The last time Ween rolled through Austin was 2003, so when I heard they'd be playing Stubb's two nights in a row, I snatched up tickets as fast as I possibly could. I was a bit worried that the long hiatus, which included a stint in rehab for Gener and the longest stretch between albums they've ever had, might take a bit of pizzazz out of their legendary live prowess. I hadn't lost my faith, I just slightly questioned it.
I was a foolish, foolish man.
Last night, Ween took Stubb's like a tidal wave. They went on just a little after 8pm, and didn't relinquish their grip until almost 11pm, for a total playing time of somewhere between 2:45 and 3 hours. Not bad, not bad at all. By my count, there were 32 total songs played. Yes I said 32, which for Ween is just another stroll in the park. Here is the setlist (there were a couple I could not identify):
01. The HIV Song
02. The Golden Eel
03. Baby Bitch
04. Spinal Meningitis
05. Even If You Don't
06. Transdermal Celebration
07. Touch My Tooter
08. Slow Down Boy
09. Waving My Dick In The Wind
10. Voodoo Lady
11. Zoloft
12. Exactly Where I'm At
13. Push Th' Little Daisies
14. Piss Up A Rope
15. ?? (Badass prog rock stuff, possibly new or cover)
16. She's Your Baby
17. Frank
18. The Mollusk
19. I'll Be Your Johnny On The Spot
20. Stroker Ace
21. Puerto Rican Power
22. Ocean Man
23. A Tear For Eddie
24. Best Time At Your Party
25. She F**ks Me
26. ?? (Crazy synth/chanting stuff, possibly new or maybe just a lead-in to the next song)
27. I Can't Put My Finger On It
(Break)
28. ?? (Something with the keys sounding like horns, possibly new or just live wankery)
29. Sketches Of Winkle
30. Sorry Charlie
31. Booze Me Up And Get Me High
32. Someday
What a set!! They started pretty slow and deliberate with "The HIV Song" and "The Golden Eel", like they were still feeling it out. "Baby Bitch" was a good follow-up, it started getting everyone in the sing-along mood ("F**k you, you stinkin' ass ho!"). After that the momentum just kept building, and everyone strapped in for a wild ride.
They paced the set extremely well, balancing the mellower tunes with sheer rockers, and everything in between. There was some excellent jamming out going on, as well: they extended the rockout ending of "The Golden Eel" by a minute or two; "Voodoo Lady", as always, featured a few minutes of improvised guitar screaming in the middle; "Zoloft" was utterly deconstructed down to a practical standstill before creeping back up to its feel-good groove; the guitar solo in "I'll Be Your Johnny On The Spot" was extended a couple frantic minutes.
The coup-de-gras, though, was an INSANE version of "A Tear For Eddie". Those of you dedicated Ween fans know how good the version is from the Live At Stubb's album (ironic, I know). This was even better, and possibly longer. Dean was in the zone, shredding like mad then pulling it back to the slow sweet melody, and doing it over and over, building it up higher each time. I think even Gener was in awe. Anyway, that right there was worth the price of admission.
They continued on and ended the normal set with a crunchy version of "I Can't Put My Finger On It", which was led into by some weird crazy synth stuff while Gener was chanting and wailing away in a Middle-Eastern sort of way. After leaving the stage, they came back and plowed through a few more, the best received of which being a rousing rendition of "Booze Me Up And Get Me High". The crowd was delirious with joy by this point, everyone shouting out the lyrics as loud as they could and lifting their 16oz. High Life's into the air (I practically launched mine, hehe). It was a full blown hot, sweaty, dirty, exhausted, Ween-rock love vibe. It was exactly what rock-and-roll is supposed to be, its the reason I'm still smiling today, and why I'm PUMPED to catch round 2 tonight!!!
To be continued tomorrow.....
Friday, August 10, 2007
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Pelican @ Emo's, Austin (08.04.2007)
After a longer concert dry spell than normal (my last show was Tool in May), I was jazzed to find out last week that Pelican would be hitting my favorite small venue in Austin on Saturday. How I had not heard about the show until 4 days before, I have no idea. But judging by the fact that the show was inside (much smaller than the outside area) and by the fact that the show was still not completely packed, even given the smaller area, my guess is that it may have been a somewhat last-minute scheduled show. I'm just glad I happened to check the schedule in time, I was definitely in need of some good live riffage.
First, there were two opening bands. The first one, Fatal Flying Guillotines, was awful, mainly due to the retardedly spastic singer. I suppose I would classify their style as a punk-metal kind of thing, and as far as musicianship goes, they weren't too bad. The drummer seemed fairly competent, the guitarists were fine, and the bassist was actually pretty damn good. The songs were just so-so though, and any last hope of finding them remotely interesting was destroyed by the singer's antics. His vocals were a whiney type of shouting, and he stomped around the stage like a cross between Mick Jagger and a gimpy peacock. He kept lifting up the mic stand and swinging it around, more than once hitting the two guitarists on either side of him. And once he threw it lamely into the small crowd of people at the edge of the stage, and they kind of looked at it, picked it up off the ground and handed it back to him. It appeared that one of the guitarists had a major beef with him too, as the guitarist kept shoving the singer away from him, and once he slung beer into the singer's face when he was getting all up in his business. It would have all been pretty comical, if it hadn't been so damn annoying. I've already wasted way more words here on them than they really deserve.
The second opening band was called Clouds, and they weren't half bad. They were kind of all over the place style wise. They primarily had a sludgy Black Sabbath type sound, but would then go off into more jazzy, progressive parts, kind of reminiscent of Mastodon. I didn't think any of it was good enough to buy and check out further, but as opening bands go, they weren't bad.
