Lissie live: a star is born

Got to see Lissie live last night. I had found one of her live videos on Youtube randomly, and was pumped to see her in concert. We started the evening at a Thai restaurant near the venue, and lo and behold, Lissie comes right in and sits down at the table next to us. We wished her a good show, and I think she was a bit surprised to be recognized out and about.

Anyways, the show was awesome. Lissie is amazing - just sounded great - much better than on CD, completely left everything on stage, talked unabashedly about just about anything, jammed out with the really strong musicians in her band, belted every song, took shots that the crowd handed her - just wow. I hope she puts out a live CD, and comes back to Boston soon. Here's a clip I took with my iPhone:

The Arcade Fire are so good

I went to see the Arcade Fire last night after several years of trying to see them but tickets being completely sold out. They were amazing. So musically on top of things, and at the same time, just going crazy on stage. I was disappointed that the crazy guy and the red-haired guy didn't start head-butting each other with motorcycle helmets on this time, but even still, what a great concert. One of the biggest venues in Boston was completely sold out, and a lot of people left the seats to the sidelines to dance. Here's a vid of the encore below, not mine, but this guy had better seats:

Dying to see the Arcade Fire live again

It's been too long, and they are too awesome:

Muse can give a concert!

Man, can Muse give a concert. The last time I saw them was in 2005 in some cruddy basement in Milwaukee with terrible acoustics. They were still good, but the venue wasn't working for them and even for a small venue, their gate sales couldn't have been that good. Fast-forward to 2010.... What a difference - sold out show in the biggest indoor arena in Boston... I wouldn't be surprised if Madison Square Garden had sold out the night before.

The show was in short, amazing. Their songs are wicked hard to play (I know because I've learned some), and those guys must have been practicing for hours on end for weeks, because they were not only hitting every note, but Matt Bellamy decided to play solos behind his head Jimi Hendrix style when not jumping around. The laser and light show was great as well, and their use of floating platforms that also projected video was very unique. They even ended up nearly running out of tour shirts before the opening act took stage! What a difference a few years can make.

The Silversun Pickups who I'm a huge fan of were also quite good, but I don't think they've gotten the hang of playing big arena shows. They also seem like the kind of band that would be great to catch in a small club, if they'll ever be able to tour around and play anything that small again. The stadium was nearly full at 7:30 on the dot to see these guys who were the opening act. A.) Never heard of such an established band being an opener, and B.) I guess they're starting to get known, and all along, I thought that I was the only guy that knew them but I guess not as the whole crowd was singing along to most of the songs. In any case, great ticket combination for them because both of the people I went with had never heard of them (I dragged us there to see them open), and they were both won over as fans after that set.

If you're reading this and the tour is coming to your town. Get a ticket stat regardless of the price. If I wasn't a broke grad student, I'd buy a ticket, airfare, and hotel out to another show right now instead of writing this blog post.


Here's a vid someone got from nearly the first row:

Once again wishing I was in the Strokes

This song seems like such a blast to play live.

Girl Talk

I saw Girl Talk on Monday and it had to be one of the best shows I'd been to. First off, this guy had more energy than anyone I've ever seen. He spent the whole show dancing around while mixing, climbing the on the table, crowd-surfing, basically energizing the crowd. The audience was invited up to the stage to be right up with him as dudes with converted leaf-blowers shot toilet paper all over the arena,

The show had sold out the day tickets went on sale I believe, and the place was packed. The only downside was the length - we could have all rocked out for hours more, but the show was about 1:40 in total. Lame. Will go again the second that he announces he's coming back.

Here's a vid from the show someone posted:

The Rolling Sloans @ Tommy Doyle's

On Thurs Oct 1, The Rolling Sloans played the first show of the 2009-2010 academic year at Tommy Doyle's in Harvard Square. Apparently, Tommy Doyle's used to be the original House of Blues, so we were playing in good company. The show was held as a fundraiser for Sloan Entrepreneurs for International Development (SEID), to help Sloanies get out to the developing world to help out entrepreneurs there. The show was great, and both turnout and funds raised exceeded expectations.
The band on stage. I'm rocking the bass.

The crowd seems to be getting into it.

I hand off the bass and get on the vox for a bit.

I also managed to learn to play bass and sing at the same time.

The band post-show.

No Pain No Gain

Last night was the first Rolling Sloans concert of the school year. We've been practicing a lot for it, and my fingers haven't yet gotten used to the amount of abuse a bass dishes out when you finger pick.

I threw back some advil for the show (which I'll post about when I get some pics), but a few songs in, felt something flapping around... only to discover that I'd ripped the nascent callus right off my middle finger. Ouch!

I think it's a rite of passage for a bassist though, and my middle finger's skin will grow back nice and strong for the next show. Flea used to pour super glue into the holes of his fingers when the Chili Peppers first started out.

I'm going to see the Dropkick Murphys on St. Patty's!

Huzzah, huzzah.

Non-stop Activity

The past few days have been a blur. Too much to do, and every minute chock full of activity. Besides continuing with Finance, Accounting, Econ, and Finance review, there have been numerous social events and happy hours. Additionally on Wednesday, I made it to see the Faint. They were great, but only played for about 75 minutes! At 11 on the dot, the venue turned on the lights, and that was the end of that - amazing.

The highlight though has been a party that we hosted on Thursday - ultimately 130 to 150 people made it over, and our place was somehow able to hold everyone. I was a grilling machine, trying to feed all those mouths, and though hectic, it all worked out. All of this has tired me out big time, as was evidenced by a three hour nap yesterday when I got back from class - I just couldn't take it anymore!