The Live Music Thread

[Genetic]

Porcupine Tree, was awesome (except for the fat guy rubbing his belly against my butt like he was trying to dry-hump me -- that part sucked), sorry that I was in a weird mood Justin. I kind of hate bars...

''But you're a martyr for even less...''

I used to move around until I found a good place during shows. Now unless there's a seat with my name on it I wont go. I'm beginning to act like Elvis about this.

Glad for the music part. Up here the Montreal show was sold out from the start...

Amicalement

[mypasswordis]

Porcupine Tree, was awesome (except for the fat guy rubbing his belly against my butt like he was trying to dry-hump me -- that part sucked), sorry that I was in a weird mood Justin. I kind of hate bars...

I didn't really notice. It was nice to meet you, though. And on the show itself, it's too bad that I missed King's X, and I left after they played 3 at the end, but everything I heard was nothing short of fucking amazing. The only song that was a bit subpar was Circle of Manias... I thought it was kind of anti-climactic, especially compared to the album.

And yeah, fat guys rubbing their bellies on your ass is never fun... where were you? We ended up way to the left on the ground floor and then moved our way into the middlish front of the pit during intermission.

[Dusty Chalk]

Yeah, we kept moving about, too, but it was so fucking crowded that there really wasn't a lot we could do. For King's X we actually stayed towards the entrance, behind and to the right (as one faces the stage) of the mixing board. For the first set, we were towards the pit, to the right, right under the overhang (the guys a couple people in front of us got hit by dropped drinks twice, so just under the ledge). The ledge was fucking up the sound for my friend (I was wearing earplugs, so was less affected), so after the first set, we moved upstairs pretty much right above where we were (we're both big fans of Gavin). If I'm ever going to be on the balcony again, I'm going to need a new pair of spectacles -- bifocals suck for looking down.

And agreed on the entire concert being fucking amazing. And on the nice to meet you too.

Last night we went to the philly show -- my friend had fanclub tickets, so we got let in just a little bit earlier than anyone else. They had -- by far -- the most technical issues I've ever seen. The guitar that he uses to do the solo for Time Flies (? I think) never went out, so we got gypped out of that solo; a guitar came out with the capo on the wrong fret; Colin was off by a beat during a section of Steal Your Soul; there was a funny clicky noise on another guitar. Also, he used a different delay during the instrumental break of Time Flies -- I don't know if he was experimenting, because it didn't phase him at all, but it sounded wrong to me -- it was creating a doubling effect rather than making it sound like two guitars (so it was about as long as the space between notes rather than 1/2 or 3/2 or whatever it was supposed to be set to). That said, the set was still fucking amazing. Most of the problems were in the first set ("The Incident"), so very little of that happened during the second set. He brought out the most amazing guitar -- it had an LCD screen or something behind the pickups. Looked cool as shit. I swear I heard 2500 jaws drop, simultaneously. It was also entirely different, he played Normal (!) and Russia On Ice (albeit an abbreviated version). The only thing that would have made the night more perfect is if he played Arriving Somewhere...

Oh, and it fucking rained, and I happened to be standing under a leak in the roof. Felt like there was a black cloud right over my head, personally. The girl in front of me, and my friend next to me both got sick, I think. I didn't, but all three of us got soaked to the point of saturation.

[mypasswordis]

Yeah, it definitely helps to be tall, so you can actually see at least a little part of the stage. And I think everyone is a big fan of Gavin. Amazing that you also went to the Philly show. The friend I went with was also going to go to the Philly show but I think he got held up with other things last minute. Sorry to hear so many things went wrong... glad you still ended up enjoying it. I know I would have. The middle part of Anesthetize at the Baltimore show was balls to the walls badass.

[Dusty Chalk]

Yup, they played that again, as well as pretty much everything else I would've wanted to hear. (A contemporary version of Radioactive Toy notwithstanding -- I think that's dreaming.)

The Philly show actually went on sale first, so we already had those tickets when the Baltimore show went on sale.

We also got gypped a few songs -- they didn't play more than the two extra songs that they did play, so I'm especially glad I went both nights. Music-choice wise, Baltimore was the better night; sound-wise, Philly was the better night; set order wise, I preferred Philly for no reason I can pinpoint, other than they played the songs I most wanted to hear earlier; performance wise, it's a toss-up, other than the first section.

Oh, and Re:

I didn't really notice

and, "good".

[postjack]

Butthole Surfers was outrageous. These guys are teetering on the brink of acid causalities, but they seem to be walking that line just fine. The biggest surprise to me was the professionalism and musicianship. As chaotic as their music is, none of the playing was sloppy or haphazard.

The House of Blues in New Orleans is the most miserable venue I've ever been to, but it is also the venue I've seen most shows at. Having said that, when a show is not heavily attended, its not that bad. I was surprised at how many people were there, considering the Butthole Surfers haven't cut a record in a shade under a decade, but still, the crowd wasn't super thick.