So, then came Pelican. Here is the setlist:
01. Concrete In Bliss
02. City Of Echoes
03. Drought
04. Lost In The Headlights
05. Dead Between The Walls
06. Far From Fields
07. Aurora Borealis
08. Sirius
09. Red Ran Amber
(Break)
10. Mammoth
Its was definitely an interesting setlist, and longer than any set I've seen Pelican play (total time was about an hour and 25 minutes). I had expected a full dose of songs from the new album City Of Echoes, which lent 5 of its 8 tracks to the set. What I was not expecting, though, was to hear anything from Australasia or the self-titled EP, or see such a focus on the latter half of The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw. Not to say that it was bad, on the contrary it was an incredibly refreshing set, executed flawlessly. I was just surprised because a) I had not heard them play anything from Australasia in a couple years, b) I don't think I had EVER heard them play anything from the EP, and c) I had never seen them NOT play "March To The Sea" since the song was recorded. Roll all those into one show, and you've got one very suprised yet ecstatic tedo!
Just as a note, though, I will say that I do think it was a mistake to not play "March To The Sea". That song should always be played, I don't care how tired of it they may get. That song is so great, it transcends their ownership of it. Every Pelican fan should have the chance to see how thunderously that song brings the house down! But, that's the only slight negative I will mark up for this show.
Everything else about the show was perfect. The sound was excellent. The last couple Pelican shows I had seen had the guitars cranked a bit too high, so that a lot of Trevor de Brauw's higher stuff got lost. I'm glad to say that this was not the case Saturday at all, everything came through very clean and crisp, with maybe just a little bit of tinkering with the sound during the first song. Schroeder-Lebec's guitar was as crunchy and massive as I've ever heard it. The bass and drums were solid as always, which is particularly important seeing as Pelican's songwriting has continued to feature more standout bass parts and active drum elements. Maybe playing the inside venue helped accoustically, but whatever it was, it was nice to see the sound setup return to form.
Performance wise, this was definitely the tightest I've seen them play, and they seemed to be having an absolute blast. Having the new material from City Of Echoes has added some much-needed depth to their repertoire, and the style changes throughout the show seem to have added another level of energy to the guys in the band. By their standards, they were extremely interactive with the crowd, and seemed to really feed off the excitement of the crowd. I may be completely wrong about this, but it seemed to me that adding the encore at the end was a spur-of-the-moment decision. They had all gotten about half-way off the stage, and were just staring almost in shock at how insanely wild the crowd was cheering. Larry Herweg looked as if he didn't want to leave the stage, and he called something out to the other guys. After about 20 seconds of quick conversation, they strapped back up, plugged back in, and launched into "Mammoth", a sludgy monolithic cruncher from their self-titled debut EP of all things. Was it the best song for an encore? No. And honestly, its a track that I typically skip over if I happen to listen to the album. But with the circumstances surrounding how it was played and the energy and vibe running through the place, it could not have been a sweeter treat. Digging deep into their back pocket and pulling out something probably never heard by any fan there just summed up the whole evening. The guys in Pelican were giving their all, and it resulted in what might very well be the best show I've seen them put on yet.
Support these guys. If they are in your town, go check them out, talk to them before or after the show. They are nice, hard-working guys who love doing this. You'll have a blast, I guarantee.
(And here is a link to a recent article about the band. Its a good read:
http://www.decibelmagazine.com/features/jul2007/pelican.aspx).
First, there were two opening bands. The first one, Fatal Flying Guillotines, was awful, mainly due to the retardedly spastic singer. I suppose I would classify their style as a punk-metal kind of thing, and as far as musicianship goes, they weren't too bad. The drummer seemed fairly competent, the guitarists were fine, and the bassist was actually pretty damn good. The songs were just so-so though, and any last hope of finding them remotely interesting was destroyed by the singer's antics. His vocals were a whiney type of shouting, and he stomped around the stage like a cross between Mick Jagger and a gimpy peacock. He kept lifting up the mic stand and swinging it around, more than once hitting the two guitarists on either side of him. And once he threw it lamely into the small crowd of people at the edge of the stage, and they kind of looked at it, picked it up off the ground and handed it back to him. It appeared that one of the guitarists had a major beef with him too, as the guitarist kept shoving the singer away from him, and once he slung beer into the singer's face when he was getting all up in his business. It would have all been pretty comical, if it hadn't been so damn annoying. I've already wasted way more words here on them than they really deserve.
The second opening band was called Clouds, and they weren't half bad. They were kind of all over the place style wise. They primarily had a sludgy Black Sabbath type sound, but would then go off into more jazzy, progressive parts, kind of reminiscent of Mastodon. I didn't think any of it was good enough to buy and check out further, but as opening bands go, they weren't bad.
So, then came Pelican. Here is the setlist:
01. Concrete In Bliss
02. City Of Echoes
03. Drought
04. Lost In The Headlights
05. Dead Between The Walls
06. Far From Fields
07. Aurora Borealis
08. Sirius
09. Red Ran Amber
(Break)
10. Mammoth
Its was definitely an interesting setlist, and longer than any set I've seen Pelican play (total time was about an hour and 25 minutes). I had expected a full dose of songs from the new album City Of Echoes, which lent 5 of its 8 tracks to the set. What I was not expecting, though, was to hear anything from Australasia or the self-titled EP, or see such a focus on the latter half of The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw. Not to say that it was bad, on the contrary it was an incredibly refreshing set, executed flawlessly. I was just surprised because a) I had not heard them play anything from Australasia in a couple years, b) I don't think I had EVER heard them play anything from the EP, and c) I had never seen them NOT play "March To The Sea" since the song was recorded. Roll all those into one show, and you've got one very suprised yet ecstatic tedo!
Just as a note, though, I will say that I do think it was a mistake to not play "March To The Sea". That song should always be played, I don't care how tired of it they may get. That song is so great, it transcends their ownership of it. Every Pelican fan should have the chance to see how thunderously that song brings the house down! But, that's the only slight negative I will mark up for this show.
