed and Cambria's 4-day concert series, Neverender.

For those of you who are unfamiliar, Coheed and Cambria played their 4 albums (in order) on 4 consecutive nights in 4 different cities around the world last fall. Thursday marked the anniversary of the first series of concerts at NYC's Terminal 5, which were recorded and released as a DVD and/or CD package earlier this year.

Over the course of the year I was able to watch all 4 DVD's...from The Second Stage Turbine Blade to No World for Tomorrow. I wanted to share with you guys the highlight songs from each night (in my opinion of course).


Night 1: Second Stage Turbine Blade
Song of the Night: "Everything Evil"
Why?: My favorite C&C song. Claudio's vocals are perfect and he has an awesome guitar jam at the end with Travis. Crowd is fucking insane! There is no standing still...just a constant moving wave of people. Best part is the first time Claudio sings, "Would you run?"(about 4:30 in) and the house lights flash for a split second showing dozens of fan jumping into the air with fists raised!

Night 2: In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3
Song of the Night: "In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3"
Why?: Possibly the best song to ever start an album (next to "In The Flesh" on The Wall)...it just builds and builds from the beginning. Crowd sings along with every word to the song. If you want to see some awesome crowd footage of people going nuts fast forward to about the 6:55 mark and watch.


Night 3: Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV Volume 1: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness
Song of the Night: "The Willing Well IV: The Final Cut"
Why?: Opposite of night 2's opener...this song may be one of the best songs to finish an album. When I saw them play it at Bonnaroo they played a 20 minute version in which each member of the band spotlighted their talents for a few minutes each. This version may be even better. Split into 3 parts due to the song being 20 minutes plus. Enjoy if you have the time.
Night 4: Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV Volume 2: No World for Tomorrow
Song of the Night: "Mother Superior"
Why?: Starts with just Claudio...whole band enters by the end. Crowd sings word for word. Slow beginning builds to heavy end.

Concert Review: Silversun Pickups: 10/20/09

THE LINEUP: Silversun Pickups w/ Cage the Elephant and An Horse

THE DATE: Tuesday, October 20th, 2009

THE VENUE: The Webster Theater, Hartford, Connecticut

THE SETTING: Small theater (Capacity: 1200)

ACT I: "Please make illegal u-turn..."
Due to a crazy "Tri-Birthday Oktoberfest Party" the night before my friends (Bob and Brandon) and I were still recovering from a night of heavy partying...okay, maybe not them, but I definitely was. So needless to say, there wasn't a whole lot of pregaming going on for this show.

Anyway, the three of us met at my place and set out for the show. Bob plugged in the coordinates on his Verizon Navigator and the female voice guides us through some of the worst neighborhoods in the Greater Hartford Area...which is why NAV systems blow. Definitely not a place you want to drive thru after dark. We decided at this point that we were going to take an alternate route home. Another reason why NAV systems are worthless...after getting to a busy four-way intersection the machine tells Bob to go straight....so he goes straight. Then as we drove through the stoplight and down the road a couple hundred yards the thing then tells us "please make illegal U-turn whenever possible." Sure it actually said "a legal", but that's up for debate.

So we finally made it into downtown Hartford and we're driving down a street full of some early 1950's built houses when, out of nowhere, a concert hall and giant tour buses suddenly appeared to our right. It looked nice enough from the outside, but I was amazed to see such a loud venue in the middle of such a highly-populated neighborhood...you'd think they would get enough complaints over the years (especially from a place that regularly hosts some of the heaviest metal acts out there SEE: Gwar, Slayer, Hatebreed, etc.)

No matter though, we decided to pay the $10 for parking in the concert lot so Bob's car stays in one piece. Several people had told me horror stories about their cars getting broken into while they were inside at previous shows...if you ever go to the Webster, I strongly suggest you pay the lot attendant. Finally, we head into the show.


