Music, Music and more Music
Don’t know why the Great Lakes are still around. Please stop.
Part of the Elephant Six collective, Elf Power took over the basement at Union Hall. This time it wasn’t crowded with underage fans as they played through their 15 year discography and their new album “In a Cave.” It was also nice to see Laura Carter (Orange Twin CEO) there. A nice southern psychedelic showdown.
Links:
http://www.elfpower.com
“Back to the Web” (live)
Didn’t know much about The Hard Lessons other than the reports coming back from SXSW, but after tonight’s show I want to learn more. This trio has lots of energy and foot stomping sing along songs. I’m not that thrilled with their recordings, but in a live setting these guys are lots of fun.
The Diggs finally release a full length called “Ctrl-Alt-Del” and it’s filled lots of drifting songs and tales of modern life angst. I’ve seen these guys a lot and I feel at this record release show, they played one of their most energetic shows yet. I really enjoyed the new tracks live and luckily they still played some of my favorites. Although not all their new stuff is as tight as in the past, some tracks are highly addictive and pointing to new directions. See them again on the 14th.
Pictures from the show. (soon)
Revisiting one of their most exciting world tours, Iron Maiden stormed into the sold out Izod arena surrounded by their rabid fanbase. The elaborate stage was decorated with the Powerslave motif and became the main focus of the night. With the curtain closed and the Churchill speech being eerily pumped through the speakers I couldn’t contain the excitement of seeing one of my favorite and most influential bands of all time. There was so much energy in the room. Images of the band and fans were projected on 2 large screens including Air Maiden, the 747 that Bruce himself flies into all the cities for the tour. When the band came out playing “Aces High” the venue erupted and it was an early indication of how amazing this show was going to be.
The band was very energetic, especially Bruce Dickenson who continuously jumped and ran across the entire stage. With VIP tickets we were in the front pit to watch all the action up close and smell all the pyrotechnic gunpowder. They played probably the best set list any Maiden fan could hope for and each song included a set change to capture the mood of the song. Bruce would disappear and reappear out of these hidden doors with a different costume and singing each song perfectly. The music from the band was practically flawless as well. The beautiful artwork on the screens accompanied with fireworks and fireballs exploding on stage created a full sensory experience. The crowd was amazing which included parents and kids. One of the most amazing nights of my life.
They played for 2 hours with this killer set of songs: 01. Intro – Churchill’s Speech 02. Aces High 03. Two Minutes to Midnight 04. Revelations 05. The Trooper 06. Wasted Years 07. The Number of the Beast 08. Run to the Hills 09. Rime of the Ancient Mariner 10. Powerslave 11. Heaven Can Wait 12. Can I Play With Madness? 13. Fear of the Dark 14. Iron Maiden —encore— 15. Moonchild 16. The Clairvoyant 17. Hallowed Be Thy Name
Pictures and video from the show.
Four sold out shows at Town Hall?! The Magnetic Fields comes back home to promote their new album Distortion which sounds like one of their albums pumped through a broken amp. They played the 3 best (only good) songs off the album and I wished they were distorted. This show sucked on so many levels. There was no stage presence and Stephen was aloof and acted like a baby, but that’s no surprise. The sound was low, the band was dead and it translated into the music, focusing on the more depressing and slower songs off their vast catalogue. The scientific picture above was more interesting than the show.
OK, I’ll be honest. I really only wanted to go see Dirty on Purpose and have an excuse to check out the Brooklyn Masonic Temple. The building interior was unfortunately uneventful and was also a poor place to hear music. It may have added to DOP’s crappy performance but these guys play more bad shows than good. I still don’t understand why they can’t translate their shoe-gaze compositions live. blagh.
Not sure why Band of Horses is still so popular considering their new album was such a snooze-fest. Although their live set was more enjoyable than listening and turning off their music at home, they didn’t come close to reproducing their production sound live. The Funeral songs were good but the evening quickly all started to sound the same. I still don’t understand why they need 7 people on stage. I guess so they can cover a bunch of Chicago and JJ Cale songs.
Pictures from the show.
After seeing this band live, the fact that they come from Pennsylvania and called Illinois kinda makes sense. The music is a bit unpolished and all over the place, but they have a banjo and are entertaining on stage. They remind me of a jangly version of Menomena before they got all too serious.
Nada Surf has been one of those bands that have spent a long time in my life. Releasing numerous addicting records and seeing them live for almost a decade, they continue to impress me. However, I am pretty disappointed with their new release “Lucky.” The album is full of restlessness and loneliness but without the bright catchy instrumentation to bring you back around. Although the songs sounded better live, those were the slowest parts of their set, and nearly bored me to leave but luckily they bounced back with some of their better crafted pop songs. And then the band played along with a dancing crowd onstage, which seems mandatory these days at Bowery.
Pictures from the show.