Everything else about the show was perfect. The sound was excellent. The last couple Pelican shows I had seen had the guitars cranked a bit too high, so that a lot of Trevor de Brauw's higher stuff got lost. I'm glad to say that this was not the case Saturday at all, everything came through very clean and crisp, with maybe just a little bit of tinkering with the sound during the first song. Schroeder-Lebec's guitar was as crunchy and massive as I've ever heard it. The bass and drums were solid as always, which is particularly important seeing as Pelican's songwriting has continued to feature more standout bass parts and active drum elements. Maybe playing the inside venue helped accoustically, but whatever it was, it was nice to see the sound setup return to form.
Performance wise, this was definitely the tightest I've seen them play, and they seemed to be having an absolute blast. Having the new material from City Of Echoes has added some much-needed depth to their repertoire, and the style changes throughout the show seem to have added another level of energy to the guys in the band. By their standards, they were extremely interactive with the crowd, and seemed to really feed off the excitement of the crowd. I may be completely wrong about this, but it seemed to me that adding the encore at the end was a spur-of-the-moment decision. They had all gotten about half-way off the stage, and were just staring almost in shock at how insanely wild the crowd was cheering. Larry Herweg looked as if he didn't want to leave the stage, and he called something out to the other guys. After about 20 seconds of quick conversation, they strapped back up, plugged back in, and launched into "Mammoth", a sludgy monolithic cruncher from their self-titled debut EP of all things. Was it the best song for an encore? No. And honestly, its a track that I typically skip over if I happen to listen to the album. But with the circumstances surrounding how it was played and the energy and vibe running through the place, it could not have been a sweeter treat. Digging deep into their back pocket and pulling out something probably never heard by any fan there just summed up the whole evening. The guys in Pelican were giving their all, and it resulted in what might very well be the best show I've seen them put on yet.
Support these guys. If they are in your town, go check them out, talk to them before or after the show. They are nice, hard-working guys who love doing this. You'll have a blast, I guarantee.
(And here is a link to a recent article about the band. Its a good read:
http://www.decibelmagazine.com/features/jul2007/pelican.aspx).
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Tool @ AT&T Center, San Antonio (05.21.2007)
Last night's San Antonio show was long overdue!! My wife and I had been holding on to the tickets for practically a year. I was particularly anxious for my wife to see it, since this was to be her first Tool show ever! But after all the months of waiting, the show finally happened! Before hitting the road from Austin, I practically flipped out for about 5 minutes as I tore the house apart trying to find the damn tickets! But in the end, I did find them, all wadded up and dirty in the back of our "random stuff drawer" in the kitchen. Right where I put them for "safe-keeping" months before, hehehe. We finally headed out at about 5:30pm, battled rush hour traffic for about an hour, and cruised into the AT&T Center right about 7:50pm. Boo-yah.
Just a few minutes after 8pm, the opening band Kinski went on. Their first song was a bit droning and repetitive, and didn't really grab me. However, they played 3 or 4 more that I thought were actually pretty decent. They were completely instrumental, not entirely heavy, but not necessarily on the mellower side either. They had some decent riffs going, and some electronic/keyboard type elements. Not bad, I might look into them a little and see how their recorded material sounds. It was pretty funny though, you could definitely tell that they are not accustomed to playing on a huge stage. The four guys were all kind of bunched up together in the middle of the stage, they didn't spread out at all. My wife thought it was "cute".
But enough of that, you say. We want to hear about Tool!!! First off, here is the setlist:
01. Jambi
02. Stinkfist (Extended)
03. Forty-Six & 2
04. Schism
05. Lost Keys/Rosetta Stoned
06. Right In Two
07. Wings For Marie/10,000 Days
08. Lateralus (Extended w/ King Crimson dudes)
Well, lets get the negative stuff out of the way. I will reiterate (to the dismay of many, I'm sure) the slight disappointment in the setlist. I know its been beaten to death, but that doesn't change the truth of it. It was nothing surprising, essentially a greatest hits + new material type of set. I personally think they could do better, but any Tool set is still by definition a good set, so its not a major problem. The only real legitimate complaint is that the sound was kinda crappy, definitely the worst sound of any Tool show I've ever been to before. Everything was very muddy, Maynard's vocals were way too low and Adam's guitar was way too distorted. And its not just because it was in an arena, I've seen them in arenas before where they've totally nailed the sound.
Other than those two things, the show completely kicked ass. The visuals were stunning as always. There were four smaller screens along the back of the stage, where they projected all the video clips that they play during the songs. Immediately behind that was the gigantic 40-foot (or whatever) screen that spanned most of the width of the stage. Up here they projected images of a more static nature. The lighting would change, and the image projected changed from song to song, but they didn't play any actual video up there. The stage itself was a glossy white, which in itself looked really damn cool when the high intensity white lights would come on. But the added bonus is that it provided a perfect surface to have images projected down onto it, which they did a lot throughout the show and it looked magnificent. As is well known, they busted out the lasers during "Wings For Marie"/"10,000 Days" and "Lateralus", which I was really anxious to see. I was worried that the overall effect would come off as cheesy, but on the contrary I thought they used it very well. But to me, the coolest thing they had up there were these 3 circular light assemblies that went into action during the long intro to "Wings For Marie." They started moving around and the centers of them started glowing purple, almost (but not quite) ultra-violet. They slowly moved around and "looked" out at the crowd, like they were eyes or glowing hands or something. They did this for a couple minutes and then returned to their original position. Kinda hard to describe, I just thought it was pretty cool.
