2009 Concert Journals

[Aaron]

As usual, the concert gods have been against me this year.  Here are concerts I have missed or won't be able to make it to for one reason or another for the months of July - November:

Emery
Mae
Relient K/Copeland
Mute Math
U2
David Crowder Band
Jars of Clay
Sanctus Real

I may try to make it to shows by The Almost and Family Force 5, but I'll have to see if it's doable.

Don't feel bad.  They are always against me every year.  I've been to less than 10 concerts in my life.

[murlough23]

The concert gods favor the big cities. This is somewhat mitigated by the fact that a lot of Christian bands favor the Bible Belt, but overall, big places like L.A. and NYC are going to have the advantage. If you live in a smaller city and it's not in the south, then I'm not surprised that your concert opportunities will be few.

[dgp11776]

Don't feel bad.  They are always against me every year.  I've been to less than 10 concerts in my life.

Yeah, but The Reign of Kindo is from your neck of the woods, so you win.

[ajyouthguy]

going to Skillet/Hawk Nelson/Decyfer Down October 9 in Little Rock

U2 in Dallas October 12.

may go to Mae/Deas Vail October 3 and a Donald Miller speaking engagement on the 6th

[murlough23]

may go to Mae/Deas Vail October 3

I was actually quite shocked that this tour is making it out to the West Coast.

[Aaron]

The concert gods favor the big cities. This is somewhat mitigated by the fact that a lot of Christian bands favor the Bible Belt, but overall, big places like L.A. and NYC are going to have the advantage. If you live in a smaller city and it's not in the south, then I'm not surprised that your concert opportunities will be few.

I lived near Buffalo and Rochester for 13 years.  They had concerts of all kinds but 99% of them were during times where I had to work or didn't have money for them.  After I paid all my bills, I rarely had money for entertainment things so I had to sacrifice buying music, going to concerts, going on vacation..basically everything fun.

[plvarona]

The concert gods favor the big cities. This is somewhat mitigated by the fact that a lot of Christian bands favor the Bible Belt, but overall, big places like L.A. and NYC are going to have the advantage. If you live in a smaller city and it's not in the south, then I'm not surprised that your concert opportunities will be few.

I can definitely believe that.  Back when I lived in Central Florida, and then when I moved back to Atlanta for a little over a year, there seemed to be at least one interesting concert opportunity every month.  The concert opportunities have been much less frequent ever since I moved to Baton Rouge a little over two years ago, but we still get a decent amount in this area.  Granted, a lot of times I have to go to New Orleans for the concerts, but that's only 70 miles away from here.  However, I have still found a fair number of good concerts over here in Baton Rouge.  I think having a major university here (LSU) helps in that sense.

Speaking about upcoming concerts, there are actually a few interesting ones coming to Baton Rouge next weekend.  First, the Ten Out of Tenn tour is coming on Saturday night, and then Jars of Clay is headlining the Creation Festival tour on Sunday night.  I'll admit Jars are the only act that interests me on the latter (the other acts on the bill are Thousand Foot Krutch, Audio Unplugged - basically Mark and Will from Audio Adrenaline, This Beautiful Republic, some speaker, and a few more acts I'm not familiar with.)  Still, if tickets aren't too expensive, I'd go just to see Jars.

Also, Mae/Deas Vail are coming to New Orleans on October 2.  I'm hoping to make it to that one as well.

[murlough23]

Audio Unplugged - basically Mark and Will from Audio Adrenaline

That sounds like when John Schlitt and Bob Hartman did shows as "2 guys from Petra" after making a big deal of the fact that Petra was coming to an end. Just let it go, guys. We stopped caring long before you broke up in the first place.

[ajyouthguy]

Believe it or not, they're one of the best live bands I've ever seen.  It doesn't translate all that well to CD, but they're a load of fun.

i agree that they are fun to see live.  their live show energy and fun make me wish they didn't have such (mostly) moronic songs.  they have talent, and stage presence, but most of their songs just come off as DUMB.

[ajyouthguy]

and then Jars of Clay is headlining the Creation Festival tour on Sunday night.  I'll admit Jars are the only act that interests me on the latter (the other acts on the bill are Thousand Foot Krutch, Audio Unplugged - basically Mark and Will from Audio Adrenaline, This Beautiful Republic, some speaker, and a few more acts I'm not familiar with.)  Still, if tickets aren't too expensive, I'd go just to see Jars.

i'm curious who their 'speaker' is...none of the stuff i've found says who...just '6 bands, 1 speaker...etc...'

