In 1981, on a warm summer night when I was probably laying in my crib thinking about how I wanted to celebrate my 2nd birthday in a few weeks, Husker Du was just up the peninsula rocking the veritable old music venue in San Francisco’s North Beach at Mabuhay Gardens.
Nicknamed “Fab Mab,” the club hosted a number of important punk and new wave acts from 1976-1986, including the Dead Kennedys, The Avengers, Devo, Iggy Pop, Redd Kross, The Minutemen, Black Flag, The Ramones and Roky Erickson. This is a very early Husker Du show, when they were still relatively unknown. You can hear club promoter & booker Dirk Dirksen announcing the set: “Jello Biafra, while touring in the Northwest, ran across these people and asked me to book ‘em, so here they are, an addition to the program. Here’s . . . [sounds unsure of the pronunciation] Husker Du.”
And as the guy who made this available said, this is “one of the most intense live shows by ANY band you’ll ever find. I have no doubt in my mind that everyone who was there this night knew they were witnessing something very special. Any self-respecting punk fan needs to hear this one . . . Best played LOUD!” I agree.
We’ll leave after midnight on a warm night with no moon. I know a place above the city where we can lay back on a wool blanket and feel the rocks under our bones. We’ll watch as the stars ignite their first tentative glimmers of the night, fighting initially through the atmospheric haze. It’s never easy when you first start to find your light. My iPod is charged; maybe bring that base that plays music with no cords because we’ll be far from any outlets and I have something I want to hear. I know life’s been hard on you lately, hard on me. Maybe it wasn’t meant to be easy. The grey of life makes tonight’s sky seem all the more brilliant. A galaxy, a comet, a supernova. We’ll listen to (and watch for) those explosions in the sky. The stars will sing – maybe tonight our music doesn’t need the words.
Explosions In The Sky is a band from from Austin, Texas that tells amazing stories through songs which happen to lack words. Try it and see for yourself, the dizzying landscapes they can take you through.
This show was the second of three sold-out nights at the classy Great American Music Hall in San Francisco just back in March.
If you are heading down to Coachellathis weekend in the center of the Indio desert, you may encounter a few other (80,000) folks doin the same. What shall you do whilst idling?
After Netflixing the movie about Coachella last weekend filled with so many great live performances from the past seven fests, I felt compelled to look for some of them to put on my iPod. Turns out that it makes quite the fine little mix to keep you company on the drive.
I’ve been talking about trying this idea for a long time, finding a way to see Bruce Springsteen on the Magic tour that everyone –from indie hipsters to old rock codgers alike, and all shades in between– kept raving to me about. Because he didn’t put Colorado into this tour, I was left searching airfares for far-flung cities (Buffalo, anyone?). And then Vedder announced his Berkeley show in the same weekend and suddenly the chips fell into place. I was headed to San Jose to see Bruce Springsteen for the first time in my hometown.
This was my first Springsteen concert experience, and I am out of practice at spending over a hundred dollars to see these stadium shows. With what I could afford, I found myself in the nosebleed seats, far from the tightly packed action and the wristband lotteries of the floor. I hear this is not the best way to see my first Springsteen show, but I don’t work for Google, Oracle, or Yahoo so what can ya do. Bruce took the stage promptly at 8:15 to deafening screams, waving signs, and the opening notes of “Out In The Street.”
Bruce’s voice was in strong and vibrant form, and the band was tight — some would say orchestral — all dressed in matching black. “Fire” saw its tour debut as voted on by the listeners of KFOG, and “Trapped,” “Incident on 57th Street” and “Devil’s Arcade” (one of my favorite songs on Magic) were all highlights for me. I was naive enough to try and bring in a camera, which got taken at the door, so all I managed was this cell phone snap during “Born to Run” with the house lights up and thousands of voices singing along. That was a pretty cool moment.
Bruce played many requests taken from signs from the audience – the traditional posterboard variety or this guy‘s head request. I wonder if he used a Sharpie? Bruce pulled him on stage and then launched into “Glory Days” for him, much to the delight of the crowd. It’s odd what a heartbreakingly stark and sad song that really is, but everyone was pogoing like it was the party anthem of the year (and I guess the music does sound like it). But the lyrics still get me.