As for the band themselves, they seemed in good humor. Their entrance was a bit hilarious, they all walked up onto the stage with the lights fully on, Danny in his brace. You could hear a collective gasp from the crowd. I think everyone knew "hey this is Tool, they screw with us all the time." But you could tell everyone was still holding their breath. Maynard then got on the mic and remarked on the fact that they had cancelled on San Antonio a couple times now, but that it wasn't their fault. He then said "We have good news, and we have bad news. The good news is.........there is no bad news." Danny shed the brace, the lights dropped, and the crowd breathed a collective sigh of relief, hehehe. They launched right into "Jambi", which I thought was a really good song to start with, and they just cruised from there. The energy and execution were tip-top all night. Justin was rocking violently back and forth the entire show, Danny was a blur, and Maynard was there in the back being his normal goofy self. Adam was, well, Adam. Stoic, I would say. Maynard was particularly Matrix'ish last night, constantly leaning way back and waving his arms in the air like he was dodging bullets in slo-mo. The crowd was extremely vocal, you could tell that this was a town hungry for their long overdue show. I was actually fairly impressed by it, the other arena shows I have seen were all loud and appreciative, but I felt like S.A. took the cake in this regard.
Minor complaints about the setlist aside, I really liked the song flow for this show, probably better than the other Tool shows I've seen. They've always done lots of instrumental stuff between songs, but I thought it was much smoother for this show. There really were no dead points or times where its just an annoying repetitive sound to kill some time (like they had on the first leg of the Lateralus tour, where they had a sound like someone hawking up a loogie looping for like 10 minutes). "(-) Ions" was played before "Stinkfist", and that was the only segue that I recognized as something definitely from the albums. There was an intro to "Schism" that did not sound like "Mantra" to me, and the intro to "Right In Two" was maybe a little "Intension"ish, but not really (and actually, I liked this intro much better than on the album). And there was a long ambient kind of intro to "Wings For Marie" (while the circular light assemblies were doing their thing) that I thought was really cool. It was all very seamless, I thought they planned it out pretty well. And no matter how many times I hear it, "Lateralus" is a perfect show-closer. That song always impresses me, just how much it can musically kick ass and rock out, and still have such a positive message. And the visuals for that song have always been my favorite too, with all the swirling colors and the spiraling videos. That song always leaves me just straight up feelin' good. And clearly, the rest of San Antonio was feelin' pretty damn good too!
Overall it was a blast and I left smiling ear to ear. And very importantly, my wife was VERY impressed! She already liked Tool quite a bit, from hearing the mixes I've made for her. But I think this locked her down as a fan for good! I hope you all enjoy the your upcoming Tool shows as much as we did!
Just a few minutes after 8pm, the opening band Kinski went on. Their first song was a bit droning and repetitive, and didn't really grab me. However, they played 3 or 4 more that I thought were actually pretty decent. They were completely instrumental, not entirely heavy, but not necessarily on the mellower side either. They had some decent riffs going, and some electronic/keyboard type elements. Not bad, I might look into them a little and see how their recorded material sounds. It was pretty funny though, you could definitely tell that they are not accustomed to playing on a huge stage. The four guys were all kind of bunched up together in the middle of the stage, they didn't spread out at all. My wife thought it was "cute".
But enough of that, you say. We want to hear about Tool!!! First off, here is the setlist:
01. Jambi
02. Stinkfist (Extended)
03. Forty-Six & 2
04. Schism
05. Lost Keys/Rosetta Stoned
06. Right In Two
07. Wings For Marie/10,000 Days
08. Lateralus (Extended w/ King Crimson dudes)
Well, lets get the negative stuff out of the way. I will reiterate (to the dismay of many, I'm sure) the slight disappointment in the setlist. I know its been beaten to death, but that doesn't change the truth of it. It was nothing surprising, essentially a greatest hits + new material type of set. I personally think they could do better, but any Tool set is still by definition a good set, so its not a major problem. The only real legitimate complaint is that the sound was kinda crappy, definitely the worst sound of any Tool show I've ever been to before. Everything was very muddy, Maynard's vocals were way too low and Adam's guitar was way too distorted. And its not just because it was in an arena, I've seen them in arenas before where they've totally nailed the sound.
Other than those two things, the show completely kicked ass. The visuals were stunning as always. There were four smaller screens along the back of the stage, where they projected all the video clips that they play during the songs. Immediately behind that was the gigantic 40-foot (or whatever) screen that spanned most of the width of the stage. Up here they projected images of a more static nature. The lighting would change, and the image projected changed from song to song, but they didn't play any actual video up there. The stage itself was a glossy white, which in itself looked really damn cool when the high intensity white lights would come on. But the added bonus is that it provided a perfect surface to have images projected down onto it, which they did a lot throughout the show and it looked magnificent. As is well known, they busted out the lasers during "Wings For Marie"/"10,000 Days" and "Lateralus", which I was really anxious to see. I was worried that the overall effect would come off as cheesy, but on the contrary I thought they used it very well. But to me, the coolest thing they had up there were these 3 circular light assemblies that went into action during the long intro to "Wings For Marie." They started moving around and the centers of them started glowing purple, almost (but not quite) ultra-violet. They slowly moved around and "looked" out at the crowd, like they were eyes or glowing hands or something. They did this for a couple minutes and then returned to their original position. Kinda hard to describe, I just thought it was pretty cool.
As for the band themselves, they seemed in good humor. Their entrance was a bit hilarious, they all walked up onto the stage with the lights fully on, Danny in his brace. You could hear a collective gasp from the crowd. I think everyone knew "hey this is Tool, they screw with us all the time." But you could tell everyone was still holding their breath. Maynard then got on the mic and remarked on the fact that they had cancelled on San Antonio a couple times now, but that it wasn't their fault. He then said "We have good news, and we have bad news. The good news is.........there is no bad news." Danny shed the brace, the lights dropped, and the crowd breathed a collective sigh of relief, hehehe. They launched right into "Jambi", which I thought was a really good song to start with, and they just cruised from there. The energy and execution were tip-top all night. Justin was rocking violently back and forth the entire show, Danny was a blur, and Maynard was there in the back being his normal goofy self. Adam was, well, Adam. Stoic, I would say. Maynard was particularly Matrix'ish last night, constantly leaning way back and waving his arms in the air like he was dodging bullets in slo-mo. The crowd was extremely vocal, you could tell that this was a town hungry for their long overdue show. I was actually fairly impressed by it, the other arena shows I have seen were all loud and appreciative, but I felt like S.A. took the cake in this regard.
