glasvegas [live]

glasvegas
opening: ida maria
saturday, march 28, 2009 – 8pm (happy birthday mom!)
music hall / williamsburg
brooklyn, new york

glasvegas and i go way back.  as far as one can go backwith glasvegas, which is about a year.  glasvegas is an alternative rock band from scotland and they are fresh, hot, and here to stay.  wedding planning did not allow for many concert going this spring, though i do make my exceptions, but i knew i had to see glasvegas.  ticket prices were more than reasonable so i took advantage of the opportunity.

in an effort to pennypinch, i gave up certain music-related luxuries, including music downloads, concerts, music paraphernalia, and, of course, Q magazine.  Q magazine, hands down, the best music magazine in the world.  and it was in none other than Q that i read about glasvegas, who they touted as one of the best up and coming bands in UK and scotland.  they described glasvegas as anthem rock/stunning vocals/thick wall of sound “productioneering” type of a band.  i thought, hey, why not.  then began my quest to get my dirty little hands on some glasvegas music – but to no avail.  i waited a bit and amazon.com started to release them one by one and i bought every last glasvegas song that was available for commercial purchase.  yes, all THREE of them.  i did not even bother with itunes since i had boycotted them for some time (ok, i did try and to no surprise, they did not have any music by glasvegas).  but did they have every single possible imaginable playlist whipped up by some random angst-ridden teenager in wichita falls?  yes.

listening to glasvegas was fun.  whether on headphones or surround sounds speaker system at home (which i so don’t have at home) you have to listen to it with the volume up up up.  it’s meant for walking tall down a big boulevard on a sunny day and driving with the top down on a summer night.

but when the band came up on stage, did i expect the lead singer james allan to look SO MUCH like joe strummer and elvis presley combined?!  no!!  prior to the concert, i had not known what the band members look like, so you can imagine my surprise when the band first came out.  then it got all distracting because all i can think about ‘jimmy jazz’ and ‘wrong em boyo.’

admittedly, due to their heavy scottish accent (or, scottish accent at all), there are some glasvegas songs whose words i simply cannot even understand.  my own fault, of course, seeing as how i have difficulty even with british accent sometimes which can be troublesome as i work for a german company with tons of london staffers.  anyway, the beauty of a song that is ‘it’s my own cheating heart that makes me cry’ has every potential to make me cry or force me into admit cheating, but i have no idea what the beautiful singer is saying!  but that is perfectly fine because his strong, long-range vocals are just amazing.

watching the band was an enjoyable experience.  they seemed to take themselves reasonably seriously – not too much, but not too relaxed/stoned either.  i always remember interpol concert back in 2005 when they played at madison square garden in new york city; they were the most serious band i have ever seen – so focused, so precise, so scientific.  they did not say more than 15 words to the crowd (hello, we are interpol and we are from new york, thank you for coming out tonight.)  and then there have been bands that look so careless and/or drunk/stoned on stage that it used to piss me off because i was spending all this money to see them give the audience a rock star-quality concert but instead i am not even able to decipher what they are trying to do/say.  point is, glasvegas and bloc party from the week before seemed to give a lot of effort into their performance to deliver a very decent show for their fans.  and, as fans, there is nothing much more we ask for. 

i often wondered what it was about glasvegas that set them apart from other bands.  though i do not track bands nearly as much i used to, i don’t have to look far to see how many new bands up pop up all the time.  look no further than amazon/itunes’ free mp3 giveaway list, an issue of any music mag, or heck, the songs featured on the o.c. or gossip girl, for that matter – it is not hard to find a new ‘up and coming band’ pop up and rise into recognition. 

at the risk of pumping up this band too much, i wonder why this band from scotland, to me anyway, rises above the rest to deserve the title of ‘one of the freshest, most exciting bands to enter the music scene.’  their songwriting is good.  not the best, but very good.  but i think it’s the big venue belting vocals, layered guitar sounds, 80s style drumming in some songs, and friendly melodies.  their sound is rich, thick, and sweet.  it really is hard to press the skip button when their songs are on.

my choices of glasvegas songs:
- daddy’s gone
- flowers and football tops
- it’s my own cheating heart that makes me cry (unintelligible words!  had to look them up!)
- geraldine

bloc party [live]

bloc party
opening: longwave
tuesday, march 24, 2009 – 8pm
terminal 5
new york, new york

i’ve long wanted to see bloc party in concert.  pretty much after they arrived at the alternative music scene back in 2004-2005, i’ve been intrigued by this energetic, explosive group from london.

back then, having been more “into” the indie music circuit, i remember the hype around this band.  it’s one of those things about the underground (if you can call it that, since i don’t really know what exactly makes underground ‘underground) music scene that i don’t understand – why some bands like the strokes and bloc party get so much anticipation.  different than an artist who gets word out about his/her music, or, more importantly, about him/herself, via social networking sites like myspace, having the standard industry hypes works both for and against the up and coming artist.  they have the advantage of p.r. but they also have a lot to live up to.

some critics like to be critical for the sake of doing so, but some praisers like to laud for the sake of doing so.  regardless, i think for the purposes of this post here, it’s safe to say that bloc party clearly lived up to their hype.

and they are here to stay.

and boy am i glad they are.  so were ali, jean, and albert.

after a few failed attempts to catch them in new york city, including last october when they were on a short impromptu-type tour, i finally got a hold of not 1, not 2, but 4 tickets!  i knew i would have no trouble getting rid of my 3 extra tickets.  the night before, i thought about what i was going to wear.  i work in an investment bank and work in a very corporate environment, and there is nothing i hate more than looking like someone who works in that very environment at a cool concert like that of bloc party’s.  so i packed my clothes: jeans, t-shirt, hoodie, jacket.