I hope nobody showed up to hear them play "Pepper", because as far as I could tell the setlist was pure vintage Butthole, but to be fair I have only a passing familiarity with their body of work. They had two projectors pushing all kinds of bizarre shit on the screen behind them, including live shots of themselves and the crowd. The music was straight up acid punk noise, chaotic and hilarious. About 30 seconds into the opener somebody threw a goddamn box of blue glowsticks from the balcony. A glowstick war at a Butthole Surfers concert ensued. I started laughing my ass off at that point, really set the stage for the rest of the show. At one point Gibby Haynes (lead vocalist) bummed a cigarette off somebody in the front row. During the encore break he gave the fan who bummed him a cigarette a Heineken out of their ice chest. I thought that was a classy move.

Later a friend asked me how the show was, and I said it was like Jolly Ranchers all night. Sweet, delicious, cherry Jolly Ranchers. Awesome.

We were standing behind the soundboard and I copied the setlist from a sheet of paper laying on it:

22 Going on 23

Cowboy Bob

100 Million

Graveyard

Some Disute

1401

Suicide

Florida

Gary Floyd

2 part/tornado

hey

dust devil

x-ray

Edgar

Negro

BBQ Pope

Goofy's Concern

Blind Man

Something

Who Was In My Room

E:

Cherub

Fast Song

Concubine

[Dusty Chalk]

He brought out the most amazing guitar -- it had an LCD screen or something behind the pickups. Looked cool as shit. I swear I heard 2500 jaws drop, simultaneously.

Apparently, it is 1080p.

[Genetic]

McCoy Tyner trio.

Mister Tyner was in town for the first time and despite the fact that we can only hope that he will keep doing the touring scene as long he will want to, I think it's was the last time we saw him on stage. He still has much to offer on top of being a jazz legend in action. What a nice evening it was.

Amicalement

[Voltron]

Giant Posty pic scares me a little.

McCoy Tyner seems like he is going to play until he drops. I have seen him a number of times over the last few years and the more recent ones were actually better than the earlier ones. He is in fine form.

[Dusty Chalk]

And WRT the technical problems, it is MHO that Steve should ditch the guitar changes, and just stick with one (-ish -- tuning notwithstanding) guitar and run it through a VG8 or equivalent. I have a musician friend who is an absolute master of that thing, and that's what he does. He can make any guitar sound like anything, including making it sound like a bass. He says the only thing that takes some getting used to is that the tactile feedback (feeling the guitar strings vibrate through the guitar and to your fingers) isn't right -- especially when you're using it to shift pitches by non-even-multiple increments (I.E. not octaves, but something bizarre, like pitch-shifting an out-of-tune guitar to a correct tuning, which it can do). His response to that is to just practice more -- if your fingers know what they are doing, then it matters less. Yes, he's that good.

[Dreadhead]

And WRT the technical problems, it is MHO that Steve should ditch the guitar changes, and just stick with one (-ish -- tuning notwithstanding) guitar and run it through a VG8 or equivalent. I have a musician friend who is an absolute master of that thing, and that's what he does. He can make any guitar sound like anything, including making it sound like a bass. He says the only thing that takes some getting used to is that the tactile feedback (feeling the guitar strings vibrate through the guitar and to your fingers) isn't right -- especially when you're using it to shift pitches by non-even-multiple increments (I.E. not octaves, but something bizarre, like pitch-shifting an out-of-tune guitar to a correct tuning, which it can do). His response to that is to just practice more -- if your fingers know what they are doing, then it matters less. Yes, he's that good.

Never heard of that product before. Very cool, though not for the purist I would guess.

I wonder how long it will be before the catalog and model every tube and get rid of them entirely Makes me want to try the HEDD 192 just out of curiosity and without the tube modeling the thing is supposed to be great.

http://www.cranesong.com/downloads/1595_Crane%20Song.pdf

[Dusty Chalk]

Want -- will have to read more in-depth later, but...WANT. NAO. Maybe I'll get one of those instead of the Behringer EQ.

The hard thing to model is compression and distortion -- once they start modelling well non-linearities in circuits, then I think you'll start seeing the more forward-thinking tone whores board the train (I would think Steven Wilson would be the first to experiment with this)

But like you said -- purists will never be fully on board. I have digital synthesizers that think they're analog AND they stay in tune, why do I still have my ARP 2600 and Prophet 5? Because the emulations aren't perfect -- I can't get 0% PWM on my pulse wave on my Nord Modular (the closest thing to the ARP 2600), and the Prophet 5 emulation that I tried several years ago just wasn't working for me (mostly due to setup and quality of the output -- I'll have to revisit it with today's technology and spend more time setting it up right).

I believe they also have one for mics, and I believe they're also available as plug-ins.

[Dreadhead]

Want -- will have to read more in-depth later, but...WANT. NAO. Maybe I'll get one of those instead of the Behringer EQ.

The hard thing to model is compression and distortion -- once they start modelling well non-linearities in circuits, then I think you'll start seeing the more forward-thinking tone whores board the train (I would think Steven Wilson would be the first to experiment with this)

But like you said -- purists will never be fully on board. I have digital synthesizers that think they're analog AND they stay in tune, why do I still have my ARP 2600 and Prophet 5? Because the emulations aren't perfect -- I can't get 0% PWM on my pulse wave on my Nord Modular (the closest thing to the ARP 2600), and the Prophet 5 emulation that I tried several years ago just wasn't working for me (mostly due to setup and quality of the output -- I'll have to revisit it with today's technology and spend more time setting it up right).