Minor complaints about the setlist aside, I really liked the song flow for this show, probably better than the other Tool shows I've seen. They've always done lots of instrumental stuff between songs, but I thought it was much smoother for this show. There really were no dead points or times where its just an annoying repetitive sound to kill some time (like they had on the first leg of the Lateralus tour, where they had a sound like someone hawking up a loogie looping for like 10 minutes). "(-) Ions" was played before "Stinkfist", and that was the only segue that I recognized as something definitely from the albums. There was an intro to "Schism" that did not sound like "Mantra" to me, and the intro to "Right In Two" was maybe a little "Intension"ish, but not really (and actually, I liked this intro much better than on the album). And there was a long ambient kind of intro to "Wings For Marie" (while the circular light assemblies were doing their thing) that I thought was really cool. It was all very seamless, I thought they planned it out pretty well. And no matter how many times I hear it, "Lateralus" is a perfect show-closer. That song always impresses me, just how much it can musically kick ass and rock out, and still have such a positive message. And the visuals for that song have always been my favorite too, with all the swirling colors and the spiraling videos. That song always leaves me just straight up feelin' good. And clearly, the rest of San Antonio was feelin' pretty damn good too!
Overall it was a blast and I left smiling ear to ear. And very importantly, my wife was VERY impressed! She already liked Tool quite a bit, from hearing the mixes I've made for her. But I think this locked her down as a fan for good! I hope you all enjoy the your upcoming Tool shows as much as we did!
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Explosions In The Sky @ Emo's, Austin (03.05.2007)
Last night, Explosions In The Sky returned to Austin for their first hometown show since the release of their most recent album All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone (which by the way is excellent!). I was pretty damn pumped to see the show, but apparently so was the entire city of Austin. The show ended up selling out a couple weeks ago, which, for a venue where you can usually show up and just pay cover at the door, is pretty impressive! To put it in perspective, both Isis and Mastodon played this venue in the past few months, and I don't think either sold out until possibly the night of the show. The place was PACKED, but oddly enough it wasn't annoying at all. The anticipation and excitement were pretty thick, and everyone just seemed happy to be gearing up for a great show from the hometown heroes.
The opener was Eluvium, who I had never seen before. Its one guy with a keyboard and a guitar. He would basically repeatedly play a bit and loop it, so that over the course of 10 minutes or so he would gradually layer different piano and guitar parts over each other until it built a wall-of-noise type crescendo, and then he would peel the layers off one at a time to wind it down. Each part on its own would be something fairly mellow, but by the time it reached the climax it was extremely loud and somewhat distorted. He also had a couple songs that were shorter piano-only pieces, and they were actually quite pretty. Overall, it was decent, and it fit fairly well as an opener for Explosions. But it didn't interest me to the point where I would buy it or anything.
Then Explosions In The Sky came on a little after 11pm, to a thunderous greeting from the crowd. Munaf, one of the guitarists, spoke to the crowd for a couple minutes, about how amazed they were with the opening ovation and how much the hometown support really means to the band. Then they launched into their set, which was as follows:
01. Greet Death
02. Welcome, Ghosts
03. With Tired Eyes, Tired Minds, Tired Souls, We Slept
04. The Birth And Death Of The Day
05. The Only Moment We Were Alone
06. Catastrophe And The Cure
07. Memorial
Excellent set! Although I suppose just about any set of theirs would be a great set. They did an amazing job of fading one song into the next seamlessly, I don't know if they ever had an actual complete break during the show. It made it quite a bit tougher to keep track of the setlist, hehe. The sound was amazing, the bass came through very cleanly, and you could hear every detail of the guitar work. The drums may have been a tad on the quiet side, but if so it was very slight, they still sounded fine. Most importantly, the energy was astounding. The band was really into it, and the crowd just fed off that. And the band really rocked the climax of the closing song, "Memorial". Everything came together as a huge crashing peak, it was the perfect conclusion to the show. For a few minutes, the crowd hung in there hoping to possibly get an encore. But after a few minutes, Munaf came back out and told the crowd that they couldn't play any more. He said they were a bit out of practice, since they had spent so much time working on the record and not playing shows, and that they were completely exhausted. He sounded really sincerely apologetic, but he said that in the coming months they are hoping to play a lot more shows, especially with a couple more in Austin. It came off as a very classy move to come out and explain things to the crowd, because he really didn't have to. As it was, they played continuously for about 80 minutes, which if I remember correctly is slightly longer than they had played at shows I had seen previously.
Anyway, the bottom line is that the show completely kicked ass, in every way possible. I highly recommend seeing this band if they happen to come to your town. They are genuinely nice guys who obviously put a lot of work into their music and into really trying to connect with the fans. They definitely deserve all the support they can get.
The opener was Eluvium, who I had never seen before. Its one guy with a keyboard and a guitar. He would basically repeatedly play a bit and loop it, so that over the course of 10 minutes or so he would gradually layer different piano and guitar parts over each other until it built a wall-of-noise type crescendo, and then he would peel the layers off one at a time to wind it down. Each part on its own would be something fairly mellow, but by the time it reached the climax it was extremely loud and somewhat distorted. He also had a couple songs that were shorter piano-only pieces, and they were actually quite pretty. Overall, it was decent, and it fit fairly well as an opener for Explosions. But it didn't interest me to the point where I would buy it or anything.
