Untitled Document

Wednesday, March 24, 2004

Concert Reviews/Notes

Nov 20, 2004 - Marquee Theatre, Tempe, Az

Wilco

Calexico opened. Wilco was awesome!!

****'

Nov 17, 2004 - Glendale Arena, Glendale, Az

Avril Lavigne

Butch Walker opened

****

Sep 29, 2004 - Cricket Pavillion, Glendale, Az

Crosby, Stills & Nash, Bonnie Raitt, Jack Johnson, Jackson Browne

Move On.org benefit concert for upcoming election

**'

Sep 20, 2004 - Mesa Amphitheatre, Mesa, Az

The Pixies

Distiller opened. The Show F***'n rocked!!

*****

Aug 24, 2004 - Marquee Theatre, Tempe, Az

Ben Kweller

Camper Van Beethoven opened

***

Aug 11, 2004 - Marquee Theatre, Tempe, Az

Built to Spill

***

July 23, 2004 - Celebrity Theatre, Phoenix, Az

Modest Mouse

I am soooo happy that Modest Mouse has finally hit it big with their fabulous single "Float On," they deserve it after many years of making wonderful albums. And their newest is amoung the best, which MM played a lot at this concert. "Satin in a Coffin," and "The Ocean Breathes Salty" being my favorites. Plus they played oldies "3rd Planet" and "Math Equation" amoung many others. Besides having a few technical difficulties, they played a great concert. One cool thing was the double drum sets they had set up, both guys drumming in unison all night, giving the drums that extra punch. Isaac Broc was awesome singing, as usual, going from a muted voice to just yelling during "Black Cadillacs." They are a great live band.

My problem is with the theatre they played in, it's cool to be in a small intimate arena, with the stage rotating around. And I had a great seat up front. But I would rather see them on a regular stage in a club type setting like I did last November when they rocked Nita's Hideaway. That was an awesome show. This show was great, but you just don't get into the rocking as much when your sitting down.

The Walkmen opened for them, both bands being left out in the cold when this year's Lallaplooza tour was cancelled. Which worked out good for me, because Lallaplooza wasn't coming to Phoenix. The Walkmen weren't that good, their instruments seemed to be turned up too loud, and the lead singer just shouted as loud as he could into the mic. There new CD is OK, and has a few good songs, but live they just sucked!

I hope Modest Mouse comes back again, but I'm afraid they won't be playing many more intimate shows, one of the downsides of making it big. Go Modest Mouse, hope you take over the world!

Arizona Republic Review

***

July 21, 2004 - Marquee Theatre, Tempe, Az

Sonic Youth

First of all, Sonic Youth are not old, they are 'experienced!' Which makes for a great concert. The five members of Sonic Youth know each other so well, and have played with each other so long, that they create this perfect sound that sounds soooo beautiful. It's beautiful noise! And SY know exactly how to make it.

I've never see SY before, and I heard they haven't played phoenix in like 17 years or something, hopefully they come back sooner than that. They played a lot of stuff from their very good new album "Sonic Nurse" with Kim Gordon heading up most of the songs, including "Mariah Carey and the Arthur Doyle Hand Cream" and "Pattern Recognition." They also played some oldies but goodies, I don't follow their music much so I don't know most of the song titles, but I know they played "Schizophrenia" and they finished their second encore with "Teen Age Riot" from their masterpiece "Daydream Nation." They had a lot of fun with the end of that one, with all four guitar players making any and all noise they could out of their instruments. Pushing them against the amps, swinging them around, and banging them on the floor. They even sent a front speaker into a smoking cloud, with the smell of burning plastic traveling throughout the building. But no matter what they did, the noise was still beautiful, that's now something that all bands can do, including the god awful opening band, that just made painful noise for 20 minutes. Even though Sonic Youth are moving closer to death than youth, they still have the sonic part down pat!

Arizona Republic Review

***'

June 23, 2004 - Cricket Pavillon, Glendale, Az

Blink 182 and No Doubt

Gwen Stefani is AWESOME! Running around the stage, shaking her hips (among other body parts) and showing off that great stomach while belting out all of No Doubt's hits. It was an amazing concert. I'd never seen No Doubt in concert before and this was the one to see. They are touring in support of their singles collection, which meant that they played all their singles. I knew all but one song they performed and I've never bought one of their CD's. All the songs you want to hear they played: "I'm Just a Girl," "Spiderwebs," "Hella Good," "Ex-Girlfriend" and my favorite "Underneath it all." The band was great backing up Gwen in the wide range of music they cover. And Gwen really knows how to work the crowd, they were standing the entire time, and during "Hella Good" she got almost the entire crowd to jump along with the song. Everyone was just so into the music the whole time. As I said, it was AWESOME!

