2009 Concert Journals

[AldaForPresident]

Today I got tickets to see U2 in October. Yay! 

[murlough23]

Today I got tickets to see U2 in October. Yay! 

Ooh, they have tour dates announced? I'll have to check those out.

NP: "No One Really Wins", Copeland

[AldaForPresident]

The public ticket sales are next week, I think. I've been subscribed to U2.com ever since it became an option, so I was in the group of subscribers that got to buy the tickets for a bunch of the North American shows today. (They haven't announced all the dates yet.)

[murlough23]

The public ticket sales are next week, I think. I've been subscribed to U2.com ever since it became an option, so I was in the group of subscribers that got to buy the tickets for a bunch of the North American shows today. (They haven't announced all the dates yet.)

Cool. Unless it's one of those deals where the public tickets sell out in seconds (and if so, oh well, I want to see U2 before I die and all, but some things aren't worth having to trample down other people to get them done), I'm gonna go for it this time.

NP: "That's Why God Made the Moon", John Elefante

[AldaForPresident]

I hope you get tickets- but if not, they've been adding second shows most places where they've been selling super fast. I'm so excited- this time, I'm going to be in the GA area; last time I was rear view. (Though it may not matter this time, who knows.)

[murlough23]

I'm so excited- this time, I'm going to be in the GA area

You have to watch the concert all the way from Georgia?

[AldaForPresident]

You have to watch the concert all the way from Georgia?

I wish I was going to the Atlanta one so I could say yes. (I was so close to picking that one, too!)

[plvarona]

Last Sunday I saw Marc Broussard perform at halftime of the New Orleans Hornets-San Antonio Spurs game.  I actually didn't know he was performing until I got to the game.  I thought Marc did a good job with the two songs he played - "Hard Knocks" and "Why Should She Wait", both from his Keep Coming Back album.  I was especially pleased with the latter, since that's my favorite song on the CD.  Obviously, two songs is not nearly enough to get a good impression of an artist's live show, but I definitely would like to see a full set from Marc sometime in the future.

Tonight I'm heading back up to New Orleans, this time to see Copeland, This Providence, Paper Route and Brooke Waggoner.

[murlough23]

Got my U2 tickets today, for the Rose Bowl show on October 25. Oy, what a hassle. Ticketbastard claimed the max order allowed was 8 tickets but wouldn't let me select a number higher than 4, which shafted two of my friends who wanted to go with us (they still got in, thankfully, but are somewhere completely across the arena). Another fun track was that they let me select the General Admission area (standing room on the field) and then made me wait 10 minutes just to tell me no tickets were available there. I would definitely only put up with this crap for a band like U2, and I will be unlikely to ever do it for the same band again.

[murlough23]

Jsut noticed in Katie Herzig's newsletter that she's opening for a few Vienna Teng shows. Unfortunately, those shows are in Knoxville and Atlanta. Boo. But those of you who live in either area and like either artist should avail yourselves! (I'm planning to see Vienna later this month in Hollywood... unfortunately, I recognize none of the opening acts.)

[plvarona]

Tonight I'm heading back up to New Orleans, this time to see Copeland, This Providence, Paper Route and Brooke Waggoner.

I just realized I have yet to write-up my impressions of this show.

Overall, I thought the show was well-played and well-executed across the board.  There weren't too many "wow" moments, but the artist all seem to be good at what they do, and it showed.

Brooke Waggoner started the show, and she gave a stripped-down set featuring her on the piano along with two string players: a violinist and a cellist.  That's obviously something you don't see too often at a pop/rock show, but I thought the trio did a pretty good job.  In fact, I came away quite impressed with Brooke's music which is quite intricately-written, yet catchy at the same time.  Brooke even showed she had a sense of humor by firing off a few one-liners, including alluding to a "thrashing" moment in one of her songs.  So overall, I felt this was a great way to start the night.  As a side note, I actually got to chat with Brooke for a little bit in between sets later in the night.  I ended up telling her "Anyone who brings a cellist with them has to be pretty cool in my book", and she laughed.  I later went on to explain that I play cello, so I am just a little biased.

Paper Route was up next, and they turned up the intensity quite a bit with their electronically-fused fast-paced rock.  In fact, their sound reminded me quite a bit of a poor man's Mute Math, and drummer certainly played the part, drumming so frantically he looked like an animal.  On the plus side, the guys certainly had the sound and the energy to pull off an entertaining show.  However, I don't think they quite have the charisma or the level of musicianship of Mute Math.  It also doesn't help that their vocalists kept getting drowned out, which is too bad because it sounds like their two vocalists can harmonize pretty well.  Still, there was more to like than dislike here, and I may check out their latest album, which releases later this month.

Next was This Providence, a pop-rock band that had a few catchy songs, and they played their set pretty well.  They just didn't stand out as much as the other bands on the bill.