Then Explosions In The Sky came on a little after 11pm, to a thunderous greeting from the crowd. Munaf, one of the guitarists, spoke to the crowd for a couple minutes, about how amazed they were with the opening ovation and how much the hometown support really means to the band. Then they launched into their set, which was as follows:
01. Greet Death
02. Welcome, Ghosts
03. With Tired Eyes, Tired Minds, Tired Souls, We Slept
04. The Birth And Death Of The Day
05. The Only Moment We Were Alone
06. Catastrophe And The Cure
07. Memorial
Excellent set! Although I suppose just about any set of theirs would be a great set. They did an amazing job of fading one song into the next seamlessly, I don't know if they ever had an actual complete break during the show. It made it quite a bit tougher to keep track of the setlist, hehe. The sound was amazing, the bass came through very cleanly, and you could hear every detail of the guitar work. The drums may have been a tad on the quiet side, but if so it was very slight, they still sounded fine. Most importantly, the energy was astounding. The band was really into it, and the crowd just fed off that. And the band really rocked the climax of the closing song, "Memorial". Everything came together as a huge crashing peak, it was the perfect conclusion to the show. For a few minutes, the crowd hung in there hoping to possibly get an encore. But after a few minutes, Munaf came back out and told the crowd that they couldn't play any more. He said they were a bit out of practice, since they had spent so much time working on the record and not playing shows, and that they were completely exhausted. He sounded really sincerely apologetic, but he said that in the coming months they are hoping to play a lot more shows, especially with a couple more in Austin. It came off as a very classy move to come out and explain things to the crowd, because he really didn't have to. As it was, they played continuously for about 80 minutes, which if I remember correctly is slightly longer than they had played at shows I had seen previously.
Anyway, the bottom line is that the show completely kicked ass, in every way possible. I highly recommend seeing this band if they happen to come to your town. They are genuinely nice guys who obviously put a lot of work into their music and into really trying to connect with the fans. They definitely deserve all the support they can get.
Thursday, March 1, 2007
Isis @ Emo's, Austin (02.28.2007)
So, Isis rolled back through Austin again last night, which was a little unexpected seeing as they just stopped by here in September, on an off night from the Tool tour. As always, I was pumped to see them. However, as it turned out, I was in for a sub-par night.
First, the opening bands. Going on first was Intronaut, as a replacement for Jesu, who cancelled on the tour for some reason. Intronaut was OK, good rhythm section but the guitars and vocals were nothing special. Drummer tore it up though, and a lot of the bass work was pretty cool. After that was Torche, who I'm pretty sure I've seen before but I can't remember for sure. Anyway, I liked them a bit better, they had a good level of energy and, weirdly enough, a guitarist that to me looked just like Kim Thayil from Soundgarden. I may follow up with them and check out an album.
The sound for both of the opening bands was pretty good, but for some unknown reason the sound was absolutely HORRID for Isis. The only thing I could consistently hear cleanly was the drums. The bass was way too low, a couple of the guitars were way too high, and Turner's mic was also way too high. During mellower moments when only the bass or one guitar was doing something, it would sound fine. But most of the time if there was more than that going on, the entire thing would just explode into an overly distorted wall of noise. And the vocals had the same problem, it seemed like the mic was cranked so high that the signal was constantly clipping and the result was really distorted and crappy. I'm really confused as to why the sound was so off. This is the 5th or 6th time I've seen Isis at this venue, and the sound has always been superb. I guess it just happens occasionally.
Anyway, here is the setlist:
01. Wrists Of Kings
02. Not In Rivers, But In Drops
03. False Light
04. Dulcinea
05. Wills Dissolve
06. 1000 Shards
07. All Out Of Time, All Into Space
08. Holy Tears
09. In Fiction
(Break)
10. Celestial (extended alternate version)
Pretty good set, especially the closer. And as bad as the sound may have been, it was still Isis, live, still bringing the energy and power that they always do. And as most of you would probably would agree, even when the sound is off, if its a band you're very familiar with you can still pick out all the good stuff from the noise and have a great time. Well, this worked for about half the show. And then the idiotic moron "I don't want to actually listen to the music I just want to beat the crap out of other people" moshers started up. Moshers??? At a friggin Isis show??? Huh??? It makes no sense that people would get all aggressive and start shoving and punching to music that spends most of the time slowly building up to a climax. OK, getting a little rowdy and pumped up during the pay-off moments, no problem. But running around slamming people during the mellow ambient stuff, that makes no sense. I've never seen that at an Isis show before, it pretty much ruined the middle half of the show. Fortunately, the moshing seemed to fade out by the time Isis got to their last two songs. Also, it appeared that whatever adjustments the sound guys may have been making during the show finally got sorted out, and the last couple songs actually sounded pretty good. Especially the long version of "Celestial" that they closed with. I was really excited that they played that, I haven't heard them play that song since I think the first time I ever saw them. They really brought the intensity on that one and blew the roof off the place. In my mind, that song saved the show.
All in all, not the best Isis show I've seen, but I wouldn't blame it on the band themselves. They still brought the intensity and thunder, which in the end made up for the less-than-ideal conditions.
First, the opening bands. Going on first was Intronaut, as a replacement for Jesu, who cancelled on the tour for some reason. Intronaut was OK, good rhythm section but the guitars and vocals were nothing special. Drummer tore it up though, and a lot of the bass work was pretty cool. After that was Torche, who I'm pretty sure I've seen before but I can't remember for sure. Anyway, I liked them a bit better, they had a good level of energy and, weirdly enough, a guitarist that to me looked just like Kim Thayil from Soundgarden. I may follow up with them and check out an album.
The sound for both of the opening bands was pretty good, but for some unknown reason the sound was absolutely HORRID for Isis. The only thing I could consistently hear cleanly was the drums. The bass was way too low, a couple of the guitars were way too high, and Turner's mic was also way too high. During mellower moments when only the bass or one guitar was doing something, it would sound fine. But most of the time if there was more than that going on, the entire thing would just explode into an overly distorted wall of noise. And the vocals had the same problem, it seemed like the mic was cranked so high that the signal was constantly clipping and the result was really distorted and crappy. I'm really confused as to why the sound was so off. This is the 5th or 6th time I've seen Isis at this venue, and the sound has always been superb. I guess it just happens occasionally.