On the plane ride back home to Colorado, I was reading a book review in the May 2008 Paste magazine for Like A Rolling Stone by Steven Kurutz. It’s an examination of a guy named Glen Carroll who plays the role of Mick Jagger in a small Stones tribute band called Sticky Fingers. A paragraph of the review probed at some of the strain and pull that I felt after the Springsteen show when it mused the following:
“Kurutz has a revelation at a ‘real’ Stones concert at Fenway Park. He buys a $163 ticket “in the nosebleeds” and witnesses the world’s greatest rock ‘n’ roll band on the biggest, most expensive stage set ever built … but can only see it on a JumboTron screen. The Stones are isolated from fans and press. Kurutz is watching a franchise, not a rock show. Success for Glen Carroll, on the other hand, means playing with reckless abandon to a basement full of drunken, sweaty kids. Which is the ‘real’ rock ‘n’ roll?“
Seeing Bruce felt intensely rich for me, to actually experience for myself this amazing artist with lyrics that incise deeper than almost any other, and songs that lay out an epic alternate world for me where the roads are always open and the engine is always running. But so much of me wanted to see him in a small venue, hot and sweaty and immediate, without all the schtick and $95 seats and corporate rock feel.
Sure, he can do the huge huge stage spectacle so why not, and sure he connects better with a gigantic audience than many other artists of his scale. But still – I was in Section 210, and most everyone sat for the whole show. As my companion predicted, folks stood for Born To Run and there was some fist pumping, making sure not to spill their $10 beers. Maybe I am just too idealistic and starry-eyed about my live music, but I felt distant and cold from an artist that is relatable and warm and I wish it could have been different. Ah well. I shouldn’t be allowed to go to these things, and feel like apologizing for unrealistic expectations. I guess subconsciously I wanted Main Point, but in a plausible world, what I got was very good.
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN SAN JOSE 4/5/08 Out in the Street Radio Nowhere Lonesome Day Gypsy Biker Something in the Night Magic Trapped Reason to Believe Prove It All Night She’s the One Livin’ in the Future The Promised Land Fire Incident on 57th Street Devil’s Arcade The Rising Last to Die Long Walk Home Badlands Detroit Medley Born to Run Glory Days Bobby Jean American Land
Jack White and Brendan Benson’s side project/other band The Raconteurs have announced a limited run of tour dates next month, including one in San Francisco on April 23, right before Coachella. Same night as the reunited Verve’s first U.S. show in ten years. King-Solomon-like choices must be made.
The new Raconteurs album Consolers of the Lonely was recorded earlier this month, and in a superhuman feat of record mixery and pressing, it will be released this Tuesday [on Third Man/XL/Warner Brothers]. In celebration of all the coming gratification, I’ve been listening to some scorchingly good live Raconteurs — let’s share.
BONUS LIVE COVERS: Headin’ For The Texas Border (Flamin’ Groovies cover, live in Brixton 2006) Crazy (Gnarls Barkley cover, live at Lollapalooza 2006) It Ain’t Easy (David Bowie cover, live at Lollapalooza 2006) [Bowie mp3 fixed; if you snag the zip, get this single track too]
ZIP: RACONTEURS LIVE ***************************************** THE RACONTEURS ON RACON-TOUR Birds of Avalon opening Apr 20 – Commodore Ballroom/Vancouver, BC Apr 21 – Neumo’s/Seattle, WA Apr 22 – Wonder Ballroom/Portland, OR Apr 23 – Bimbo’s 365/San Francisco Apr 26 – The Joint/Las Vegas, NV Apr 28 – The Fillmore/Denver, CO Apr 29 – Uptown Theatre/Kansas City, MO May 1 – House of Blues/Dallas, TX May 2 – Stubbs BBQ/Austin, TX May 3 – Stubbs BBQ/Austin, TX
UK/Europe dates to be announced in the near future.
Back in 2001 as Is This It started to take off for The Strokes, their dance card was suddenly and dramatically packed; according to the archived tour dates on their website they played just three shows in 2000, but over a hundred in 2001. Early show recordings are really difficult to find — to sate my ears, I wanted something nascent from 2000, but the odds were against me.
During the summer of 2001, they played a small (capacity 300) pub/club in Melbourne called The Laundry, and the set was broadcast on Australian 3RRR community radio. The sound quality on this boot is pristine – the minimal crowd noise almost makes it sound like a lost studio demo of alternate versions rather than a live show, but with that terrific energy that I expect from these boys. It’s a necessary addition to the collection of any Strokes fan.
