Blog.Repeat.Blog

I usually don't post stuff on the weekends, but this weekend's gonna be pretty non-eventful since I don't have any $. I was too busy yesterday with work and stuff, so I wasn't able do one of these. So, this post will mostly be about yesterday. Today, though, I slept in until about 2:30pm since I couldn't fall asleep until 6am last night/this morning. That's extra shitty since I didn't wake up in time to put my check in the bank so that I'd have money to do stuff today & tomorrow. Shit happens. Enough of the sob story, here's some stuff to read about:

So yesterday I jumped on MySpace and read a bulletin from The Hold Steady that they were performing at Lollapalooza and that their performance would be broadcast live for free on the internet. Now, I remember watching a webcast of Lollapalooza before, but I couldn't remember if it was 2005 or 2006. A quick glance online confirms that I watched a few bands on 07/25/05. I missed the Ponys and Dinosaur Jr. (I also missed Dinosaur Jr. in Cleveland around the same time frame and I'm still super pissed about that, since they haven't been back since and don't show any desire to want to come back), but I caught the Arcade Fire and Spoon. I was kinda on the fence as it pertained to the Arcade Fire at the time, but their performance converted me. I don't care how many idiots pontificate on the brilliance of Funeral, I'm always gonna love it. I got the new(er) one from the library a while back, though, but I never gave it a listen. I guess I haven't been in the mood for that stuff lately.

One band I'm always in the mood for is Spoon. I caught their set 2 years back, and it was shortly after they played the Beachland Ballroom as part of the CMJ thing that happened in 05. Since I'm pretty much a dork, I wrote down Spoon's setlist as I watched them online. I didn't do that at the Beachland since I was having too much fun. And, for some unknown reason (maybe because I knew one day I'd be writing this) I found the setlist without even really having to look for it. Here it is:

The Beast and Dragon, Adored
Me and the Bean
Someone Something
Lines in the Suit
The Fitted Shirt
The Delicate Place
I Turn My Camera On
Sister Jack
Paper Tiger
The Way We Get By
They Never Got You
I Summon You
The Two Sides of Monsieur Valentine
Anything You Want
Jonathon Fisk
My Mathematical Mind

Quite a set. And, a lot different from the Beachland show. I seem to remember them playing the first four or five songs from Gimme Fiction in order to start the set. I don't really remember too much of their set at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh a few months back, either, but I think that might be because they played a good deal of stuff from Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga and it hadn't been released yet.

So, back to yesterday, I found the site online that was showing Lollapalooza, and, to my luck and astonishment, saw that I was about to catch Ted Leo! I was very excited, since he just cancelled his show in Cleveland the other day. Let me say that, despite the fact that him and his band sounded fantastic, it seemed like the live feed took a HUGE step down from two years ago. I didn't see anything last year, so I can't comment on that. The video was beyond choppy, and after 35 minutes of his supposed hour set, the computer froze. And, bear in mind that nothing else was running on the computer but Lollapalooza. So I was miffed to say the least. But, what I did see was phenomenal. And once again, since I'm a dork, here's the setlist of what I saw:

The Sons of Cain
Me and Mia
Army Bound
Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone?
Bomb.Repeat.Bomb
Colleen
A Bottle of Buckie
The Unwanted Things
Heart Problems
Timorous Me
then the connection craps out

Seems like a lot of new stuff, but as I said, everything sounded great. I just tried to log back on to the Lollapalooza feed a minute ago to catch The Hold Steady, but it froze the computer again. Good thing I didn't stay home last night to try and watch LCD Soundsystem, because it probably wouldn't have worked then, either.

Sucks that I gotta stay in this weekend, since I wanted to catch Johnie 3 and some bands at a bowling alley in the Lakewood area, but that show seems like it might not turn out that great, so we'll see.

Until Then,
Later.