Anyway, here is the setlist:
01. Wrists Of Kings
02. Not In Rivers, But In Drops
03. False Light
04. Dulcinea
05. Wills Dissolve
06. 1000 Shards
07. All Out Of Time, All Into Space
08. Holy Tears
09. In Fiction
(Break)
10. Celestial (extended alternate version)
Pretty good set, especially the closer. And as bad as the sound may have been, it was still Isis, live, still bringing the energy and power that they always do. And as most of you would probably would agree, even when the sound is off, if its a band you're very familiar with you can still pick out all the good stuff from the noise and have a great time. Well, this worked for about half the show. And then the idiotic moron "I don't want to actually listen to the music I just want to beat the crap out of other people" moshers started up. Moshers??? At a friggin Isis show??? Huh??? It makes no sense that people would get all aggressive and start shoving and punching to music that spends most of the time slowly building up to a climax. OK, getting a little rowdy and pumped up during the pay-off moments, no problem. But running around slamming people during the mellow ambient stuff, that makes no sense. I've never seen that at an Isis show before, it pretty much ruined the middle half of the show. Fortunately, the moshing seemed to fade out by the time Isis got to their last two songs. Also, it appeared that whatever adjustments the sound guys may have been making during the show finally got sorted out, and the last couple songs actually sounded pretty good. Especially the long version of "Celestial" that they closed with. I was really excited that they played that, I haven't heard them play that song since I think the first time I ever saw them. They really brought the intensity on that one and blew the roof off the place. In my mind, that song saved the show.
All in all, not the best Isis show I've seen, but I wouldn't blame it on the band themselves. They still brought the intensity and thunder, which in the end made up for the less-than-ideal conditions.
Thursday, November 2, 2006
Primus @ Austin Music Hall (11.01.2006)
Rather unexpectedly, Primus announced a Fall tour a couple months ago, to be kicked off last night in Austin TX. As any Primus fan would do, I immediately snagged my ticket and began the countdown to November 1st. For the first time in years, Primus was coming to town with absolutely no hint of what the setlist would be (the previous two tours had been highlighted by full performances of the albums Sailing The Seas Of Cheese and Frizzle Fry, respectively).
First, the opening band was called Drums And Tuba, and they were pretty interesting. It was a trio consisting of a drummer who also did the vocals (Genesis anyone?), a guitarist who looked like Fidel Castro, and a damn tuba player. Pretty much exactly what you'd expect from a Primus opener. I was pleasantly surprised, the use of a tuba in lieu of a bass worked extremely well. The first song or two tended to be a little poppy in nature, with the vocals annoying me a little bit (he sounded like a whinier American Gavin Rossdale), but from there the songs got longer and more jammish (slightly Beta Band'ish), with some really cool rhythms and grooves coming from the tuba. The guitarist was pretty wacky, playing his guitar in all sorts of strange fashions, but he seemed to be technically pretty proficient and when he cut loose he could really shred it. The only thing that bothered me a little about them toward the end of their set was their increasing reliance on pre-recorded samples. There would be little chimes or additional guitar parts that were clearly not being performed live, as each of the three guys had their hands full with other parts at the moment. But, I won't hold it against them. Overall, probably not anything I would buy, but definitely an interesting and enjoyable opening band.
Ok, now Primus. First off, the first thing worth noting is that during the setup time between Drums And Tuba and Primus, they inflated a huge 15-20 foot tall inflatable astronaut, who then resided over the proceedings on the back right side of the stage for the rest of the night. There is really nothing more to it than that, I just simply find a 15-20 foot inflatable astronaut really cool. Anyway, the guys came out shortly after that, and proceeded through the following set:
1. To Defy The Laws Of Tradition
2. Pudding Time
3. Those Damned Blue Collar Tweekers
4. Seas Of Cheese
5. Mr. Krinkle
6. Eleven (with short drum solo intro)
7. Is It Luck?
8. American Life
9. My Name Is Mud
10. Jerry Was A Racecar Driver
(Break)
11. Here Come The Bastards
In general, this was an incredibly short show by Primus standards (it took about 1.5 hours), consisting of a pretty safe song selection with really no surprises. Really, if they had thrown in "Tommy The Cat" and "Groundhog's Day", it would have pretty much been the definition of a "greatest hits" set. (Speaking of "Groundhog's Day", this is my 6th or so time seeing Primus, and I STILL have never heard that song live. GAHHHH!) But, aside from the shortness and predictability, the show was great. As always, the guys performed with gusto and never missed a beat. Larry's guitar and Les' mic were a little too soft during the first song, but they quickly got that corrected and the sound was phenomenal the rest of the way. They spent a good amount of time noodling off into the weeds during about half of the songs, but only once (during "American Life", which had to have been about 15 minutes or so) did they cross my threshold of patience. Most of the jams were pretty damn cool, with Les occasionally exploding and going crazy with some funky weirdness. He was decently chatty, like he usually is, giving little anecdotes between the songs and conversing with the crowd.
Overall, good music, good performance, good times, just a bit lacking in length and interesting song selection. But, this is the first show of the tour, so maybe this had something to do with it. Either way, it was still a good time. I'll still gonna go see these guys anytime they come to my area.
First, the opening band was called Drums And Tuba, and they were pretty interesting. It was a trio consisting of a drummer who also did the vocals (Genesis anyone?), a guitarist who looked like Fidel Castro, and a damn tuba player. Pretty much exactly what you'd expect from a Primus opener. I was pleasantly surprised, the use of a tuba in lieu of a bass worked extremely well. The first song or two tended to be a little poppy in nature, with the vocals annoying me a little bit (he sounded like a whinier American Gavin Rossdale), but from there the songs got longer and more jammish (slightly Beta Band'ish), with some really cool rhythms and grooves coming from the tuba. The guitarist was pretty wacky, playing his guitar in all sorts of strange fashions, but he seemed to be technically pretty proficient and when he cut loose he could really shred it. The only thing that bothered me a little about them toward the end of their set was their increasing reliance on pre-recorded samples. There would be little chimes or additional guitar parts that were clearly not being performed live, as each of the three guys had their hands full with other parts at the moment. But, I won't hold it against them. Overall, probably not anything I would buy, but definitely an interesting and enjoyable opening band.