While I am enjoying some of the warm California sun, it feels like a good time to share my favorite Ryan Adams bootleg ever. There is a pristine, immediate, warm quality to the sound that makes you feel like you are inches from Ryan. The talented, haunting Gillian Welch comes out for some songs, and there is a wonderful variety of rare songs for the setlist. In between his endearing banter, Ryan brings out unreleased gems, early versions of songs I love, and several terrific covers.
…and THAT, folks, is one of my favorite live shows ever recorded. I have listened to it more times than I can count. It feels like a whiskey, warming the insides.
I’m sitting in a hotel business center in San Francisco paying 49 cents a minute to hop online real quick using what sounds like dial-up. Awesome. The Noise Pop Festival and related blogger-nerd activities have been an absolute hit this weekend. There’s been great energy in the crowds, some surprising new talent, an even waffles for free. Yes, free waffles at the Noise Pop Expo. Pretty sure it doesn’t get much better than that.
While I process through some of the new music I’ve seen, here’s what San Francisco makes me feel like singing. The newest live set added to my iPod is from Amos Lee, and it’s one that I’ve been looking for on and off for over 2 years now. Every now and again I would half-heartedly click around on some sketchy torrent site looking for it, find questionable Romanian links, and eventually chicken out and not end up downloading anything. But I wholeheartedly and completely adore the gorgeous honesty in his voice and the stark, soulful way that it shines in a live setting, so when I finally found his set archived on the KCRW site I decided to take matters into my own mp3-ripping hands.
Amos Lee first popped on my radar in May of 2005 while I was travelling to Seattle for a conference. I went right out and bought his self-titled first album (out on Blue Note) and have fiercely loved it since. He’s almost exactly my age, maybe one year older, and used to be a schoolteacher in Philadelphia for a time before he struck out with his musical career. For a relative newcomer, he’s had some pretty impressive gigs opening for the likes of Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Van Morrison, Elvis Costello, and John Prine. Incidentally, he does a beautifully sad cover of Prine’s “Speed Of The Sound of Loneliness” that I truly love.
So it’s been me and Amos’ music for the travelling portion of this trip to the gorgeous city of San Francisco. Something in his songs makes it perfect for walking around some fresh downtown somewhere, or sitting just looking over the city.
Wilco just might be the most vibrant live band playing right now. Earlier this week they completed a five-show residency at hometown Chicago’s Riviera Theater during which they played every song in their released catalog. My friend cwb sent me this review of the night he attended, and it encapsulated their aesthetic so perfectly that I have to reprint it here:
“[Tweedy] was warm and pithy, sincere and ironic, all at the same time, charming and engaging throughout. I’ve never heard better vocals from him, and he just seemed in a great place the whole night. His own twinkling and shimmering pop universe of sound, with the more than occasional crashing waves of drums and power chords, or troubling lyric, reminding us we weren’t just innocent kids good vibe-ing in Brian Wilson’s sandbox, beautiful and stoned.
. . . Tweedy’s lyrics and vocals generally strike me as that little voice in my own head, or the invisible tweedy on my shoulder, whispering the secrets, mysteries, doubts, questions, and truths of the universe and local wal-mart.
Name: Heather Browne Location: Colorado, originally by way of California Giving context to the torrent since 2005.
"I love the relationship that anyone has with music: because there's something in us that is beyond the reach of words, something that eludes and defies our best attempts to spit it out. It's the best part of us, probably, the richest and strangest part..."
—Nick Hornby, Songbook
"Music has always been a matter of energy to me, a question of Fuel. Sentimental people call it Inspiration, but what they really mean is Fuel." —Hunter S. Thompson
Mp3s are for sampling purposes, kinda like when they give you the cheese cube at Costco, knowing that you'll often go home with having bought the whole 7 lb. spiced Brie log. They are left up for a limited time. If you LIKE the music, go and support these artists, buy their schwag, go to their concerts, purchase their CDs/records and tell all your friends. Rock on.
In 1981, on a warm summer night when I was probably laying in my crib thinking about how I wanted to celebrate my 2nd birthday in a few weeks, Husker Du was just up the peninsula rocking the veritable old music venue in San Francisco’s North Beach at Mabuhay Gardens.
This show was the second of three sold-out nights at the classy Great American Music Hall in San Francisco just back in March.
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Wilco
Name: Heather Browne