Copeland headlined the show, and they were pretty much what I expected: they lack stage presence, but at least they play well.  Interestingly enough, I think lead singer Aaron Marsh was a lot more animated than he was a few years ago when I saw them last.  However, the music was still the biggest attraction here, and they really shone on the more mellow songs.  They did plod a little bit when they turned up the tempo, but not too badly.  As for their set list, I did find it interesting that In Motion got almost as much attention as You Are My Sunshine, while Eat. Sleep. Repeat., which is my favorite CD of theirs, seemed to get shafted a little bit.  Still, those nitpicks aside, it was a well-played, and fairly enjoyable set.

Set Lists:

Copeland: "Chin Up", "The Grey Man", "When Paula Sparks", "No One Really Wins", "To Be Happy Now", "Control Freak", "Eat. Sleep. Repeat", "On The Safest Ledge", "Sleep", "Tonight, Tonight" (Smashing Pumpkins cover), "The Day I Lost My Voice (The Suitcase Song)", "Careful, Now", "Pin Your Wings", "You Have My Attention"
Encore: "Brighest", "Testing The Strong Ones"

This Providence: "Playing The Villain", "Letdown", "Wolf in Sheep's Clothing", "Keeping On Without You", "That Girl's a Trick", "My Beautiful Rescue", "Sand in Your Shoes", "Somebody To Talk To", "Waste Myself"

Paper Route: "American Clouds", "Wish", "We Are All Forgotten", "Empty House", "Gutter", "Dance on Our Graves", "Carousel"

Brooke Waggoner: "Hush if You Must", "So-so", "Wonder-Dummied", "Come Love, See My Hands", "Heal For The Honey", "I Am Mine", "My Legionnaire"

[murlough23]

They did plod a little bit when they turned up the tempo, but not too badly.

This seems to be their downfall in a live setting, and it's why I didn't like them at first. However, I'd be surprised if they could mess up a song like "No One Really Wins" live. That song has a ton of energy.

[plvarona]

This seems to be their downfall in a live setting, and it's why I didn't like them at first. However, I'd be surprised if they could mess up a song like "No One Really Wins" live. That song has a ton of energy.

Actually, they sounded fine on that song.  Most of the plodding took place in the second half of the set.

[murlough23]

Actually, they sounded fine on that song.  Most of the plodding took place in the second half of the set.

Judging from the setlist, I can see why. Though I also have to wonder why they thought opening with "Chin Up" was a good idea.

[ajyouthguy]

Just got home from Skillet, Disciple and Decyfer Down.  Very good show.  I'm a big Skillet fan, and the other two are ok, but they both put on a good show.  the place was as packed as just about any show i've ever been to.  it was loud and insane.  a couple of thoughts, though...one, Decyfer Down's new vocalist is a definite improvement.  it was funny, though, b/c the original lead singer used to also play bass, and the new guy doesn't, so for this tour, the lead singer of Disciple plays bass with Decyfer Down.  two, Skillet does something most rock bands could stand to learn from.  they are LOUD and INTENSE, but still always VERY understandable.  they know how to mix it and so forth, it seems, better than most Christian rock bands I've seen.  three, Skillet did two new songs...one is called "Hero" and the other is called "Monster," and both were solid tunes and made me anxious to hear their new album, which they said is done and comes out in August I believe.

[murlough23]

Interesting that you'd say that about Skillet being understandable in a live setting despite being loud... volume-wise they're one of the loudest live bands I've ever seen, and I have friends who have seen them without being familiar with their music, and to them, it was just all hoarse screaming. I had to explain that Skillet has a high number of melodic pop songs - maybe that just doesn't come across in a live setting or maybe the band just focuses on their heavier stuff when they have a shorter set to play. I just don't see how anyone could hear them play a song like "The Last Night" or "The Older I Get" and think Skillet's all just a bunch of yelling and screaming.

In any event, I think Skillet is a good live band, because they can even take a song I despise on the album like "Better than Drugs" and make it lots of fun. (In that case, I prefer the music drowning out the lyrics!)

How's the new drummer? I'm bummed that Lori left.

[ajyouthguy]

How's the new drummer? I'm bummed that Lori left.

She's really good too.  she's like a prodigy or something, she's like 18.  she sang background vocals a lot and actually sang lead on one part of one song (i'm blanking on which right now, though, but it was good).

[murlough23]

She's really good too.  she's like a prodigy or something, she's like 18.  she sang background vocals a lot and actually sang lead on one part of one song (i'm blanking on which right now, though, but it was good).

Excellent. I can't name many edgy rock bands with two female vocalists in them. (At least, not good ones.)