Ok, now Primus. First off, the first thing worth noting is that during the setup time between Drums And Tuba and Primus, they inflated a huge 15-20 foot tall inflatable astronaut, who then resided over the proceedings on the back right side of the stage for the rest of the night. There is really nothing more to it than that, I just simply find a 15-20 foot inflatable astronaut really cool. Anyway, the guys came out shortly after that, and proceeded through the following set:
1. To Defy The Laws Of Tradition
2. Pudding Time
3. Those Damned Blue Collar Tweekers
4. Seas Of Cheese
5. Mr. Krinkle
6. Eleven (with short drum solo intro)
7. Is It Luck?
8. American Life
9. My Name Is Mud
10. Jerry Was A Racecar Driver
(Break)
11. Here Come The Bastards
In general, this was an incredibly short show by Primus standards (it took about 1.5 hours), consisting of a pretty safe song selection with really no surprises. Really, if they had thrown in "Tommy The Cat" and "Groundhog's Day", it would have pretty much been the definition of a "greatest hits" set. (Speaking of "Groundhog's Day", this is my 6th or so time seeing Primus, and I STILL have never heard that song live. GAHHHH!) But, aside from the shortness and predictability, the show was great. As always, the guys performed with gusto and never missed a beat. Larry's guitar and Les' mic were a little too soft during the first song, but they quickly got that corrected and the sound was phenomenal the rest of the way. They spent a good amount of time noodling off into the weeds during about half of the songs, but only once (during "American Life", which had to have been about 15 minutes or so) did they cross my threshold of patience. Most of the jams were pretty damn cool, with Les occasionally exploding and going crazy with some funky weirdness. He was decently chatty, like he usually is, giving little anecdotes between the songs and conversing with the crowd.
Overall, good music, good performance, good times, just a bit lacking in length and interesting song selection. But, this is the first show of the tour, so maybe this had something to do with it. Either way, it was still a good time. I'll still gonna go see these guys anytime they come to my area.
Thursday, October 5, 2006
Mastodon @ Emo's, Austin (10.04.2006)
Somehow I had missed Mastodon the last couple times they rolled through Austin, so I was really pumped about finally being able to see them last night. First off, the setlist:
01. Iron Tusk
02. March Of The Fire Ants
03. Circle Of Cysquatch
04. Where Strides The Behemoth
05. Mother Puncher
06. Aqua Dementia
07. Sleeping Giant
08. The Wolf Is Loose
09. Crystal Skull
10. Bladecatcher
11. Colony Of Birchmen
12. I Am Ahab
13. Capillarian Crest
14. Megalodon
15. Blood And Thunder
(Break)
16. Hearts Alive
Now THAT, my friends, is a setlist! The only thing that could have been better is if they had gotten "Workhorse" and "Seabeast" in there, but ending with "Hearts Alive" more than made up for it, I really didn't think they'd play that one. Anyway, sound quality was mostly good, drums were thunderous and the bass came through pretty clean. Guitars could have been better though, their presence was very inconsistent. Most of the crunchy rhythm guitar stuff came through fine, but the higher pitched guitar solo stuff would sometimes get lost. If you were familiar with the songs and knew what to listen for, you could find it in the noise, but those who were maybe hearing songs for the first time may have missed a bit. Anyway, that happened about half the time, the other half you could here everything fine. As far as energy level, the show was incredible, there is no way you could watch these guys perform and NOT pump your fist in the air. And Brann Dailor, jesus that guy is just a madman. No drummer I've ever seen outworks that guy. The guys in the band seem pretty cool and down to earth, lots of comments between songs, making jokes with each other and with people in the crowd. After the show, they were just standing by their bus right outside the door to the venue, talking and taking pictures with fans, and they seemed totally cool with all of it. Right on.
Overall, these guys kick some serious ass, and seem to have an absolute blast doing it. Definitely head out and support them if they come to your town.
01. Iron Tusk
02. March Of The Fire Ants
03. Circle Of Cysquatch
04. Where Strides The Behemoth
05. Mother Puncher
06. Aqua Dementia
07. Sleeping Giant
08. The Wolf Is Loose
09. Crystal Skull
10. Bladecatcher
11. Colony Of Birchmen
12. I Am Ahab
13. Capillarian Crest
14. Megalodon
15. Blood And Thunder
(Break)
16. Hearts Alive
Now THAT, my friends, is a setlist! The only thing that could have been better is if they had gotten "Workhorse" and "Seabeast" in there, but ending with "Hearts Alive" more than made up for it, I really didn't think they'd play that one. Anyway, sound quality was mostly good, drums were thunderous and the bass came through pretty clean. Guitars could have been better though, their presence was very inconsistent. Most of the crunchy rhythm guitar stuff came through fine, but the higher pitched guitar solo stuff would sometimes get lost. If you were familiar with the songs and knew what to listen for, you could find it in the noise, but those who were maybe hearing songs for the first time may have missed a bit. Anyway, that happened about half the time, the other half you could here everything fine. As far as energy level, the show was incredible, there is no way you could watch these guys perform and NOT pump your fist in the air. And Brann Dailor, jesus that guy is just a madman. No drummer I've ever seen outworks that guy. The guys in the band seem pretty cool and down to earth, lots of comments between songs, making jokes with each other and with people in the crowd. After the show, they were just standing by their bus right outside the door to the venue, talking and taking pictures with fans, and they seemed totally cool with all of it. Right on.
Overall, these guys kick some serious ass, and seem to have an absolute blast doing it. Definitely head out and support them if they come to your town.
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