Blink 182 on the other hand were pretty boring by comparison. They played a lot of songs from their new album, plus some old favorites like "Dammit," "What's My Age Again" and "Adam's Song." But it just didn't have the energy, even though it felt like they were playing their songs as fast as they possibly could. The crowd wasn't that into it, they all seemed to be waiting for No Doubt to come on.

Phantom Planet opened the show, and I missed half their set because the line to get in the concert was huge. Cricket Pavillion was packed, I've only been there a few times, but it was as full as I've seen it. What I did see of Phantom Planet was good, and I'd really like to seem them at their own show, they have great stuff. The crowd didn't seem to know the band, and the guys even mentioned it before they left the stage. But hopefully some people came away wanting to hear more from them, and I hope they do because they are a great up and coming band. Speaking of seeing a band again, if Gwen tours for her soon to be solo career, I am soo there!!

Arizona Republic Review

No Doubt **** Blink **

April 30, 2004 - Marquee Theatre, Tempe, Az

Ben Kweller & Death Cab For Cutie

Ben Kweller is a Rock Star, I just want to say that. He's got the look, the rock'n music, and he's cool. I think that's an important quality to being a rock star. You have to be f'n cool! It's so much more fun to go to a concert and watch a cool guy rock out. Case in point - Death Cab For Cutie. Don't get me wrong, I love their music, and I'm glad I saw them in concert. But they are NOT Cool! And it shows, especially while their performing. Ben Gibbard, the lead singer, first of all doesn't have a strong voice, but also doesn't know how to rock, or doesn't want to. He just rocked back and forth while performing, beating his drum pad, and acasionaly beating his guitar with the drum stick. It's like I'm watching ME up there! Definately not cool! It's just not the same as watching a guy like Kweller, who grew up around rock stars, and learned how to work a crowd. How to dress like a rock star (old denim pants, and a white tee). And how to ROCK like a rock star. Like having an old pro come and jam with him on one of his songs. That was cool!

Kweller's set was great, a good mix of new and old. I was hoping he'd play 'hospital bed,' my favorite from his new album, but he did play 'wasted and ready,' and 'sha sha,' both of which were awesome. Kweller can rock both with the band, playing electric guitar and keyboards. Or by himself with just the acoustic guitar, once unexpectedly when the bass player had a string break. Kweller is just a guy you want to watch play - he's FUN!

Death Cab... not so much. There music doesn't lend itself to funness to begin with, then the band's lack of cool just makes it kind of dull to watch live. I did enjoy 'new years day' and 'title and registration.' And it was neat when they brought out a second drum set (mid song!) for Ben to play along with the drummer. But the crowd just wasn't into it very much, and I think the band could tell, they didn't even come out for an encore, even though they had been doing an encore on this tour at other stops. I didn't mind, I'd had enough of Death Cab for one night. Kweller I'd difenitely see again, Death Cab .. well, their better coming out of the stereo than from the stage.

Kweller ***' Death Cab **'

April 3, 2004 - The Marquee Theatre - Tempe, Az

The Vines & Jet

Jet had a huge crowd for their performance, half the crowd left before the Vines came on. And they deserved it, Jet is a great up and coming band, they do both the loud songs, and the soft songs beautifuly! And the live show was just as good as their album. The rock hard, and frontman Nic Cester can scream 'yeah' better than anyone, especially on their awesome single "Are you gonna be my girl," with him letting the crowd sing the now well known chorus. Jet was full of energy, and the crowd was pretty geeked too, on rockers "Cold Hard Bitch," and "Rollover D.J." But Cester was also great singing the splendid ballad "Look What You've Done," while playing an acoustic guitar, with little backup from the band. I look forward to their future albums.

As for the Vines, which was the real reason i went to this concert, they were a little upstaged by Jet, but still perfomed well. I love thier new single "Ride," which was the best of the night. But the song I was waiting for was "Get Free" and Craig Nicholls was awesome just yelling out the chorus in almost an intelligible scream. Not only can you sometimes not understand what he's saying, but when you do hear the lyrics, they usually don't make any sense. And that's what I love about this band for some reason, just the chance to scream and yell out all your feelings and frustrations over killer music.

The vines performance was pretty short, but they hit all their bests songs inclucding "Highly Evolved," and "Mary Jane." I would totally see them again. But they better watch out, because Jet is gaining fast on their tail, and the fans proved it by leaving before the Vines even came on stage.