the cover band, longwave, was, to me, forgettable, so i’ll get to the main course.  kele burst into the scene wearing red adidas track jacket and pants!  he looked so adorable and fresh!  he had his famous megawatt smile and truly looked happy to be in new york city!  we were happy to have him in new york city, too!  matt came out in a really bad pair of shorts and a t-shirt which i knew he was going to remove (i was hoping he wouldn’t, but he, of course, did), russell and ‘the hair’ came on stage and looked like a meerkat as usual (in a good way!), and gordon moakes showed up, hair tousled, face white, and lips naturally pink.

they started with one month off and there was so much energy in the crowd.  median age 26, evenly distributed btw guys and girls, everyone was out to have a good time.  the mosh pit eventually grew from small to big, slight to violent.  i used the heavy guy at my 10 o’clock to shield me from the impact of the moshers.  kele seemed to like getting the crowd riled up and was asking them to show a little more craziness as the night wore on.  i always wonder whether performers on stage can see their audience, but i am not sure if i’d like seeing my fans get slammed.

the crowd was really got going the band was showing them a mighty good time: their music was perfectly played, vocals solid, drumming perfect. every band member was so focused, and i am almost tempted to say they seemed beyond their years.  at the same time, they are one of the most energetic bands i have seen and they produce one of the most exciting music out there.  consistently exciting and inventive, they are fabulous.  interpol was one of the most focused and ‘professional’ band i have seen, but these guys were up there.

kele is one charismatic band leader.  his energy is infectious and people do not take their eyes off of him.  blessed with fresh looks, good height, cool hair, and clothes that hang nicely on a tall frame of a body, he is a lot of fun to watch.  he played rhythm guitar once in awhile but spent most of his effort on singing his heart out, except during slower songs like ‘signs.’  but he was interacting with the crowd the entire time and enjoying the attention with no sense of shame whatsoever.  a true performer, what can i say? i said to A after the concert – radical, i know, but i think he is the charismatic band leader that this generation has been waiting for.  you watch old concert clips with band leaders who, by themselves and their merit, light up the stage.  you got bono, freddie mercury, blondie, diana ross, prince, even marilyn manson! – and nowadays, you got pretty boys with no charisma like brandon flowers, adam levine, and justin timberlake – and i’m like come on now!  no offense if you like those boys, but time we had some electrifying, grab-your-attention by the throat kind of performers.  after all, that IS why they get paid to do what they do, right?!

but here are the reasons why i like bloc party.  just my reasons and no one else’s.  in music, here are the elements i love: beats (new order), inspiring bass guitar sounds (the pixies!!), well-programmed sounds (new order, beastie boys), electronic music (new wave, synth, chemical brothers), rhythmic guitar riffs (the clash, the strokes), melodic jingle jangly guitar sounds (johnny marr, the smiths, the clash),  and i love a good voice (freddie mercury, morrissey, dave gahan, damon albarn, andy bell, chris cornell, the lead singer of Live, axl rose), ‘the only girl in the band’ (d’arcy of smashing pumpkins, kim deal of the pixies, the chick from glasvegas, gillian of new order!) – so the more of these in a band, the more likely i’ll like them!  this is why i like bloc party!

here is the set list – what a night!

one month off – excellent start
trojan horse - energy, energy, energy!  one of the better songs from the new album
hunting for witches - i love the intro to this song… the bleeps and bloops remind me of radiohead and the beat that starts up is just…so much fun.
positive tension – not one of my favorites – gave me some time to relax…
signs – beautiful song, sounds best with a good pair of headphones… gordon played the xylophone, i saw it!
waiting for the 7.18 - another charming song… i remember listening to this song when i was in korea
song for clay (disappear here) – truly made album #2 memorable…good falsetto by kele… i like how even the guitars harmonize
banquet - THE song that made the band… probably their #1 hit next to helicopter. first time i saw them performing was on my lap on the NME video website.  and i thought “COOL….”  that cool rhythm guitar!  tried to get my little sis into bloc party with this song i think… still working on it. 
where is home? -
ion square – kele “this is a song about being in love” – all perfect except for the distasteful F-word…
mercury – “mercury’s in retrograde!  mercury’s in retrograde!”  so much fun. this an extremely creative, radical, exciting song.  there must be about dozen instruments represented here!  i love the big beats in the background.
so here we are – how pretty is that intro?  the bass enters, the vocals tune in… it’s great… “i caught a glimpse, but its been forgotten. So here we are again.  i made a vow, to carry you home…”
like eating glass – another song that made me go whoa on the NME site… that cool intro accompanied by a sliding image… it was unforgettable.  gotta find that link again! a song like this really makes bloc party bloc party.

encore:
halo - good song
prayer - intense
flux - cool
helicopter - another song that made them big.  this song reminds of albert for some reason!  this song has some serious ‘stay in my head for 72 hours’ power… “duh duh duh dun, north to south, empty! running on – bravado!”

encore 2:
ares - we were totally making fun of this song when we were waiting in line outside
this modern love - one of my favorite bloc party songs

they were so much fun to watch.  it was very loud, very roudy, very HOT, but it was a good time!

that decreases the number of bands on my ”list of bands to see before i die” by one.  one other i will see this summer (depeche mode on august 4) and i doubt that i will get the see the rest of them, but if you ever see tickets on sale for these guys, do let me know: new order, the smiths, the pixies, aimee mann, jeff buckley, blur, radiohead, the raconteurs, red hot chili peppers…

PLEASE leave me messages – i’d love to hear what you think!

five Peanuts – solid.