[murlough23]

i'm curious who their 'speaker' is...none of the stuff i've found says who...just '6 bands, 1 speaker...etc...'

It's Tony Campolo. With special guest Derek Webb. They're raising awareness for a cause by removing all porta-potties from the festival grounds.

[murlough23]

Future of Forestry was PHENOMENAL tonight. They played 4 out of 6 songs from both Travel EPs, a few favorites from Twilight, and some surprisingly innovative worship covers of songs that I would have assumed were out to pasture by now. It was a smaller show at a Presbyterian church in West L.A., whose lighting and sound systems were under construction, so the concert was done with the band's portable sound system and a freakish amount of candles at the foot of the stage. Nice ambience, but it was hotter than hell in there. The new material sounded great - there was no shortage of percussion instruments available on stage, and both Eric Owyoung and multi-instrumentalist T. J. Hill were amazing pulling double and triple duty on some songs as they went back and forth between guitar, percussion, vocals, xylophone/vibraphone, and even theremin in T.J.'s case. Their new drummer is also ridiculously talented, when he's not overshadowed by the fact that everyone in the band is playing percussion (as was the case on a few of the new tracks). In an era where "worship" and "art" seem to be at odds, Future of Forestry is one of very few bands who have found a way to make the two fit together while not holding back on either aspect.

Opening act Urban Rescue was OK. They've been touring with FOF and they clearly idolize them, and I guess that's a pretty good influence to look up to, but they sound like a cross between FOF copycats, Phil Wickham, and the standard rock/worship stuff. Some of their songs were good, but get your own sound, guys.

[plvarona]

^Hey FOF, please come to the Gulf Coast region!

Anyway, today was a good news/bad news day in terms of concerts.  The bad news was that I heard the Creation Festival Tour concert on Sunday was canceled.  I don't see anything on the site saying why.  All I know is a got an e-mail from itickets (where I bought my ticket) saying the tour promoter told them the concert was canceled.  Oh well.  Jars of Clay was the only act that interested me anyway.

The good news was that I just found out Marc Broussard is playing in Baton Rouge tonight.  So I'll be seeing him instead.  As far as I know, Ten out of Tenn is still on for tomorrow, so I plan to go to that too.

[plvarona]

Okay, don't mind if I vent right now because I'm incredibly irritated.

It turns out that the Ten out of Tenn concert was moved at the last minute, and I did not know about it until after the fact.  I guess there's a part of me that wasn't too surprised at this, because there have been some issues, to put it briefly, with the place where the concert was originally scheduled.  Still, I'm quite irritated that this change wasn't announced until just a few hours before the concert took place.  I only knew about the change because someone had posted on the Ten out of Tenn twitter giving the "new" location and time of the concert, and it was only posted this afternoon.  Maybe something actually happened to force this last-minute change, but still I'm quite irritated to have to miss the concert over that.

Now the tour is going to New Orleans tomorrow, so I could possibly catch that show.  However, the show is at 9 PM, which means if I go, I'm not getting back home until after midnight.  Considering that I have to get up at 5:30 AM on work days, going to bed after midnight might not work out too well.  On the other hand, though, the Spring show was great, so it might be worth it.  Then again, I also thought the Spring lineup was better than this one.  I guess I'll decide what to do tomorrow, when my head is much clearer.

Suddenly, finding that Marc Broussard concert at the last minute is starting to look like a VERY fortunate thing, given the Creation Tour cancellation and now this flap with the Ten out of Tenn concert.  Not to mention, the Marc Broussard show turned out to be a pretty good "consolation prize."  I'll say more about that show when my headed is clearer.

Ok.  I feel better now that I got that out.

[murlough23]

Dude. There are so freakin' many people going to this U2 concert that even the parking is selling out in advance.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION
U2 AT THE ROSE BOWL - OCTOBER 25

Area U2 fans: you need to plan your trip to the Rose Bowl in advance. Attendance for this event will be over 96,000 people, the largest concert crowd in the venue's history. The roads in and around Pasadena will have significant traffic and will be heavily congested.

The Rose Bowl has limited parking available on-site. To meet this extraordinary demand, and for your convenience, there are adjacent off-site parking options as well as shuttle rides to and from the stadium. We strongly urge you to consider taking advantage of these shuttles and to carpool when possible.

