Concert Time!

Last week, I made it to yet another concert. Wednesday night Eli "Paperboy" Reed and the True Loves made down here. I was pretty excited since he is either in the Northeast or touring in Europe. He swung through Dallas on the way to SXSW in Austin.

The concert was at a tiny venue called the Loft (it is in the same complex were I saw the Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings concert last year), and there were I would guess between 100-200 people there. It was kind of a weird concert, let me put it into these terms

It would have been like if Dream Theater and The Dead Kennedys were opening up for James Brown. That is how different the three styles were between the bands.

First up was Lite, a prog rock band from Japan. Which I called in my head when I first saw them. Japan seems to embrace a lot of different music genres. They were on their 51st gig in a row, and they still brought the energy. They were really good , and all of their songs were instrumentals. The drummer was just insane, and a lot of times he was doing some head banging even when he was doing nothing else. They had a keyboard that had some pieces programmed into it for some songs. Other times the rhythm guitarist would play the keyboard. Good hard rocking music.

Next up we have Mike Watt & the Missing Men. Mike Watt is a punk rock legend. I wasn't sure who he was really, but then I remembered him from the Minutemen. Really I am awful recalling member's names in bands. It was funny when Mike Watt first walked in all I saw was a man in his 50s with a cane and knee brace and two minutes later he is up on stage getting rid for his set.

It was interesting that the drummer from Lite and the Missing Men shared a drum kit. The latter drummer just removed some of the pieces for a smaller kit, and then he went to town. It was a classic punk line-up of guitar, bass, and drums. It was also the part were I don't think I;ve heard the f-word said more during a shorter period of time. There was a short I believe in Mike's microphone and he kept getting shocked by it. Every time it happened he dropped an f-bomb, in addition to the ones that came naturally in the songs. Afterward I went to shake Mike Watt's hand and tell him how much I enjoyed it, and we shared a black guy hug. Pretty cool actually.

Finally, we got to the main attraction with Eli "Paperboy" Reed and the True Loves. They are really good, and can rock it. Eli has a lot of charisma on stage, and knows how to work the crowd. I did feel bad for him in that he broke a string on both of the guitars he brought, and they are such a small operation he didn't have any roadies to fix either of them. He did try to fix one offstage at one point but couldn't do it. He came back and apologized. They were still really good. I loved the drummer of the True Loves as well, he always had this big ol' smile on his face. Seemed to be having a really good time.

It was a high energy concert all around, and I enjoyed all three acts. I wouldn't mind seeing any of them again.

Concert 2 and 3?

Just a few short days after the Sharon Jones concert I went to another concert. This time it was with a group of about 10 people, a much bigger venue (the Superpages center by Fair Park), and a much more well known act: Rush. My biggest complaint it just that we were really far away, but then again closer tickets would have cost an arm and a leg.

The concert was basically broken up into three parts, and had video interludes through out. The first part was just an opening set with song from the past, some newer stuff, and a song or two from an upcoming album. The second part was the main reason I was there. They did the entire Moving Pictures album, and that was awesome. Song which include Tom Sawyer, Limelight, and YYZ. I loved it, it was great. The third part started off with Neal Peart's drum solo. That was worth the price of admission alone. It too was broken into three parts: a rock solo, then he played on an electronic drum set that was programmed with different sound effects and such, and the final part was a jazz solo. They also played the song 2112 in it entirety, all 20+ minutes.

Then I started running out of steam on the guys. They played quite a bit more after that, and it was over 3 hours or so. That is more than I can really take of any one band. I had had a enough really. Last thing on the concert: musically the guys sounded great and I really liked it, the problem was that Geddy Lee was having a hard time hitting those high notes on some of the older songs,a nd he tried to over compensate by screaming. That made his voice warble quite a bit.

3rd Concert? Well not quite. A few days after the Rush concert the original lineup of Guided By Voices was playing in downtown Dallas. After two trips to downtown in just a few days, I couldn't get my dander up to make a third one. Especially having to work the next day. I kind of regret not going, as after the concert there was an after party with the band. Plus, I missed Tim DeLaughter (lead singer of the Polyphonic Spree) getting kicked out. Oh well.

First Concert (of the year)

#1: I believe it was three weeks ago that on a spur of the moment decision I went to the Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings concert. I didn't even know they were playing until the night before, and made my decision to go about 2 hours before showtime. I called one friend who I thought would be interested, but he was unable to go due to a prior commitment. No worries, I'm not afraid to fly solo. The show was at the Palladium Showroom. The Palladium has two different places for shows: the Ballroom and the Showroom. This one was at the Palladium Showroom which is the smaller of the two.

The show was supposed to "start" at 7:30. Now I'm not naïve enough to actually think the concert will start then, but I do expect the doors to be open. They weren't, and the doors to the place are down a long 4 foot wide tunnel surrounded by brick walls. Brick walls that had been taking the Texas sun all day. It was almost a 30 minute wait to get inside and the heat was brutal.

The actual concert though was absolutely fantastic. The opening act was Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. They were a great band that seems to cross several genres in their music, and Grace Potter is quite the honey. They were throwing down an unusual look. Grace was wearing a Tina Turner like outfit, and the Nocturnals looked like a '70s garage band.

