Let's use this to post your concert reviews ... anytime you go to a show just throw down your thoughts .. could help expose some new content

 

December 28th, 2005 - Marquee Theater in Tempe AZ

 

Reverend Horton Heat w/ The High Rollers and Four Bill Stall

 

Another psychobilly show. The High Rollers and Four Bill Stall both put on high energy opening sets that had the crowd primed for the Reverend.

 

When the Rev, Jimbo and Scott took stage they opened with their classic two song set of Big Sky and Baddest of the Bad. They kept the energy up mixing songs from all albums. The reverend showed his incredible guitar skills and jimbo was going all out on the standup bass.

 

After throwing in songs from the christmas album into the middle of the set the reverend started really speaking with the crowd. After claiming he was upset that people thought he did the same set list every show, he started taking requests and even ended up playing an elvis cover.

 

This added a great element. He still managed to hit all the normal bases while mixing in some songs that no one had heard in a while.

 

The venue was great without some of the sound issues i've had at his past shows.

 

If anyone is into rockabilly and you have a chance to see the reverend, drop the $15. Well worth the cash.

Next one I go to will be Global Gathering 2006, so I'll put that one up when I go. I have to find the date for the Hot Hot Heat concert I went to so I can add that one here.

Going to see the Stones in March! :whistle

Good deal. I have one more coming up next week, but let me review one I just went to

 

Cake w/Tegan & Sara and Gogol Bordello

Friday January 27th - Celebrity Theater - Phoenix

 

Celebrity Theater is a great little venue that has a circular setup and a stage that rotates. For this show they froze the stage and did a 3/4 setup blocking off the seats behind the stage. No seat in the place is more than like 60 feet from the tiny center stage.

 

Overall this was a suprising show. I went not really knowing too much about any of the acts. I bought a Cake CD to prep for it, but wasn't too aware of their entire collection. My wife is a Tegan & Sara fan and I didn't know of the other 2 (who weren't announced on the bill until you actually got to the show)

 

Eugene Mirman opened the night doing a brief stand-up comedy set. Although he was pretty funny it became annoying having him do an act inbetween all sets. By the end of the night you wanted him off stage and the techs on setting up for the next act.

 

Gogol Bordello wasn't what you'd expect to see considering the other acts. This band came out with a style and energy that would steal the crowd by the end of their set. For the first couple of songs the audience just sat there slack jawed by what appeared to be russian gypsy punk. Then they had a couple girls come on stage and start thowing stuff into the crowd as the singer moved his way into the audience. Slowy but surely they had the whole crowd standing and engaged although nobody could understand a single thing that was being said. The bad featured an accordian, what sounded like a steel fiddle to the girls playing washboards, bass drums and cymbals. Their presense on stage was incredible as it seemed like 10 people were moving to not trip over each other on the stage. I would love to see them do a full set.

 

Tegan and Sara came out and were suprisingly dull. Although I'm not a big propenent of female rock, i really respect what they do and enjoy the sound they create - even if I can't really get into breakup songs. However, they were very meek on stage. From giving a hello to their mom in the audience to looking very quiet and tentative talking to the audience their show passed without much energy and the crowd seemed in a lull. Even my wife was disapointed. They sounded good, but there wasn't much show to them.

 

Finally Cake came on and put on one of the more engaging shows I've seen. I think they pulled off the rare feat of sounding better in person than on the disc. All instrumentation was crisp. They did some cool call and response stuff with the audience. They touched about all their bases on songs that people knew and wanted without having it seemed forced. I was really impressed by them. I would definitely pay to see them again and will probably pick up more of their CDs (including the one that they are working to release as their first post-columbia recording)

 

I would definitely see Gogol Bordello and Cake again. Tegan & Sara unfortunately seemed better suited for a coffee shop.

 

Next up is The Fray at a bar in "downtown" Phx.

I'm gonna see the Wu-Tang Clan in Orlando in two weeks.

they'll be here at the celebrity on the 28th ... always been a fan, but not sure I want to drop $40 on them

 

let us know how it is

So, the show recap. My friend Ralph and I got to the UCF Arena at 4:30ish to find the arena already had a line waiting outside of it. Though the doors opened at 6:00 we didn't get in until around 6:20. No worries though because the security seemed to not care about people bringing cameras in to the show. When we got there, Ralph (he's the bigger Coheed fan while I'm the bigger Avenged fan) noticed that the drumset had CoCa's keywork on it. Shortly after we were informed that Head Automatica wasn't going to be playing that night - it was only going to be Coheed and Avenged.