We might as well paint a big red target on the stadium that says "Terrorists: Bomb here!"

[Ian]

I'm trying to decide whether to see Mute Math in Tulsa next month.  It's a 2 hour drive, and tickets are $23.  I have the money, but I'm not too sure about how the new songs are going to translate live.  I'm mean I'm sure they'll be great, but I doubt they'll match their early shows.  Plus there's just the fact that they're charging $23.  Mute Math is still a relatively unknown band, so I don't know why they're charging so much.  My little brother is actually going to see Wilco in a few weeks for the same price (well... weirdly, Mute Math and Wilco are playing the same night, so he's not sure where he's going yet).

[dgp11776]

Mur, you going to make it to that Jennifer Knapp show tonight?

[murlough23]

Mur, you going to make it to that Jennifer Knapp show tonight?

I was planning on it.

[dgp11776]

OK, just checking - now I won't have to scour the web looking for reviews.  Eh, who am I kidding?  I will anyway.

[murlough23]

OK, just checking - now I won't have to scour the web looking for reviews.  Eh, who am I kidding?  I will anyway.

Hopefully she's got more planned than just this one date.

[murlough23]

AARGH. When I first heard about the Jennifer Knapp show, tickets weren't available online and I assumed we could just pick them up at the door. Now I check the Hotel Cafe's website, and apparently they went on sale last week and are now sold out. Well gee, why couldn't you have mentioned when the tickets would go on sale? So much for that plan. I'll have to catch up with her at a later date.

[danny316]

AARGH. When I first heard about the Jennifer Knapp show, tickets weren't available online and I assumed we could just pick them up at the door. Now I check the Hotel Cafe's website, and apparently they went on sale last week and are now sold out. Well gee, why couldn't you have mentioned when the tickets would go on sale? So much for that plan. I'll have to catch up with her at a later date.

CT has a review of sorts up: http://www.christianitytoday.com/music/news/2009/jenniferknappcomeback.html

...it sounds like about what I was expecting. I really hope a recording of this show surfaces sooner or later.

Speaking of which, I'll try to pub some recordings from recent concerts I've been to soon - WPA, Derek Webb, and the Indigo Girls all were great and surprising this time around.

[murlough23]

Interesting. The almost all-new setlist might have thrown me, since I like to be familiar with most of the songs that are going to be played before I go to a concert. (Then again, I heard Vienna Teng perform all but one song from Dreaming Through the Noise in that same venue several weeks before the album was released, and I enjoyed just about every minute of that.)

I'm cool with catching a JK show after the album is released. Assuming there's gonna be an album. It looks promising.

[murlough23]

Mute Math was absolutely freaking RIDICULOUS tonight. Their previous live shows had already been jaw-droppers, and they somehow ratcheted up the intensity even more (at least during the later parts of the set). Opening act As Tall as Lions was also quite impressive, for a band I'd never heard before. I could see why they were a good fit for Mute Math. I'll have more detailed impressions tomorrow, but for now, here's the setlist:

• The Nerve
• Backfire
• Chaos
• Clipping
• No Response
• Plan B
• Stare at the Sun/Obsolete
• Electrify
• Armistice/untitled jam
• You Are Mine
• Odds
• Noticed
• Typical
• Burden

Encore:

• Pins & Needles
• Spotlight
• Reset
• Break the Same

[ajyouthguy]

U2 and Muse tomorrow night

Skillet, Hawk Nelson, Decyfer Down and The Letter Black Tuesday night (rescheduled from Friday b/c of weather, outdoor show!)

[ajyouthguy]

U2 show at the new Cowboys stadium was absolutely incredible...definitely a bucket list event for me and my wife and our friends that went with us.

Muse was a great opening act and sounded incredible...I only wish I had known a lot more of their stuff, and it was hard to hear/make out the words much of the time.  They opened with "Uprising" and that song was an amazing intro to a show like that.  I think I was the only one of our group that really enjoyed Muse, but I was also, by far, the most familiar with them.  but to me, they were a terrific opener.

U2 played for nearly 2 hours.  The stage setup is incredible, and the band (except for Adam, for obvious reasons, on drums) played to the entire stadium very well, which was nice because our seats were sort of behind the stage.  The video was incredible as well.  My biggest complaints would be that the whole spaceship thing, while incredible, the big claws on it blocked a LOT of view, b/c they were huge.  also, at times the sound quality wasn't great if you weren't familiar with a song (not a problem for me, but for my wife and our friends it was), and it was next to impossible to make out what Bono said when he spoke any time he spoke.

