Catching Up With... Jonathan Coulton
Wilco - "Wilco (the song)"
Cory Chisel - "Born Again"
If You're Happy and You Know It: The 13 Best Songs with Handclaps
Cory Chisel and The Wandering Sons- "Born Again"
[Above: Of Montreal gets its weird on at the Tabernacle.]
My granny-hermit tendencies really showed themselves this year, and I found myself going to fewer live shows than I did in the salad days of aught-seven. (Oh, to be 23 again!) Still, I seem to have managed quality over quantity: There weren't all that many to parse through, but my favorite shows of the year sure were great.
My granny-hermit tendencies really showed themselves this year, and I found myself going to fewer live shows than I did in the salad days of aught-seven. (Oh, to be 23 again!) Still, I seem to have managed quality over quantity: There weren't all that many to parse through, but my favorite shows of the year sure were great.
6. Radiohead - Atlanta, Ga. - Lakewood Ampitheater - 5/8
Not sure if the band's legions of fanboys and girls would rank this among the great Radiohead concerts, but it was my first time seeing them live and was every bit the sensory and emotional overload I'd been pining for since high school. It was like being trapped in a giant Light Brite, swaddled in the most unsettlingly beautiful music in the universe. Afterwards, some friends and I watched Michael Stipe being denied entrance backstage while a crowd of baffled fans shouted his credentials at the security guard on his behalf. Best. Night. Ever!
5. The Everybodyfields - Greensboro, N.C. - Triad Stage - 7/24
Though I'd just seen them two weeks before at the Earl in Atlanta, when my boyfriend and I found ourselves in Greensboro the same week the Everybodyfields were playing there-- a block away from our hotel, no less-- we just couldn't stay away. Playing to a packed and blissfully attentive audience (the Earl crowd had been, uh, a bit chatty), the band was in fine form and played a ton of new songs, including “Worth Keeping” (see it Live at Paste right here) and “Another Man,” the latter featuring a kazoo solo from Jill at which I literally spilled my beer in delight.
4. Of Montreal - Atlanta, Ga. - The Tabernacle - 11/8
By sheer chance my boyfriend and I wound up with what may have been the best seats in the house-- first balcony, stage right, just above the front row and the edge of the stage. In addition to the madness transpiring before the crowd-- dancing Buddhas, demons in sparkly silver John McCain masks, a poker game-turned-shootout at an Old West saloon, Kevin Barnes as a slutty pope, etc.-- we could see over and behind the giant dual drum risers and movable stage pieces to the dancers and band members changing costumes between numbers. The music was a blur of psycho-disco madness, the night concluding with a Franz Ferdinand cover before the crowd spilled back out into the chilly November night, wondering if things could have gotten any weirder. Doubt it.
3. Roky Erickson - Austin, Texas - Austin City Limits festival - 9/27
I'm still bemused by how meager the turnout was for this performance. Roky Erickson is a hometown Austin guy, but he still doesn't play live all that much. Not complaining, though: The tiny crowd gave me the opportunity to squirm right up to the barricade, standing just a few dozen feet away as one of music's most baffling legends played through a set of my favorites, “Don't Shake Me Lucifer,” “Cold Night for Alligators” and “Mine Mine Mind” all sounding grittier and bluesier than Erickson's early work with pioneering psychedelic outfit the 13th Floor Elevators. After seeing You're Gonna Miss Me, the documentary about his embattled life and music, for the first time a few months before, it was an experience I never expected to have-- and one I'm all the more grateful that I actually did.
2. Ben Folds Five - Chapel Hill, N.C. - UNC Memorial Hall - 9/18
One more word, to make it an even 2,700: Awesome.
1. Swell Season - Austin, Texas - Austin City Limits taping - 9/28
I've been watching Austin City Limits since I was little enough to think that was the actual Texas state house looming on the horizon, so just to be on the set in the KLRU studios was a huge, geeky thrill. (It was smaller than I ever expected, and that skyline so, so clearly fake.) Coupled with free beer and a stellar show from the Swell Season, the night was unbeatable. The episode doesn't air until Feb. 14, and I don't want to give too much away, so suffice it to say that the performance involved old and new material, a children's choir and a certain legendary Austin musician whose troubled life and career was the subject of a recent, popular documentary (but who's not Roky Erickson). Perhaps the greatest moment of the night probably won't make it on to TV, though: With the rest of the band off-stage, Glen Hansard tore into a rogue rendition of Van Morrison's “Astral Weeks,” beating it out of his ragged, skeleton-framed guitar like it was his-- or maybe the axe's-- last act. He said he knew they'd never get the clearance to air it, but my fingers are still crossed.
