Tonight I went to Canada or, as some call it, 175th street. It was by far the most poorly managed show in the history of the universe. Sure, it was the first rock concert at the United Palace Theatre, but it would really help me out if this venue would employ people who had a few more brain cells. Ticketbastard could do the same because, as I found out waiting in the will call line for over a half hour, I wasn't the only person who had their tickets lost in the mail. So much for all of those convenience charges. A bad night for scalpers as well as the streets were filled with people trying to sell their tickets. So much supply and so little demand, I ended up being handed two tickets for free. Crap seats though and I had front row at will call.
By the time we got in, Albert Hammond, Jr. was half done with his set. Eff! Sarah and I tried our best to bounce about in our seats, but sitting really doesn't make sense at a concert. Talking to some of the security guards made us alert to the fact that they were all working their first night. *evil Mr. Burns gesture* Fast forward to Bloc Party coming on and everyone politely standing in front of their assigned seats until Gordon, aka Bloc bass, told everyone to stand closer. As soon as we did, the security tried to get everyone back to their seats. "But sir, you just told me it was your first night working concert security. Isn't it my duty as a mischievous young brat to fuck with you?" And I did. I just didn't move despite being poked a few times. Eventually they got word from backstage to let everyone up to the stage...which was still ten feet away from the band...but an improvement. "This isn't a Snow Patrol concert," Gordon announced.
The actual show part of the show was fantastic switching between mad dancing and slow swaying. The new stuff is good, but really pales compared to Silent Alarm. Fittingly, plaster started to fall on the band during their set. Well done, United Palace Theatre. You are truly pioneering new frontiers of utter shittiness. With some big acts coming up (The Stooges, Bjork, The Arcade Fire) and their hardcore fans, this venue better get their shit together fast. As for me, I'm staying downtown...forever.
I ended up taking some good pictures and I'll upload them tomorrow, but here are a few favorites...
UPDATE: My full set of pictures are now up on Flickr
Saw this on Idolator and couldn't resist posting. Whoever posted this on Craigslist gets a heart fart from me.
"Silly me! I "accidentally" bought 4 Arcade fire tickets for the 5/8 show, forgetting that I hate humanity and all that is good about music. It really pisses me off when indie bands make a special effort to play at intimate venues, but I sure do love taking advantage of their fans' devotion. So, I am selling 4 seats, which may or may not be will call (I hope you like surprises). The price is the national debt for my two orchestra seats (price is per ticket), or the GNP of Burundi for my third mezzanine seats-- great view of the ceiling from there!" I chose to sleep an extra 20 minutes this morning rather than engage any further in The Arcade Fire over-hype-brain-fuck. To quote a my 2am Myspace comment to Sarah, "i'm over arcade fire united palae 175th st ticketbastard convinience charge wake up at 10 am to fight for assigned seating did i mention arcade fire bullshit." I feel accomplished.
The Presets killed at Hiro last night. I saw them open for The Rapture at Webster Hall but it was nice to see them on a tiny stage. I can't help but really get into their set. Things I'm not into include the crowd at Hiro. *shudders* And I would have bad things to say about the bouncers, but I was randomly pulled from the back of the will call line and allowed to enter. Why thank you, random luck. After The Presets, all of those Parisians got onstage and got everyone dancing.
I believe this has been up for a few weeks, but if you missed it, you can listen to the new Kings of Leon on their Myspace. That's what I'm doing right now, because I've given up on trying to find it before it comes out next week. They're playing Roseland Ballroom on June 5th and there better be very good incentive to go like Bob Dylan is opening or the tickets are $5 (I like how I think those two things are equatable) because every time I go to that venue I swear I'll never go again. We shall see. On a completely unrelated side note...I just sneezed all over my computer. Attractive, I know.
Patrick Wolf is invading America...or NYC at least. For those of you who know me...or who have seen my last.fm...know that this is making me super happy. Please enjoy this oldie but goodie to ease the pains of anticipation...
This is a bit late, but better late than never. By the time I saw The Horrors play last November at Studio B, their hype was overwhelming their demos. Sure they put on a good 18 minute show, but I wasn't sure it was worth all the hoopla. I was much more impressed with their show at Bowery a few weeks ago. But it wasn't until I blagged my friends and my way into their day show at SXSW that I was truly won over.