Those are minor complaints, and it was well worth the experience.  They did a good job of spanning across their catalog pretty well.  They did about 6 songs from No Line; only 2 from How to Dismantle; 4 from All That You Can't Leave Behind; 3 from Joshua Tree; and a decent amount from the rest of their catalog, including a couple of minor surprises in the sense of being songs I was less familiar with and wouldn't have necessarily predicted.  They did two separate 3 song encores as well.  I have a setlist that I can post later when I find it if you guys want me to, but I don't have it with me right now.

[murlough23]

Concert review, copied from my blog:

OK, so about that Mute Math concert... it's two days later and I'm still reeling. As I mentioned the night of, it was so energetic that it was exhausting to watch. Even though I've seen the band live twice before, there's something truly fascinating about watching a band dance on top of their own instruments, build other instruments out of salvaged electronic equipment, and seemingly rewrite the parameters of live music performance over the course of two hours. The fact that they put this same amount of energy and ingenuity into every show is mind-boggling. And the fact that when it's all said and done, they're making insanely catchy, beat-driven electronic pop music instead of some off-the-deep-end form of hardcore rock or rave music that is devoid of actual song structure or whatever, is the icing on the cake. It might not be exemplified on their albums as well as it could be, but this band has earned any buzz they receive through their live shows.

First you've got Paul Meany, a vocalist who can do smooth and relaxed as well as he does loud and hyperactive, who has an affection for the keytar but is also proficient on the two more commonplace instruments that it's derived from, and who loves to stand on and/or do backflips over his keyboard set. He's been an interesting character to watch ever since he used to do the rap vocals for Earthsuit. A band like Mute Math needs a frontman with pizzazz, but also one who doesn't let the showmanship get in the way of making good music. (Not usually, anyway.)

Then you've got Greg Hill, the guitar man who knows how to match Meany's energy with a highly tweaked guitar solo or a funky chord progression, or even use his instrument as percussion when the band goes into one of their more rhythm-obsessed passages. He also proves quite capable on the xylophone or piano whenever Meany's too busy running around like a maniac to sit still at a keyboard.

Most bands don't have particularly memorable bass players; it's a thankless job. But Roy Mitchell-Cardenas gets to be front and center during a few of his band's extended jams, especially the trippy "Stare at the Sun" and its outro "Obsolete", which find him moonlighting as a percussionist when he's not coaxing some phat sounds out of an upright bass that's at least as big as he is.

And then there's the secret weapon, drummer Darren King, who I've heard only has two arms like the rest of us, but he's never slowed them down on stage enough for me to distinctly count them. He very nearly steals the show out from under Meany on several occasions. It's by design. What other band would let their drummer dismantle his own kit during the encore, hand parts of it to fellow band members, and then go crowd surfing on top of his own bass drum? (This resulted in a wicked attempt at a stage dive that almost resulted in disaster.)

Armed with all that musical wizardry, there's almost never a dull moment during a Mute Math show. To be fair, I still have to say that their older material is probably the best vehicle for them to showcase their talents, since a lot of the newer stuff from this year's Armistice came a bit closer to playing it by the rules, with less room for jamming. Those are still good songs and highly entertaining to watch when the band recreates them on stage, but as cool as the riff or bass line of songs like "The Nerve" and "Backfire", etc., may sound, they're compact enough to not leave a lot of room for the open-ended stuff. The single "Spotlight" (which I guess is what got the Twilight fans on board - crappy movie, savvy soundtrack) with its sweet vocal runs and handclapping, proved to be a little more open-ended, as did the funky "Armistice", which led into a bit of a non-sequitur jam at the end. And the album closer, "Burden", which finished out the main set, was definitely designed for that sort of thing... and yet that was the one song that didn't quite deliver. Meany just kept vamping on the line "I just can't hold it together" as the group kept chewing on the same drum beat and melody line, never finishing it off with the slow, contemplative section that provides the album's most profound lyric: "The devil is not the nature that is around us, but the nature that is within us all". It would have been so much more satisfying to have that lead into the final drum solo, but if only five minutes of a nearly two-hour show were a bit tedious, I honestly can't complain.