ACT II: "Man that lead singer is pretty hot...in a Tegan and Sara kind of way..."
So the opening act was a band called An Horse. I had never heard of them before, but Brandon said he saw them recently on one of the late night shows. They were definitely something different. They are an Australian duo comprising of a female lead singer/guitarist and a male drummer. You couldn't tell they were Aussies until they began talking to the crowd. In their chats with the audience they mostly told stories about their adventures in Hartford over the last couple days, and then pointed out that the back of the theater must be a bar because that's where everyone is. They were right...a lot of the crowd chose to continue to pre-game during An Horse's set. Like me, most of the people there were probably not there to see An Horse.

Their music was ok...although a lot of it sounded the same to me. It sounded like Tegan and Sara, but without a bass line. Also, replace the female back-up vocals with male back-up vocals...which actually was a pretty cool sound. All in all the band has some potential, but I wouldn't go out of my way to see them. We go grab a red bull to get fired up for Cage.

ACT III: "Holy Shit! Did he just throw his guitar at the bassist!?"
I saw Cage the Elephant for the first time last summer at Bonnaroo and they were absolutely nuts! This show was no exception. Always fun to see a band that has as much fun as them on the stage.

I warned Bob and Brandon before the show that the lead singer (Matt Schultz) is a nut job and sings and runs around the stage like a hamster on speed. They quickly got to see him in action.

There's no doubt about it, this band has a pretty original sound. The guitars are doubled up...the rhythm guitarist, Brad Schultz (who plays his guitar up on his chest...very weird looking), pretty much strums constantly throughout every song, while the lead guitarist (Lincoln Parrish) plays riffs and solos on top. It's a very cool sound. Schultz is an awesome front man and knows how to get a crowd fired up. He literally never stopped moving on stage...running, jumping, and even throwing himself into the crowd while the band jammed out!

The cool thing is that the entire band was as fired up as him...especially since it was the bassists' (Dan Tichenor)birthday. While "Ain't No Rest for the Wicked" was their most crowd-pleasing song (for most it was the only song they knew by name...including myself)...it was their final song that sounded the best. Towards the end they all just started rocking out on stage...then shit got crazy. The rhythm guitarist threw his guitar at the bassist, just barely missing him. Then he jumped on his back and they started wrestling on the stage. The lead guitarist and drummer (Jared Champion) were going nuts and then Matt Schultz threw himself into the crowd...singing while surfing! The band continued to mess with heavily distorted sounds and then left the stage...leaving Schultz in the crowd. Then as a final farewell (he did this at Bonnaroo as well) Schultz had the crowd pick him up and he stood on top of the crowd as the fans went nuts! Awesome music, but an even more awesome stage performance...that about sums up Cage the Elephant.

ACT IV: "Nikki is so much hotter up close..."
So it was finally time for the headliners, Silversun Pickups. The first time I ever heard this song was on Rock Band 2. They have a song on the game called "Lazy Eye" which I think is still one of the funnest songs in the game. It is very catchy and the guitar part kicks ass. It was the vocals of the song though that made me interested in knowing more about the band. So I downloaded a whole bunch of their stuff and am now a huge fan of the bands two full albums, 2006's Carnavas and this year's Swoon. I soon became determined to see them live after I had watched them play over the internet at Coachella this past year. All summer I had heard about how they were "wow"-ing crowds at huge festivals like Lollapalooza and Coachella. So when the opportunity finally came around to see them, how could I pass on it?

Lead singer/guitarist, Brian Aubert (who looks just like Daniel Faraday from Lost...not kidding...I'll post a picture at the bottom),may be one of the most talented indie rockers on the scene right now. The L.A. based band quickly made a name for themselves and a lot of it has to do with his heavily distorted guitars and a vocal range that can quickly turn from a quiet whisper to a throaty scream (think Billy Corgan, but a male...burn). His voice can be very soft at times, and I actually thought for a while that Nikki Monninger, the bands talented (and gorgeous)bassist, was the singer for a long time because his voice definitely gets feminine sounding at times.