I'm only sharing that crap picture because I thought it was funny that I cobrasnaked The Cobrasnake. That picture was taken right after I smashed my Polaroid to bits and right before we managed to end up front and center where I was too jazzed to be bothered with the camera. Though I missed seeing it, I was informed that Ultragrrrl was literally thrown off the stage by Faris. 50 cool points to Faris, already.
Once we were in the middle of the slow-motion (I shit you not) mosh pit, a little indie kid near by lit a ciggy. Cue mad-eyed 300 pound bouncer barrelling in, scaring all the scene kids out of their wits, violently grabbing little indie kid smoker by the collar to pull him out. As all of this was happening, if one were to look up, they would see Faris Rotter creeping slowly to the edge of the stage with a twisted look in his eye. The bouncer had only pulled little indie kid smoker about five feet before Faris leaped off of the stage and onto said bouncers head. Automatic 1000 cool points awarded to Mr. Rotter. Little indie kid smoker was let go by the bouncer who disappeared off to some corner with his bruised ego while Faris ran to the back of the tent to take down a police barricade. He brought it to the middle of the floor, slammed it down, and used it as a stage.
The show was over no more than 2 minutes later, but every kid in that room was wearing the biggest shit-eating grin of their lives. Having now seen The Horrors play three times, it was that tiny show in Austin that earned their hype for me.
Last night was the first time in a long time I got to go out without worrying about taking pictures. My camera needed a break after last week. I saw Young Knives play at Mercury Lounge and then danced in the sticky sweaty basement of Mehanata till the early hours of this morning. Good times. Now that I'm officially all partied out, this weekend will be spent catching up on homework, painting, and listening to my new favorite band. I've had a few of their demos for several months, but seeing these guys open the NME showcase at Stubb's last week and blew me away. I give you The Sunshine Underground...
Last night was spent trying to show some kid carrying around a bass guitar a good time. The kid happened to be Jamie T and it was his last night in the states before heading back across the pond. The night started well with his acoustic set at Mercury Lounge and a full blown singalong. Much to the dismay of the attendees, Jamie T was not the headliner and couldn't play as long as we would have liked. To fix our need for more Jamie T, we headed over to Mo Pitkin's open mic night where he treated the small crowd to a hilarious half stand-up version of "Bass Guitar". The night continued with frolicking about, much debauched behavior, and the constant flash of Jamie's camera as he tried to catch us in our most candid moments. And I thought I took a lot of pictures. Click the caption to see the full set of pictures.
More pictures. Part 2 of 3. Part three will melt your brain as I have over a hundred pictures of Iggy and the Stooges left to upload...and I was center against the barracade. Oh yes. For now enjoy some more of my favorites and visit my imeem for the rest.
I'm so freakin tired of uploading pictures...I think I might have a cow...or six. A little over half of my pictures from SXSW are already up, but I'm going to bed now. Before I do, I'll show you some of my faves and link you up to the albums I created on imeem where you can see more albums and many more photos.
There are many more albums I made than these and many more will go up tomorrow. Copyright, copyright, copyright...you know the deal. Go check them out. I'm going to go collapse. Night loves!
Eugh, I've been imeeming SXSW for the past three hours and have only gotten through Wednesday. Fuck all! Bear with me people! You can go look at several things now but just to keep your mouths watering, here's a list of some of the bands I saw and took pictures of:
Bishop Allen, Scanners, Young Knives, Mumm-Ra, Keith Murray (We Are Scientists), The Sunshine Underground, The Automatic, Jamie T, Lily Allen, Razorlight, The Young Lords, Matt and Kim, Scissors for Lefty, Lo-Fi-Fink, Dengue Fever, The Gossip, Voxtrot, Pop Levi, Oh No! Oh My!, Tilly and the Wall, Thurston Moore, Hot Club de Paris, The Pigeon Detectives, The Blood Arm, The Holloways, Shitdisco, The Horrors, Locksley, Kings of Leon, and some random band called The Stooges.
Along with the pictures, I have a thousand emails to write and respond to, homework, and of course more concerts and parties this week. There's also the matter of my actual life and my paintings which by the way you can see now on my brand spankin newly updated WEBSITE. Hooray! I also keep hearing about this thing called sleep...
Photos that is...to sort through before I can share anything about SXSW with you lovely people. I know I said I would try and update my imeem throughout the week but I'm a damn dirty liar who was having way too much fun away from the internet this week. I just got home a few hours ago and I am planning on sleeping for the next century. Sorry for the delay...blame it on the wellies!