The songs that really got the audience going were the oldies, of course - the jerky, manic energy of "Plan B", the relentless syncopated rhythm of "Chaos", the bouncy giddiness of "Noticed", and of course the hyper-driven guitar riffs of "Typical". The band knew exactly when to drop these into the setlist for good measure, mixing the old with the new, and the only complaint I can make about the old songs is that several of them seemed abbreviated in comparison to how the band used to play them. We all know that "Stare at the Sun" is really just there as an excuse to have fun with the plentiful solos in "Obsolete", and we all know that "Break the Same" is designed to be a show-stopper to the point where the song itself gets lost amidst the band practically taking the entire stage apart in the process. That's fine. But these songs do have full sets of lyrics; it was mildly disappointing to have sections of them skipped altogether. Again, given how excitingly arranged and sequenced everything was, I really couldn't nitpick that point for too long.

While the band did leave out "Control" and the newer song "Goodbye", two of my favorites, they managed to surprise me with the songs that got included, most notably "You Are Mine". It's a dreamy little slow groove, probably the closest thing that the band has to a pure "love song", and that provided a good break in the exhausting display of energy where Christine and I could just put our arms around each other and drink in the mood. Since most of the new album is about the hard parts of relationships, the points where you choose to call off wars and admit defeat and go your separate ways, it was good to have the more optimistic stuff from the band's earlier days mixed in like this.

The band had a video screen set up behind them, reflecting the motif of the Armistice album cover, that was used to project random clips of old films and such when it wasn't projecting the actual band members in grainy black-and-white. At one point they even used the screen interactively, projecting four circles onto it while Greg Hill stood in front of it with drumsticks, banging out an electronic rhythm on pads that were hidden behind it as the circles lighted up when hit. That was an inventive approach that made "No Response" - not one of my favorites from the new album - come into its own as a much more intriguing song. Also savvy were the jazzy drums and slick upright bass of "Pins & Needles", which the band must like a lot since they saved it for the encore, and Greg Hill's slide guitar solo that filled in nicely where a string section would have shown up in the album version of "Clipping". These guys are quite skilled at making sure every song they play live deviates from the album version in (usually) interesting ways. It should be noted that the marathon encore, which ended with the one-two punch of the instrumental "Reset" and the aforementioned "Break the Same", will probably never sound exactly the same in any two performances. The audience itself almost becomes a part of the act at that point.

The opening act was a band called As Tall as Lions. I had never heard of 'em, and when they took forever to get going due to a detuned guitar that prompted an "extended ambient intro", I was prepared to expect them to be a waste of my time. But they very quickly changed my mind with some highly danceable rhythms, a real gift for syncopation and odd time signatures, a little bit of Mute Math-style communal percussion, and an "anything goes" approach with dual vocalists, keyboards, xylophones, a trumpet, basically anything to veer left from the typical radio rock sound. (I was bummed that they didn't bring the trumpet player out to help with Mute Math's set - he would have been right at home during the New Orelans-styled "Armistice".) I will definitely be checking them out in the future.

The venue, Club Nokia, kind of got on my nerves. The people there were cool - your mix of big fans who just wanted to drink in the visual and aural spectacle, and the clubbing types who just wanted to let loose and dance. Just watching those folks freak out right in front of us added a lot to the energy of the show, I think. Unfortunately, the atmosphere of the venue and especially the people who worked there just screamed "Too sophisticated for our own good". The security guards, while they have an important role to fulfill to make sure crowds don't get out of hand in a venue like this, were being real jerks, making people turn off their camera phones, interrupting folks in the process of having a good time to insist that they remove the slive of their shoe that was standing on the white line demarcating the walkway that led to the pit, and even telling me and Christine we weren't allowed to sit down and rest our cramped, weary legs in between sets. I could understand that if it were a sold-out show, but come on dude, we were sitting back against the wall and were staying totally out of people's way.

But the most irritating thing had to be the restroom attendants. I'm sorry, but this is a mid-sized club where relatively young folks come to hear rock music, not some snooty top-of-the-line private lounge on the East Coast or whatever. I do not need some dude to help me put soap on my hands and hand me a paper towel on my way out with the hope that I'll feel obligated to tip him! All this does is encourage folks to duck out without washing their hands at all, and contribute to the spread of swine flu. (Yes, I still washed them. And I did it all by myself, thank you very much.) Honestly, whenever a place has a "bathroom guy", it just makes it seem all hoity-toity and I never want to go back there again.