Arizona Republic Review

Jet ***' the Vines ***

March 28, 2004 - The Marquee Theatre - Tempe, Az

The Strokes

First of all, it was hot as hell in there last night! The place was packed, and there was little to no ventilation available, so it just got to be a suana in there, a suana of sweat! Besides that, it was a great show. The Sounds opened the show, and were solid. The lead singer was pretty good at entertaining the crowd, and her pants seemed to get lower and lower on her waist as the songs went on. But it took forever for the strokes to come on stage, more than an hour after the opening band finished. But, it was well worth the wait. The Strokes Rocked!

They started with 'This is It,' and were awesome to watch. The stage was backlit, so the only time you could see the band's faces was when Julian Casablancas, the lead singer, announced the song titles, and talked with the crowd, which he did a lot of between songs. It was just the perfect way to set the stage for this band, all you could see was their silhouettes. Casablancas told the crowd he had a cold, and he started to struggle with some of the singing toward the end of the set, but the crowd didn't seem to mind at all.

My favorite songs of the night were 'What ever Happened?,' 'Under Control' and 'New York City Cops,' which I wasn't sure they were going to play, but just rocked, I still can't seem to get the words out of my head. They played almost every song on their new album, and a bunch from their old, but the show only lasted an hour. Rock hard, fast, and well - that's what they did, and they left the crowd wanting more. And I love how they don't do encore's, it's a stupid tradition that needs to stop. But I really loved the concert and would definately see them again.

Partial set list (not in order, i'm not that good)

What ever Happened?
Automatic Stop
12:51
Between Love & Hate
Under Control
End has No End
The Way it Is
I Can't Win
You Talk Way too much
Is This It?
NYC Cops
Hard to Explain
Take it or Leave It
Someday

Arizona Republic Review

****

March 23, 2004 - The Mason Jar, Phoenix, Az

The Von Bondies

This was my first time to the Mason Jar, it's a cozy little place in north phoenix. In cozy, I mean tiny, the opening band had to be careful while doing windmills on the guitar, as to not bang their hand on the ceiling. But it was still a nice place, good that there's still dive's around anymore. Two of my favorites (Nita's Hideaway and The Bash on Ash, both in Tempe) have recently closed, leaving a huge vacancy in small venue's in the Phoneix area. Speaking of the opening band, they were called the invisibles, or invincables, or something like that. They wern't that good, except for the lead guitar player, who played some awesome guitar solo's, but needed to keep his mouth shut, cause he couldn't sing worth a lick.

But on to the real event, which was awesome, I was recently introduced to the Von Bondies new record 'The Pawn Shoppe Heart,' and I really like that classic rock n roll feel, it's probably my favorite kind of music these days, that retro, garage rock sound done well by the White Stripes, Strokes, Vines, and done allright by others. The Von Bondies do it right. I especially loved, loved!, the base lines played by the adorable bass player Carrie Smith. She was just great! A few short, but wonderful bass line solo's, and just that constant bum bum bummin, that makes a song so much better. She sang some background vocals, and even led on one cool song called 'He Ain't that social (Just a good drinker).' My favorite songs of the night was the drum pounding 'Been Swank', the great throaty baritone vocals of Jason Stollsteimer in 'Broken Man,' and of course their rockin single "C'Mon C'Mon."

Rolling Stone magazine recently had a review, favorable even, of the Von Bondies, and they commented on Jason's Bruce Springsteen vintage t-shirt, well he was waring the exact same one at this show. He wasn't very talkative though, he announced the name's of some of the songs from the new album, but didn't address the audience other than that. But he made up for it in the performance. They were a lot of fun to watch. The crowd was a little passive, for a show that was pretty high-energy. But overall it was a great night.

****

Wednesday, March 24, 2004

Concert Reviews/Notes

Nov 20, 2004 - Marquee Theatre, Tempe, Az

Nov 17, 2004 - Glendale Arena, Glendale, Az

Sep 29, 2004 - Cricket Pavillion, Glendale, Az

Sep 20, 2004 - Mesa Amphitheatre, Mesa, Az

Aug 24, 2004 - Marquee Theatre, Tempe, Az

Aug 11, 2004 - Marquee Theatre, Tempe, Az

July 23, 2004 - Celebrity Theatre, Phoenix, Az

July 21, 2004 - Marquee Theatre, Tempe, Az

June 23, 2004 - Cricket Pavillon, Glendale, Az

April 30, 2004 - Marquee Theatre, Tempe, Az

April 3, 2004 - The Marquee Theatre - Tempe, Az

March 28, 2004 - The Marquee Theatre - Tempe, Az

March 23, 2004 - The Mason Jar, Phoenix, Az

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