Yesterday was completely mental, folks. I swear, running into Jason from Voxtrot while I had this fucking magazine in my bag was the least serendipitous thing to happen yesterday. The list goes on in a very small-world kind of way which I don't really have time to go into. I just woke up a few minutes early and thought I would share. It's funny that I can't recall the name of the party that everyone and a half was at last night because there was promotional shit hung up everywhere. Goes to show that an open bar will render promotional tools useless. I'll find out the name and post pictures later. One day. Eugh, for now I'm all hawked up on Red Bull.
(I just found out how to type an upside-down exclamation point today and I'll be damned if I don't use one!)
Tomorrow morning I'm flying out to Austin for SXSW. I'm jazzed and a half to say the very least. Please check for my pictures during the week on my imeem. If you are going to be in Austin or want to whore out a band to me, shoot me an email. Ciao Manhattan!
Having seen The Horrors play before, I knew it would be short. I think last night clocked in under 25 minutes...but a good show at that. Bowery Ballroom is definitely the perfect venue for these guys. Faris has stage diving skills that could only be accomplished by a person so waifish. At one point, he dragged himself and the mic chord all the way to the back, climbed on the bar, nicked a bottle of booze, stomped back to the stage, and flung the bottle 30 feet in the air. I hope no one got hurt cause it was pretty ace. While watching The Horrors perform, one can't help but think that they're the shit. Unfortunately, as soon as the set ends, one can't help but think "WTF?! That was so short!" At least I ended up taking some my favorite pictures ever. The whole set is here.
After the horrorshow, I went to Studio B to see Simian Mobile Disco. I didn't bring my camera, but Rafael lent me his so I could play "survival of the hippest" with all of the scenesters. Upon leaving, I was horrified to look at my watch and see that it was 5am. Then I remembered it was daylight savings and felt slightly better.
The new one is pretty ace...much like every Klaxons video...but the original is probably my favorite music video of all time. Oh, and sorry for not warning you about the Burberry suits. I had a few weeks warning before I actually saw them. Now, where did I leave my rubik's cube...
Go look and enjoy! Glad that's fixed. imeem is taking me to SXSW next week so I can post pictures of however many bands I get around to seeing. Thousands...millions...or a bunch. I'll post links and a few photos here as well. I'm going to try and stay on top of all this while in Austin and use my sober moments wisely. Expect great things.
Last night I finally got to see Grizzly Bear play at Bowery Ballroom and it was worth the wait. I can't even...there are no words...I'll think of some. After the show, Sarah and I saw Michael Tapper sitting alone at the bar in a daze. He told us that he was trying to process what he just saw and that we could quote him when he said, "Grizzly Bear is the best band in the world". He didn't think I'd actually quote him, but here I am doing it. Thanks Tapper! Anyways, since last night, I've felt that same kind of contemplating-the-genius-that-is-Grizzly-Bear feeling. This sounds a bit obvious...but those guys are real musicians. I mean they actually think about the sounds they are making in the most subtle ways. They play around with different instruments and volume levels for their emotional effect instead of looking for a hook. The highlight of the show had to be when they covered "He Hit Me" by The Crystals (so called that one ). Colorado was amazing as well. The whole set...gah! So wonderfully beautifully incandiferously transcendental. I need to go grab a thesaurus as to better describe Grizzly Bear's show. For now, know that it is one show I will be remembering for a while. Expect pictures whenever imeem decides to start working again.
Sorry for the lack of posting. Life is hard y'all! I've been trying to upload pictures to show off but imeem is not working. Grrr. Someday, expect pictures from last week's Armory show as well as ones I took of The Thermals who rocked the socks off of Bowery Ballroom last night. Tomorrow I'm finally going to see Beach House and Grizzly Bear. Finally! The Horrors are playing on Friday but me thinks that show is going to hella lame. We shall see. My time is seriously non existent as I am trying to do five billion things before SXSW. Did I mention I'm leaving for Austin a week from tomorrow? Yeah. Figuring out day shows alone is giving me a brain tumor, I'm sure of it. All of that, plus I'm not really in a public sharing mood at this time. Trust me, there's a lot of good stuff going on...but you won't hear about it here. What can I share? There are some great leaks floating about that I may have picked up this morning. The Arcade Fire are currently trying to make up for being total hype whores...we'll see if I forgive them.
UPDATE: I just got my paws on The Horrors new album, Strange House, and I would like to eat my words. Friday's show will not be lame. I'm jazzed now.