Deerhunter / Ponys / Jay Reatard and Whatever Else

I used to hear about The Reatards a lot in my maximumrocknroll reading days. But, I never knew anyone else cool enough to be into them (living in Youngstown, Ohio at the time might have something to do with that) and I never took the initiative to seek their albums out. Now I wish I had. Jay Reatard started the night off right after a fairly lengthy delay. The Ponys and Deerhunter were both coming from Pitchfork Fest in Chicago (you may have heard of it) so they were a little late. My buddy Noah and myself were running late ourselves so I'm glad it started late since we didn't miss anything. Above is what Jay and his band look like when Jay's singing.



And here's another one. Note the punk rockers in the shot.




And here they are rocking the fuck out. I can probably learn to crop the ceiling out of the picture, but, like the Chromeo/Flosstradamus shots and every other picture I've posted, I'm gonna keep it as is.



Here's more rockin, along with more gratuitous ceiling. It was tough to stay in one spot to get these shots since there was a small mosh pit that kept shaking everything up. It was great to see kids into the show, though. Also, it was interesting to see a Jay fan that I don't think I'd seen since the Rapture show at the Grog in 11/06. She had short cropped sandyish blonde hair, and if by some miracle that she actually reads this, I hope to see her again because she seems like someone I'd like to get to know.



The Ponys were next. I'd missed them each and every time they'd been in town, so it was great to finally catch them in action. I'd heard good stuff about their live show, and I've gotta be honest, they don't really wow me on record. Every album I'd heard just seems to be missing that little ooomph to take it over the edge. They found that ooomph on this night.




Those are some tight jeans.



I knew that keyboard was there for something other than to add stage decor.




Another tight jeam shot, although I was standing on her side of the stage, so what are you gonna do? In all seriousness, she was super nice when I talked to her after the show. And, I don't get into soap opera type BS of who's in a relationship with who and all that, but I think I saw a ring on her finger anyway. Great set by a great band.




Deerhunter is the group I knew the least about, since I just heard of them recently and tried not to get caught up in the hype machine. I've heard numerous bands name My Bloody Valentine as an influence through the years, but Deerhunter may be the best of the lot. I know that's the most obvious comparison, too, but TS.




This shot's a little better. I didn't get a lot of Deerhunter pics, since it was getting late and I was getting tired. After they were done, I had the aforementioned conversation with the Ponys bassist and purchased Jay Reatard's Blood Visions CD. Here's what it looks like:


I really like it, and I'm glad I made the purchase. It's been a while since I bought a CD at a show. And, between CDs, LPs, 7"s, and shirts, he had plenty of merch. I almost forgot that I swiped a flier the night I was at the Grog for Fujiya and Miyagi. Here's that one:



I think that's enough fanboyishness for one post. Although, this flier brings me to a point I was gonna make. The fact that the first act of the night had fliers all over the place, in addition to everyone else, let everyone know that this show was pretty important. Another thing the night had going for it was the immense diversity of the bands involved. The jumpy late 70s-early 80s sounding punk/no wave/new wave/whatever of Jay Reatard, the rock of the Ponys (I hate the term indie), and the shoegaze/ambient/rock/whatever of Deerhunter. I like seeing bands from such different areas of good music get together like that. I think that was my point, anyway.

In other news, the TNA Pay Per View was mostly boring, although the Steiners came back, so I'm pumped about that. Somehow, I don't see Scotty getting any smaller after the upcoming crackdown on steroids from the Benoit situation. Social D's playing Y-Town tomorrow, so that'll be a lot of fun. I probably won't be able to bring a camera, but we'll see. Cedar Point(?) sometime this weekend. Let's have fun.

Until Then,
Later.

A Quick One

I don't really feel like writing much after the whirlwind of the last few days. Tomorrow I'll post some pics of last night's Deerhunter/Ponys /Jay Reatard extravaganza, but that'll be then. I'm gonna catch up on all the wrestling I missed the last little while, and here's a movie I caught today at the Cedar Lee:




Jennifer Connelly got me going in 86, and she still does today. It'll be there until Thursday, so get to it. For me, it was nice to get through the entire movie in a theatre without screaming for the exits like I did the first time all those years ago. I guess that'll happen when you're four years old.

Until Then,
Later.