Now I had never seen a picture of Binky Griptite of the Dap-Kings, but once I saw this dude come out in a maroon suit with a fedora cocked on the side of his head, I knew exactly who it was. I was right. The Dap-Kings sang a few songs by themselves before Sharon Jones came out.

Binky played up to the crowd a bit with,"You know I've been in Texas for two days now, and I ain't heard no one say 'yee-ha', so how is everyone out here tonight?" With the crowd giving a resounding "YEE-HA!" Including me.

Once Sharon Jones did come out the energy just amped up. She is just so enthusiastic. I told one of my friends that I hope to have her energy when I am her age, but I don't even have that level now. During a couple of different songs she brought people up on the stage with her. I was literally 3 feet from the stage, and it was electric. Smaller venues like that really do it for me.

PS Within 5 seconds of Sharon Jones appearing on the stage I could smell the weed.

Concert A-Go-Go

Geez, has been two weeks already? Anyways, I went to the Wolfmother concert two weeks ago. They were playing at the House of Blues in downtown Dallas. They has two bands opening up for them. thenewno2 who I had never heard of, and the Heartless Bastards who, not only had I actually heard of, but I liked. I was stoked to see them. Well I was told, that we (that being me and my friends were going to meet a a bar first), so no opening act. I was a bit disappointed, but the Filmore was a pretty cool bar to hang out at.

Well, we did make it to the House of Blues in time to catch the last 4 or 5 songs of the Heartless Bastards. My faith in them was totally rewarded. They were awesome, and my friends pretty much acquiesced that it was a mistake to miss their entire set. A couple of my friends enjoyed them so much they bought CDs and t-shirts. I was still sober enough not to buy a t-shirt there. We did miss all of thenewno2.

Then it was time for Wolfmother to take the stage. Watching them, and hearing them play is what I imagine it would have been like to see some of the great bands of the '70s. It is a no frills concert with just hard rocking music. I love that the bass player (or was it the rhythm guitarist?) is also the keyboardist. When it is time for some keyboard, he just flings his instrument around to his back and jams on the keyboard for a bit. Both bands that we saw really seemed to be into it, and seemed to be having a great time. I think that was helped by it being the first night of their American tour. It was just a great night, with pure rock and roll music.

I did find out a few things about thenewno2. They are led by the Beatles great George Harrison's son Dhani. I was wondering were they got there name from. First, I thought it may have to do with defecation. Then, maybe it was a self deprecating name in that they are the new number 2, and not number 1. Finally, I thought it may have something to do with the cult TV show The Prisoner. Yeah, it is the TV thing. Last thing, the next day my roommate (who bailed on going at the last moment) asked if I knew any of Woflmother's songs. I replied, "Well they have put out two albums, and I own both of them, so yeah I knew a few."

Dream Theater Concert

Last week I went to the Dream Theater concert at the Nokia Center in support of their new CD Systematic Chaos. The last time I saw them, they were on tour with Queensryche on a double headline bill, and this was during the Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence tour, I believe.

The opening acts. First up we had Into Eternity. I only caught the last few songs from these guys, and I think I am a better person for. At times they degenerated in to that awful Speed Death Metal “singing”. At other times it didn’t even look like the guitarists were playing anything but the most basic of chords, they didn’t even have their fingers on the frets. I’ve seen better acts playing on the streets in New Orleans

The other opening act was Redemption, or as I like to call them Dream Theater Jr. Similar musical style, and I thought the lead guitarist was really good. Their main problem was that the lead singer seemed to be singing a different song than the band was playing. Also they had some really weird musical transition in their songs that would throw me out of the tune. They have a keyboardist like Dream Theater but the others drown him out too much.

Now we get to the main act. I think Dream Theater is quite an awesome band, and their drummer Mike Portnoy is probably my favorite drummer out there right now. He is just awesome, and he has the best stage presence in the group. He really knows how to get the crowd riled up. I think the guitarist, John Petrucci, is quite good, I don’t go ga-ga over him like others do. Like others, John Myung, the bassist, fascinates me, because he seems so detached from everyone else. He seems to have his part of the stage staked out and everyone just leaves him alone there to do his thing. James LaBrie still has a great voice. Keyboardist Jordan Rudess is not drowned out and he is pretty great too.

Jordan had a couple of really nice solos, and I think a keyboardist can never look cool, but he does try and he can almost pull it off. The last time I saw Dream Theater, Mike Portnoy seemed to have a bunch of solo sections, but this time he didn’t have any which I was a little disappointed in. I have only listened to their new album once, and a few other songs a couple of times. That was mostly what they were playing so I wasn’t as familiar with what they were playing. The encore paled in comparison to when they played with Queensryche. This time they came out and played a couple of more songs. Mike Portnoy returning in a Dirk Nowitzki jersey which is cheap pandering to the crowd, which I like. With Queensryche both bands came out together and played the Who’s Baba O’Riley. That would be hard to beat. No complaints really with Dream Theater, they were just great.

Side Note: One guy sitting by me, from Indianapolis, purposefully scheduled his business trip so that he could see Dream Theater. I don’t think there is any band I would do that for.