Not sure if the band's legions of fanboys and girls would rank this among the great Radiohead concerts, but it was my first time seeing them live and was every bit the sensory and emotional overload I'd been pining for since high school. It was like being trapped in a giant Light Brite, swaddled in the most unsettlingly beautiful music in the universe. Afterwards, some friends and I watched Michael Stipe being denied entrance backstage while a crowd of baffled fans shouted his credentials at the security guard on his behalf. Best. Night. Ever!
5. The Everybodyfields - Greensboro, N.C. - Triad Stage - 7/24
Though I'd just seen them two weeks before at the Earl in Atlanta, when my boyfriend and I found ourselves in Greensboro the same week the Everybodyfields were playing there-- a block away from our hotel, no less-- we just couldn't stay away. Playing to a packed and blissfully attentive audience (the Earl crowd had been, uh, a bit chatty), the band was in fine form and played a ton of new songs, including “Worth Keeping” (see it Live at Paste right here) and “Another Man,” the latter featuring a kazoo solo from Jill at which I literally spilled my beer in delight.
4. Of Montreal - Atlanta, Ga. - The Tabernacle - 11/8
By sheer chance my boyfriend and I wound up with what may have been the best seats in the house-- first balcony, stage right, just above the front row and the edge of the stage. In addition to the madness transpiring before the crowd-- dancing Buddhas, demons in sparkly silver John McCain masks, a poker game-turned-shootout at an Old West saloon, Kevin Barnes as a slutty pope, etc.-- we could see over and behind the giant dual drum risers and movable stage pieces to the dancers and band members changing costumes between numbers. The music was a blur of psycho-disco madness, the night concluding with a Franz Ferdinand cover before the crowd spilled back out into the chilly November night, wondering if things could have gotten any weirder. Doubt it.
3. Roky Erickson - Austin, Texas - Austin City Limits festival - 9/27
I'm still bemused by how meager the turnout was for this performance. Roky Erickson is a hometown Austin guy, but he still doesn't play live all that much. Not complaining, though: The tiny crowd gave me the opportunity to squirm right up to the barricade, standing just a few dozen feet away as one of music's most baffling legends played through a set of my favorites, “Don't Shake Me Lucifer,” “Cold Night for Alligators” and “Mine Mine Mind” all sounding grittier and bluesier than Erickson's early work with pioneering psychedelic outfit the 13th Floor Elevators. After seeing You're Gonna Miss Me, the documentary about his embattled life and music, for the first time a few months before, it was an experience I never expected to have-- and one I'm all the more grateful that I actually did.
2. Ben Folds Five - Chapel Hill, N.C. - UNC Memorial Hall - 9/18
One more word, to make it an even 2,700: Awesome.
1. Swell Season - Austin, Texas - Austin City Limits taping - 9/28
I've been watching Austin City Limits since I was little enough to think that was the actual Texas state house looming on the horizon, so just to be on the set in the KLRU studios was a huge, geeky thrill. (It was smaller than I ever expected, and that skyline so, so clearly fake.) Coupled with free beer and a stellar show from the Swell Season, the night was unbeatable. The episode doesn't air until Feb. 14, and I don't want to give too much away, so suffice it to say that the performance involved old and new material, a children's choir and a certain legendary Austin musician whose troubled life and career was the subject of a recent, popular documentary (but who's not Roky Erickson). Perhaps the greatest moment of the night probably won't make it on to TV, though: With the rest of the band off-stage, Glen Hansard tore into a rogue rendition of Van Morrison's “Astral Weeks,” beating it out of his ragged, skeleton-framed guitar like it was his-- or maybe the axe's-- last act. He said he knew they'd never get the clearance to air it, but my fingers are still crossed.
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OK, so only 6... did you have to parse it out over 3 pages? I mean, come on... :)
Is that some sort of scheme to get more advertising dollars?
~Dan
http://jazzsick.wordpress.com/
Of Montreal at the Tabernacle was awesome. Most fun I have ever had a concert.