 

A little bit after 7:30, the lights go dark and everyone goes nuts as a black tarp with the Coheed and Cambria logo descends over the stage. After a few moments of complete darkness with a nice white logo in front of us, the opening riff to In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth hits the speakers and the crowd goes absolutely nuts including a huge thrust forward by the floor area. The crowd knew absolutely every word, which I was surprised to hear - a lot more people there that liked both Coheed and Avenged than I expected. After IKSSE was complete, I heard the opening riff to Ten Speed and was pumped as hell. The crowd was really digging the show, and they played a couple songs I didn't expect (Crossing the Frame and Wake Up). When Claudio grabbed the acoustic guitar to play Wake Up it lulled the crowd into a little bit of energy conserving, much needed after the first five songs. The mellowness was shortlived, however, as Time Consumer (which opens with a guitar solo) was next on the list. From then we got a big helping of Good Apollo, with one classic thrown in (Favor House Atlantic). Unfortunately a lack of food kept me out of the pit for the last four songs of Coheed's set and for Avenged's set, but I got a nice rail spot with a center angle to watch the rest of the show. The performance of Welcome Home was nothing short of awesome. For their final song, they went into The Final Cut as expected. Only what wasn't expected was the craziness that it would become. After the vocals were complete, Travis did his solo. After it was complete the two guitars murmured a bit into a Pink Floyd-esque musical halt - the song kept going but the strings were being plucked at a slow rate. After about a minute or so of this, Travis did a second solo for a couple of minutes and then began to trade notes with Claudio for another few minutes. After this was done, Claudio went into his solo and as if he was channeling guitarists of the past, played his Gilmour-like solo with his teeth like none other than Mr. Hendrix used to do. After turning a normally seven minute song into a twenty minute piece, the band bid the crowd farewell and disappeared.

 

Coheed and Cambria's setlist:

In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth

Ten Speed (of God's Blood and Burial)

Blood Red Summer

Crossing the Frame

The Crowing

Wake Up

Time Consumer

The Suffering

Favor House Atlantic

Welcome Home

The Final Cut (extended)

 

After their show, a black tarp descended over the stage again without the Coheed logo - behind it, the Avenged set was being put up. For about a little less than hour we waited for the stage to be set up.

 

Then, the arena went pitch black. After about half a minute of darkness, the silence was pierced by the speakers playing the theme from Beetlejuice (the movie) while spinning deathbats were projected onto the black tarp. All throughout the song, Avenged was one by one sneaking onto the stage while absolutely everyone noticed them and cheered. After the song was done, the tarp came down and they went straight into Beast and the Harlot. Not letting up for a second, they followed that with Unholy Confessions (complete with Synyster playing his guitar one handed while having his arm around M. Shadows), Burn It Down, and Chapter Four. All of a sudden they all left the stage.....and after the arena is quiet for a few moments, the speakers begin to play a tape of a symphony playing the Battle Hymn of the Old Republic. They run back on stage when it's done to play Blinded in Chains. To make sure people didn't die down in the pits they slowed it down with Seize the Day before playing Trashed and Scattered and having the entire floor area turn into one absolutely ridiculous mosh pit. After that song, all of the band members left the stage except for Synyster Gates and The Rev, who played together for about two minutes before Synyster went on his own for a five minute long solo. After he was done M. Shadows, Zacky V, and Johnny Christ came back on stage to perform Eternal Rest. When they were done, Shadows rose to the top of the stage as the huge motored deathbat that rose from the back. From tape, what sounded like a little girl sang My Favorite Things - it sounded like something straight out of a horror movie. After this went on for a minute or so, Shadows rose the microphone to his mouth to utter the line "He who makes a beast out of himselft gets rid of the pain of being a man." Bat Country ensued to wrap up the set, and after this Avenged bid the crowd adieu.

 

Avenged Sevenfold's setlist:

"Beetlejuice" Theme song (from tape)

Beast and the Harlot

Unholy Confessions

Burn It Down

Chapter Four

-----

Battle Hymn of the Old Republic (from tape)

Blinded in Chains

Seize the Day

Trashed and Scattered

-----

Synyster Solo

Eternal Rest

My Favorite Things (from tape)

Bat Country

 

Some pictures:

 

 

Claudio during Time Consumer

 

 

Wake Up

 

 

Entire stage during Favor House Atlantic

 

 

Tarp coming down immedtiately before Beast and the Harlot begins

 

 

Zacky V and Synyster playing back to back during Burn It Down

 

 

Chapter Four

 

 

Synyster in the midst of his solo

good review on Cake. always liked them.