[plvarona]

Here's my long overdue write-up of the Mat Kearney/Vedera show at the House of Blues in New Orleans last Sunday:

Mat Kearney put on an excellent show.  I thought he was even better than when I saw him last, which was four years ago, and I thought he was pretty good back then.  This time, he had a full band, and they were pretty tight.  Overall, Mat's songs stood out a lot better live than on CD.  This was a good thing, because I thought his last few CDs were decent, but didn't stand out that much, whereas I thoroughly enjoyed his music live.  In fact, I think Mat is starting to become a lot like what Bebo Norman is for me: not that great on CD, but his live show is a must-see.

As for the specifics, I do think Mat's band really helped to bring out a lot of songs that didn't stand out that much on CD.  Mat is also quite an entertainer, and he even jumped into the crowd during "Runaway Car", and sang the entire song from the audience.  In fact, at one point during this song Mat literally ran right by me.  Mat also did a freestyle verse about New Orleans during "Undeniable", which included a reference to the New Orleans Saints' big win earlier in the day.  Speaking about references to the city, Mat did sneak a few New Orleans references in some other songs, which can be cheesy if overdone, but a lot of Mat's songs deal with travel so they turned out okay here.  The only significant negative I can think of here were that some of Mat's raps sounded off-timed.  This was especially noticeable on "In The Middle" and also when he tried to do the rapping and singing back-to-back before the chorus of "Undeniable."  That nitpick aside, this was still a very strong set, and so far I'd rank this concert as my 2nd favorite that I've attended this year.

The opening act was a female-fronted pop/rock band named Vedera, and I thought they did a good job.  Their music is catchy in some spots, and their sound went over pretty well in a live setting.  I also give lead singer Kirsten May props for handling an overzealous fan pretty well.  Essentially, this fan just kept mouthing on and on in between songs.  He was funny for the first minute, but then got very annoying after that, and I thought Kristen did pretty well to let most of his comments just bounce right off.

Set Lists:

Mat Kearney: "All I Have", "Fire & Rain", "Crashing Down", "Breathe In, Breathe Out", "In The Middle", "Lifeline", "Girl America", "Renaissance", "Chicago", "Here We Go", "Runaway Car", "All I Need", "Undeniable", "Nothing Left to Lose"
Encore: "City of Black and White", "Closer to Love", "Dancing in the Dark" (Bruce Springsteen cover)

Vedera: "Greater Than", "Loving Ghosts", "Forgive You", "A World Apart", "Goodbye My Love", "Satisfy", "Back to the Middle", "The Rain", "We Sing"

[murlough23]

For the U2 fans out thre who didn't know, YouTube is webcasting tonight's performance from the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, starting at 8:30 PM. I know it's a bit late for you East Coast folks, but anyway, tune in if you're interested.

http://www.youtube.com/U2official#p/u

[ajyouthguy]

never got around to posting my U2 tracklist for the show in Dallas,  but here it is...i'll admit i cheated a bit b/c i didn't recognize all of the 'snippets' and stuff, so i looked up this site that has the track listings to get those.

Breathe, Get On Your Boots, Magnificent, Mysterious Ways / My Sweet Lord (snippet), Beautiful Day / Blackbird (snippet), I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For / Stand By Me (snippet), Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of, No Line On The Horizon, Elevation, Until The End Of The World, The Unforgettable Fire, City Of Blinding Lights, Vertigo, I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight / Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) (snippet) / Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough (snippet), Sunday Bloody Sunday / Get Up Stand Up (snippet), MLK, Walk On / You'll Never Walk Alone (snippet)
Encore: One / Amazing Grace (snippet), Where The Streets Have No Name / All You Need Is Love (snippet), Encore 2: Ultra Violet (Light My Way), With Or Without You, Moment of Surrender

[murlough23]

Thanks for the tracklisting; saved me a lot of trouble, since tonight's show in Pasadena had the almost exact same setlist. Only difference that I can see is that we got "In a Little While", which I think was after NLOTH, but I could be wrong. Also, they slipped "Unknown Caller" in there right before "Until the End of the World". Given that they dragged "The Unforgettable Fire" and "Ultraviolet" out of mothballs, I was convinced that they had gone through their discography in alphabetical order by song and said "Let's play all the 'U' songs tonight".