NP: "Antebellum", Vienna Teng

[ajyouthguy]

A community about 45 minutes from here is having Robert Randolph and the Family Band and Jars of Clay (separately, one is on Saturday, one on Sunday afternoon) for their annual community festival not this weekend but next (i THINK they are both free, but i'm still working that aspect of it), and me and one of my youth workers are gonna go to both.

yesterday, got tickets for the October Dallas U2 show for me, my wife, and another couple that works with our youth and is among our best friends.  i'm giddy excited about that.

[ajyouthguy]

it was "Yours to Hold" i think that she sang lead vocals on the second chorus, then Korey sang a lead part after that on it as well.  it was pretty cool.

[murlough23]

There's supposedly a JoC show coming up in Redlands in July. On a Friday. UGH. That's 2/3 of the way out to Joshua Tree from here. But it's Jars of Clay, and unless I want to go to FishFest or trek down to San Diego on a weekday, it may be my only chance to see them this year.

NP: "Kansas", Vienna Teng

[dgp11776]

There's a JoC show about 2 1/2 hours away from me...on a Sunday night.  Louts.  I still have yet to see them in concert!

[murlough23]

There's a JoC show about 2 1/2 hours away from me...on a Sunday night.  Louts.  I still have yet to see them in concert!

At all? Wow.

I'd drive 2 1/2 hours on a weekend... I've done so for lesser bands. Living where I do, the day of the week can make even a 1-hour drive according to Google Maps take that long, and I'll take a long drive on open road over a short drive (distance-wise) in heavy L.A. traffic any day.

NP: "Grandmother Song", Vienna Teng

[Aaron]

I saw them back in 1996 when they opened for Michael W. Smith, and then again in 1999.  Always a good show.

[murlough23]

I would have loved to catch JoC's very first tour, when they were opening for PfR. Ah well, at least I did get to catch PfR live before they disbanded. (For the first time, I mean.)

[ajyouthguy]

I would have loved to catch JoC's very first tour, when they were opening for PfR. Ah well, at least I did get to catch PfR live before they disbanded. (For the first time, I mean.)

this one next week will be, i THINK, my 10th JoC show...the first was on that PFR tour...they sat on little round stools at the front of the stage (Dan, Matt and Steve) and it was very intimate and acoustic.  i also saw the MWS tour Wanderer mentioned, one with Burlap to Cashmere, one with Plumb, two with Jennifer Knapp, Music Builds last year, a Redemption Songs one with Chris Rice and one at a national youth workers convention event.

[dgp11776]

At all? Wow.

I'd drive 2 1/2 hours on a weekend.

Nope, not at all - and that really blows.

There was a time when I would have, but waking up at 5:30 on Monday morning after getting home around 1:30 is a problem.  Plus there's the issue of having a daughter...and a wife with a due date less than two weeks after the concert date...and responsibilities at church on Sunday nights.  *sigh*  

Oh, and I did manage to find out they're playing three hours away in June...this time on a Friday night.  When I'll be out of town, of course.  GAH!!!

[murlough23]

this one next week will be, i THINK, my 10th JoC show...the first was on that PFR tour...they sat on little round stools at the front of the stage (Dan, Matt and Steve) and it was very intimate and acoustic.  i also saw the MWS tour Wanderer mentioned, one with Burlap to Cashmere, one with Plumb, two with Jennifer Knapp, Music Builds last year, a Redemption Songs one with Chris Rice and one at a national youth workers convention event.

I caught the tour with Burlap to Cashmere and David Wilcox in 2000 (SO glad I saw B2C before they split up, they very nearly upstaged Jars!), and also the one with Plumb in 1997 and the two with Jennifer Knapp, in 2000 (with Luna Halo) and in 2002 (with Shaun Groves, which is how I became a fan of his).

[dgp11776]

SO glad I saw B2C before they split up, they very nearly upstaged Jars!

But they're recording, re-uniting, etc...    A lot came of that, didn't it?

[murlough23]

But they're recording, re-uniting, etc...    A lot came of that, didn't it?

As long as Steven Delopoulos keeps releasing music in some form, I really don't care.

NP: "Radio", Vienna Teng

[dgp11776]

As long as Steven Delopoulos keeps releasing music in some form, I really don't care.

True.  And, speaking of which, I just read an interview with him where he states he is working on a new album, so it's all good.

[ajyouthguy]

I caught the tour with Burlap to Cashmere and David Wilcox in 2000 (SO glad I saw B2C before they split up, they very nearly upstaged Jars!), and also the one with Plumb in 1997 and the two with Jennifer Knapp, in 2000 (with Luna Halo) and in 2002 (with Shaun Groves, which is how I became a fan of his).

when i saw them with B2C, it was just those 2 bands, but B2C DID upstage Jars that night, as did Plumb for the most part when she opened, and Jen Knapp nearly did on both of the tours i caught with her and them. 

[Aaron]

I honestly have never understood the appeal of Plumb and wonder how she upstaged Jars of Clay...