So the band takes the stage just after 10pm. Aubert comes out with one of the coolest looking guitars I have ever seen played in a live setting (pretty sure it was a Gretsch). The drummer, Chris Guanlao, had a pretty simple set-up with the exception of a crash simple that was about 6-feet in the air. The keyboardist, Joe Lester (dawning an Elvis Costello look), started things off with an array of sounds before the band opened their show with "Growing Old is Getting Old" off of their latest album.

The set list was pretty well rounded and included songs off of the bands two albums and their first EP, Pikul. Here's what we heard:

1. "Growing Old is Getting Old"
2. "Well Thought Out Twinkles"
3. "Sort Of"
4. "There's No Secrets This Year"
5. "The Royal We"
6. "Little Lover's So Polite"
7. "It's Nice to Know You Work Alone"
8. "Future Foe Scenarios"
9. "Kissing Families"
10. "Catch and Release"
11. "Panic Switch"
12. "Lazy Eye"

Encore

1. "Substitution"
2. "Creation Lake"
3. "Common Reactor"

In my opinion, the 8-12 block was simply incredible...each song built off each other and just made the show better as it went on. "Future Foe Scenarios" is becoming one of my favorite tunes from them. The crowd went nuts as soon as they heard "Panic Switch" and the fans were all sorts of fired up when Aubert screamed out the last few lines of "Lazy Eye".

All in all, my favorite thing about the band (besides Nikki) was how great they related to the crowd. Simply put, I have never seen a better crowd in a small venue in my life...and apparently neither had the Pickups. They got insane amounts of applause whenever the music stopped, people were chanting their names, and they were gracious for it. At one point they just stopped and Aubert asked for the house lights to come on and he was just visually blown away. They pointed out that this was their first time in Hartford and that they didn't know how much people knew them on the East Coast, and that they were nowhere near prepared for what this crowd showed them...which was a lot of respect and a lot of fun. They even screwed up in the middle of a song...still not sure what exactly happened, maybe something with the equipment...but they laughed about it with the crowd and it was very cool. All in all, they just seemed like a band that you could bullshit with after the show over a beer. Very down to Earth...not what you would expect out of an L.A. band.

After the band gave their final goodbyes (one band member left the stage at a time) we got back on the road (car all in one piece) and took a completely different way back home.

We all agreed the show was incredible. The venue was small, but very intimate. It made you feel like you were in a bar listening to a band for the very first time. The acoustics were decent, and although the venue didn't allow moshing, crowd surfing, etc...there was still a lot of energy in the crowd. The bill itself was great...An Horse was a great warmup act, Cage got the crowd fired up, and the Pickups sealed the deal like they were headlining Madison Square Garden.

Only video I could find on YouTube of the show...here's 1:46 of "Sort Of".


Next scheduled concert review: Nothing is on the slate currently. Waiting to see what the New Years Eve lineup looks like in the city. Stay tuned.


Brian Aubert (left) ; Daniel Faraday (right)

Vampire Weekend Releases New Single

The preppy indie pop-rock kings are coming back with a new album after the huge success of 2008's breakthrough debut album Vampire Weekend. Although the bands second album, "Contra" (hopefully named after the NES game...gotta love the spread gun), is not being released until January of 2010, the band has decided to give us a taste of the new album with their first single, "Horchata" (the MP3 is available for free download on vampireweekend.com).

Have a listen:



It sounds to me like the band is experimenting with a few new electronic and guitar sounds, but all in all, the sound remains similar to that found on the first album ("M79" in particular). Ezra Koenig continues to use his Ivy League education on his lyrics by rhyming and using words in ways that make me feel like I need a thesaurus to fully understand the meaning of the song. "Horchata" is fun and catchy, but I expect more from the rest of their second album.

And for those of you wondering what the hell Horchata is... it apparently is some gross milky beverage dranken by Latin American and Spanish cultures consisting of ground almonds, sesame seeds, rice, barley, or tigernuts...yep delicious tigernuts.