I'm going to write up a review on Epinions for this one, but for now, I'll just say that I was blown away. It was a solid show with a tireless setlist that hit more favorites and obscure relics than I could have ever expected. It was also a hell of a technical achievement, which I guess is par for the course for U2 tours, but still. Holy freaking WOW.

The Black Eyed Peas were even mildly enjoyable. They write catchy songs and know how to put on an entertaining show, even if their lyrics are STOOPID. Slash showed up to play "Sweet Child of Mine" with them, which basically gave the rest of the group nothing to do while Fergie pretended to be Axl Rose, but it was entertaining.

[dgp11776]

Switchfoot is coming to Charlotte in December with no opening act.  I'm pretty sure I'll make it to that one.

[bloop]

The Black Eyed Peas were even mildly enjoyable. They write catchy songs and know how to put on an entertaining show, even if their lyrics are STOOPID.

Their greatest hit might be "Let's Get Retarded", so what can one expect?

[murlough23]

Their greatest hit might be "Let's Get Retarded", so what can one expect?

Indeed. Their music unites people from all races so that we can all celebrate our lowest common denominator.

[murlough23]

Here's my full review of the U2 concert. Since it's more of a personal anecdote than a straight-up critique (and since concert reviews have been deprecated on Epinions in general), I've posted is on my blog instead.

http://murlough23.xanga.com/715315245/u2-concert-review-blessings-are-not-just-for-the-ones-who-kneel/

By the way, AJ, that's Larry on the drums. Adam plays bass. Did Larry not walk around playing the djembe during "I'll Go Crazy?" (They did a remixed version for us; it's possible they worked that out later on after deciding it was more energetic and fun than the somewhat lackluster album version.)

[ajyouthguy]

By the way, AJ, that's Larry on the drums. Adam plays bass. Did Larry not walk around playing the djembe during "I'll Go Crazy?" (They did a remixed version for us; it's possible they worked that out later on after deciding it was more energetic and fun than the somewhat lackluster album version.)

i knew that, i just put it backwards, didn't even realize it, although i will admit for a long time i had them backwards and struggled to get it straight.  and yes, he did walk around on one song, i forgot about that, although even at that it was hard for us to see from where we were.

[murlough23]

i knew that, i just put it backwards, didn't even realize it, although i will admit for a long time i had them backwards and struggled to get it straight.  and yes, he did walk around on one song, i forgot about that, although even at that it was hard for us to see from where we were.

When the members of U2 did "The Top 10 Things U2 Has Learned Over the Years" on Letterman, Larry said for #7, "Even my family asks, 'Are you Adam or Larry?'"

[plvarona]

I don't think this is going to top the U2 concert that AJ and murlough attended, but here's my account of a concert I recently attended that was still pretty good.

Last Saturday I made the 4-hour drive to Houston to see Derek Webb in concert at the House of Blues.  On top of that, the concert was on my birthday.  I'm certainly glad I made the trip too, because Derek and his band did an excellent job.  This time, Derek brought two instrumentalists with him: Josh Moore of Caedmon's Call, and some drummer named Chris (I didn't catch his last name.)  Both of them complemented Derek very well, really helping to build the songs up.  Josh alternated between keyboards and guitars, and he was also responsible for all of the electronic programming, making sure everything was timed correctly.  On the drums, Chris was an animal, and there were some songs where I was almost expecting him to put holes all over his drumset because he was hitting them so hard.

Not surprisingly, the set list heavily featured Stockholm Syndrome, and in fact, the entire album was played.  Derek said himself there wasn't a single song on that album that he didn't want to play, so he decided to play the whole thing in order.  He did take a break halfway through the album, and gave a 20-minute all-request acoustic set before inviting the rest of the band back on for the second half of the album.  Some of you here have commented on how fun you found Stockholm Syndrome to be musically, and I found the album to be even more fun live.  Standouts included "The Spirit vs. The Kickdrum" (which featured Derek beating on a kickdrum after the chorus), "What You Give Up to Get It" (one song where the drummer went absolutely crazy), "Jena & Jimmy" (which was a blast despite Derek's amp malfunctioning) and "What Matters More" (between the beat and Derek's rapid-fire lyrics.)  A few softer songs also had a chance to really shine, with "Heaven" especially standing out.  As for the requests, Derek asked for them at the beginning of the acoustic set, and he got way more than 20 minutes worth of requests, so I think he just picked his 5 favorites out of all the songs he heard.  Not surprisingly, some of the usual standards appeared, such as "Wedding Dress" and "Table For Two."  However, I was pleasantly surprised to see him bring out "Love is Different", and I think this was the first time I've heard him do that song solo.  