[murlough23]

I honestly have never understood the appeal of Plumb and wonder how she upstaged Jars of Clay...

I wouldn't say she upstaged them, but her set had a few highlights such as a cover of Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" (this was back before I'd heard about three other CCM singers cover it).

I like Plumb in general. She's a singer/songwriter with an electronic rock band attached. And Blink proves she can do ambient just as well as she had previously done crunchy. Ocasionally her love songs can be a bit weak and middle-of-the-road, which is most notable on Beautiful Lumps of Coal and the beginning of Chaotic Resolve. Other than that, she's fairly solid.

NP: "Aqueous Transmission", Incubus

[Aaron]

I don't see it but to each their own!

[ajyouthguy]

I honestly have never understood the appeal of Plumb and wonder how she upstaged Jars of Clay...

there was a 2-3 tour stretch where, to me, when i saw them live, they seemed like they lacked punch and energy that i had seen before, and saw later, and they seemed to be somewhat going through the motions of the shows.  those shows i mentioned fell into that time-frame, at least for me.  It seems like they hit a bit of a lull, and then had a 're-birth' or whatever that re-charged and re-energized them. 

[murlough23]

there was a 2-3 tour stretch where, to me, when i saw them live, they seemed like they lacked punch and energy that i had seen before, and saw later, and they seemed to be somewhat going through the motions of the shows.  those shows i mentioned fell into that time-frame, at least for me.  It seems like they hit a bit of a lull, and then had a 're-birth' or whatever that re-charged and re-energized them. 

Yes. For me this was between about 2000 and 2002. Basically whenever I saw them on the second leg of a tour (I saw them twice in both years). It seemed like they'd been hanging onto more or less the same setlist for both legs and they were just sort of phoning it in. The solution, to me, seemed to be changing up the setlist and just doing what they wanted, and putting less emphasis on having to put on a big rock show. I sort of got my wish when they toured for WWAI (still too much reliance on the self-titled album, which has always been a problem caused by fan expectations, but going fully acoustic for that tour and for Redemption Songs gave them a lot of clarity and showed off their instrumental skills a bit better even if the sound packed less punch - only a problem if you came in expecting RAWK). Since then, they've been solid whenever I've seen them live.

NP: "Losing You", Big Dismal

[murlough23]

Vienna Teng was awesome tonight. I expected this based on past performances... I've seen her do everything from solo piano to full "chamber music" emsemble, and it's always been great. Tonight it was her, Alex Wong (who produced her album) on drums and loops and xylophone, and Ward Williams (I think that's his name) on guitar, cello, and melodica. Tonight's set was almost exclusively made up of tracks from Inland Territory, save for some slightly reinvented flashbacks to older albums (most notably a complete revision of "Gravity" complete with looped ambient vocals provided by the audience), and a Radiohead cover. ("Idioteque" again. What are the chances of seeing two completely unrelated bands cover the same Radiohead track in the same year? Much as I love that song and I love hearing different interpretations of it, I think we should put a moratorium on covering Radiohead for a while. They're kind of the go-to artists for out-of-genre covers to prove how indie you are. It's starting to lose its cleverness.) Just about every song performed was a highlight, but for my money, the show-stopper was "The Last Snowfall", done using a looping pedal with a beatbox rhythm and angelic BGV's recorded by Vienna at the beginning of the song and looped on and off throughout. You can see how this turned out on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYnh4YRsUMM

The opening acts were ridiculously talented. The Paper Raincoat is actually Alex Wong's band (while he played drums for Vienna, he sings lead and plays guitar in his own band). They are a very percussive band, kind of switching back and forth between acoustic rock and more keyboard-driven, Vampire Weekend-type stuff (with female vocals on a few songs provided by their keyboard player). After pulling a Mute Math and having all three band members playing the same drum kit at once, they then decided to perform an acapella song for the finale, which was highly amusing with the three members doing their little tandem hand-clap routine. This too is on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xm85udPmHQ&feature=related

Ben Sollee was quite possibly the only blues-singing cellist I've ever seen. His musical style was highly fluid despite it being just his one instrument and voice. Sometimes it was highly entertaining. Sometimes it was slow and a bit amorphous. He reminded me of a lost member of Nickel Creek at times. Vienna said it best when she took the stage... she considered it a privilege to have opening acts who intimidated her.

[enemy anemone]

Ben Sollee is also part of The Sparrow Quartet with Abigail Washburn, Béla Fleck, and Casey Driessen. they play something that might be described as Chinese bluegrass.

I've heard a live recording of him and another artist covering a Tom Waits song. the other artist did a freestyle rap thing throughout. normally I like the song, but I hated this cover because of the rapping. couldn't help but be impressed with Ben's versatility though.

[murlough23]

Tom Waits seems to be right up there with Radiohead in terms of artists who on the receiving end of oddball live covers. I just don't recognize as often, personally.