I was at the Wanee Music Festival in Live Oak, FL this weekend. Two full days of excellent music and good times. Here is a list of bands that I saw:

 

ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND (2 shows) - Friday night was with current lineup including Derek Trucks, but Saturday night former member Jack Pearson replaced Trucks, who was headed off to Europe to rehearse with Clapton, who he will be touring with starting in May. Both nights were excellent of course, the personal highlight for me being an excellent rendition of Dreams with Hal Thomas on sax followed by a phenomenal In Memory of Elizabeth Reed featuring Vaylor Trucks on guitar. The JaBuMa (20 minute drum session with the band's three drummers) in the middle of Liz Reed was my favorite that I've heard (I've heard three, including one in the middle of Leave My Blues at Home on Friday night and another during Liz Reed when I saw the band in October).

 

GOV'T MULE (2 shows) - I didn't catch all of either show, but I did see bits and pieces of both. Warren Haynes, as he is with the Allman Brothers, is a fantastic guitarist with so much soul and passion pouring into every note of every solo. The man is a pleasure to listen to, he really taps into the heart.

 

DEREK TRUCKS BAND - The Derek Trucks Band played a special show Friday night at midnight, right after the Allman Brothers Band's set. I can't say enough about Derek Trucks. If you haven't heard of him, check him out, he is only 26 and is on top of the world with his slide guitar. I can't even fathom how he makes some of the sounds he does. His playing is simply unbelievable.

 

NORTH MISSISSIPPI ALLSTARS (2 shows) - I didn't catch all of their Friday show, but I saw the end and they were playing with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. Really cool stuff. Saturday I watched them before the Allman Brothers. Luther Dickinson is another guitarist who will be a household name someday. The band plays upbeat, southern blues rock with mindblowing guitar jams sandwiched between catchy verses. The drummer also plays the electric washboard during the trippy song Psychedelic Sex Machine. If this music doesn't want to make you get up and boogie, I don't know what will.

 

Other bands:

Honeytribe featuring Devon Allman (Gregg Allman's son, great guitarist)

Railroad Earth (really cool bluegrass jam band)

Medeski Martin & Wood (amazing jazzy, keyboard-filled music)

The Wailers (Bob Marley's band?)

Jack Pearson Band (Jack is phenomenal!)

The Lee Boys (awesome band with a steel pedal guitar)

New Monsoon (sad I missed them, they are supposed to be badass)

Bonobos Convergence (missed them too, but Derek Trucks's cousin Vaylor is the frontman)

O.A.R. (completely out of place band that nobody really enjoyed)

 

Then each night after the bands were playing, there were people jamming all over the campsites. I had an incredible time and am definitely going back next year.

I saw Editors/stellastarr* at Studio A last Saturday night.

 

Studio A is a new place that just opened up in the Design District. I hate the Design District, but it's a pretty cool venue once you get inside...even if, in typical Miami style, it's done up to look like Mansion or any other nightclub. That's right. Seven dollars for a beer. I'd prefer a hole in the wall type place with $2 beers, but for that, I'd have to move out of town.

 

I don't know if anyone here is familiar with either band. I mainly went to see Editors. They're a lot like Interpol, and all the bands that came before Interpol that sound like Interpol...but I think they're better than Interpol. The songs are just better written and more distinct. You could more less take any Interpol song and play it on a loop and it wouldn't make any difference. Not so with the Editors. As good as their album is (it's called The Back Room), their songs sound even better live. If anyone wants to check out some Editors, the song Munich is their "hit song", but there are a few songs that are just as good.

 

I wasn't as familiar with stellastarr*, but I still stuck around to watch them. I like them a lot more now having seen the show, which I guess is a good thing. I can't say I was into every song, but that's probably just due to a lack of familiarity. For the most part, though, I was definitely into it. And, a definite plus...they have a really hot bassist, so if the song isn't working for you, you can just look at her. Their big hit is "My Coco", if anyone's interested.

 

Coming up in about 10 days: Mabdul goes to Coachella for the third year in a row. It's my favorite weekend of the year by far, and this year's lineup is easily their deepest yet. Mabdul is pumped.