Also, Derek had a chance to sneak in a few funny lines, as he tends to do in concert.  One such example was when he was introducing "Table For Two", and he mentioned he was hoping to encourage all the single people out there, and if it didn't work "the bar is still open."  Derek also drew some laughs at the end of his set when he explained that he doesn't do encores, and his theory is that it doesn't work for him because he "doesn't have any hits."  So overall, this was an excellent set for Derek, and this very well may have been the best I have ever heard him.  Derek also described Caedmon's Call like "Hotel California" in that "you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave."

There was one opening act and it was independent folk singer-songwriter Marc Scibilia.  He did a pretty good job, as he showed off quite a bit of talent, had thoughtful lyrics, and even had a sense of humor.

Set Lists:

Derek Webb: "Opening Credits", "Black Eye", "Cobra Con", "Freddie, Please", "The Spirit vs. The Kickdrum", "What Matters More", "The State", "The Proverbial Gun", "Love is Different", "I Want to Mary You All Over Again", "Table For Two", "Wedding Dress", "Lover", "I Love/Hate You", "Becoming a Slave", "Jena & Jimmy", "Heaven", "What You Give Up to Get It", "American Flag Umbrella"

(I may add Marc Scibilia's set list later if I can ID the songs.)

[plvarona]

I saw Switchfoot this past Saturday in New Orleans, and this may have been the best I have seen them.  For one thing, almost half of their set contained songs I was hearing live for the first time, which pretty much nipped my biggest complaint about their recent shows in the bud.  (FYI, my complaint was about the set list being practically the same the last 3 or 4 times I saw them.)  Furthermore, the band continued to do an excellent job with their instrumentation, which is something that just continues to get better.  Some new wrinkles were even added here, which included Jerome Fontamillas playing the accordion on a few songs toward the end of the set, and Jon Foreman playing the piano on "Always."  Jon and Tim Foreman even showed their sense of humor on a few occasions, firing a few one-liners.

Getting back to the set list, the band started their set by playing the entire Hello Hurricane album all the way through.  Then they closed with a few of their biggest radio hits, before coming back for a 4-song encore, which was a mix of old favorites and a few other change-of-pace songs, for them.  On the latter, I was very happy to see "Twenty-Four" make a return to their set list, as it has been several years since I heard that song live.  I was also happy to see them break out "Chem 6A", even if they only played half of it.  As for the new songs, a lot of them went over very well in a live setting, which I expected.  Songs that especially went over well included "The Sound", "Bullet Soul" and "Yet."

As for crowd-pleasing moments, one of the highlights was when Jon noticed a fan holding up a sign that said "Do You Love Me Enough to Play Bass on Bullet?"  (This was a reference to "Bullet Soul.")  After Jon saw the sign and conferred with his brother, they agreed to let him come on during the chorus of that song.  So when that song came up, they let this fan get on stage when the song started.  Then when the chorus came, Tim handed off his bass to the fan, and the fan actually did pretty well.  This led Tim to remark afterwards, "If I need to take a few days off, I know who to call."  Also, Jon made his usual trek into the crowd, this time doing it during "Hello Hurricane."  This time, Jon actually came within one foot of me, which is the closest he's gotten to me during his ventures into the crowd.

Finally, as a side note, Elizabeth Perkins, the daughter of John M. Perkins (the inspiration behind the song "The Sound") was actually in attendance at this concert.  Jon mentioned that right before they played "The Sound."

Set List:
"Needle and Haystack Life", "Mess of Me", "Your Love is a Song", "The Sound (John M. Perkins Blues)", "Enough to Let Me Go", "Free" (with a sample of "Happy is a Yuppie Word" at the beginning), "Hello Hurricane", "Always", "Bullet Soul", "Yet", "Sing it Out", "Red Eyes", "Oh! Gravity.", "Stars / The Shadow Proves The Sunshine", "Meant to Live"
Encore: "Twenty-Four", "Chem 6A" (half), "The Blues", "Dare You to Move"

[murlough23]

Sounds like a great concert, but I still would have found it boring and predictable to hear all of HH in the same sequence as the album.

And only half of "Chem 6A"? Really? Why even bother bringing it out if it was just a tease? Did they not have time?

NP: "Last of the American Girls", Green Day