I believe they also have one for mics, and I believe they're also available as plug-ins.

My understanding is that it is modeling the non-linearity of compression and distortion etc. Anyway it's only 10x the Behringer DEQ.

Vintage King carries them, I'd say a trial may be in order

[Dusty Chalk]

The only question is how well it models those things. I concur, a trial is in order.

I'll check whether or not I win the lottery tonight.

Or maybe I'll just write something myself...

[Dreadhead]

Dusty I just got an email from Vintage King they have an open box special on the HEDD192 for $3125 as well as a lot of other sexy stuff. Too bad I'm not buying anything these days....

[Dusty Chalk]

Dag. Nab. It.

[dusty whining]Where is US$3K when I need it?!?!?[/dusty whining]

I should sell my Dynaudios, but I really don't want to.

[Trav]

Chris Botti with The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Ferst Center for the Arts.

[Voltron]

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2009, our free weekend festival in Golden Gate Park put on by a local billionaire. Went yesterday for a couple of shows and today for several more. I forgot the camera yesterday but brought it today. Oddly enough, Elvis Costello has played the festival for several years and released a bluegrass album this year and he wasn't present. Robert Plant, on the other hand, came back unannounced and played with one or two acts yesterday. Odd.

Anyway, no photos of my own, but yesterday we saw Okkervil River and then Steve Martin with his banjo and bluegrass band. Good stuff, but just a warm-up for today.

At noon, we sat down for a fantastic show by Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3. The 3 are Peter Buck (guitar), Scott McCaughey (bass) and Bill Riflind (drums) and they are great together with Robyn. I highly recommend seeing them and at least getting their latest album Goodnight Oslo. Here are some shots:

Robyn

Peter

Peter, with Bill in the background

Scott

Jammin'

Next up was Billy Bragg. Like Robyn Hitchcock, I have seen Billy play many times. He was in fine form and talking about universal healthcare and California's budget problems and playing Woodie Guthrie and all was well.

Love that guitar.

Spotted some local fauna as we moved to the next stage. My son took this shot:

On to the Chieftans, who had many guests including the Mexican players and dancers who are featured in a recent album/shows. Sounded great, wasn't close or interested in getting closer to shoot the many pieces.

While I took a break to take the boy home and check on my daughter, my wife and her sister checked out the 85 year old Earl Scruggs who was awesome, and Dr. Ralph Stanley and two or three generations of other Stanleys with the Clinch Mountain Boys. We have seen both several times and they are serious mountain musicians. Great stuff and I should have left the camera with her.

Anyway, I came back for Neko Case and she did not disappoint. Really sounded great, bantered with the crowd and generally fawned over SF and the free festival with so many dogs in attendance. Good stuff and she will be back in November so I probably will pay to see her again.

Last but not least, were Amadou & Miriam of Mali. They are great, and the fact that they are both blind and married makes their story even cooler. Great stuff, although the set change was brutally long and it was getting late. Another highly recommended live act, and their recordings are bitchin' too.

You can't see it in the pictures so well, but Amadou's bad-ass Telecaster is shiny gold and he can play the crap out of it.

[morphsci]

Totally awesome Al, that sounds like a great line-up of talent. Makes me wish I lived on the left coast.

[Wmcmanus]

I just saw the Blue Man Group in Orlando. Sort of part concert, part silliness, but 100% entertaining. I had heard a lot about it, so I had an idea of what to expect, but was still pleasantly surprised. The only mild disappointment I had was in the realization that it wasn't as music focused as I had imagined. Still gets a big thumbs up.

[Dusty Chalk]

Is this the concert tour, or the broadway thing? You need to see them in concert, 100% music focused. Alright, well, 99%.

[Voltron]

Totally awesome Al, that sounds like a great line-up of talent. Makes me wish I lived on the left coast.

Thanks Jim, it was a good time. I think you'd walk around looking like Bluto in your avvy all the time if you actually lived out here.

[Duggeh]

Peter Buck really needs to get his hair cut. I had no idea he did that sort of not-REM stuff though. I'll bet it sounded awesome.

[Voltron]

Peter Buck really needs to get his hair cut. I had no idea he did that sort of not-REM stuff though. I'll bet it sounded awesome.

Or at least a hairstyle. They really sound amazing together. Peter Buck and Scott McCaughey (who was in Young Fresh Fellows and The Minus 5, plays with REM, and is in The Baseball Project with Buck and Steve Wynn) have been playing with Robyn Hitchcock for a few years now. Their earlier album Ol

[Wmcmanus]

Is this the concert tour, or the broadway thing? You need to see them in concert, 100% music focused. Alright, well, 99%.

It must be the broadway thing. Orlando is one of their 5 permanent show locations, the others being NY, Boston, Chicago and Vegas. They do silly bits with Cap'n Crunch and Twinkies and toilet paper, etc. Quite entertaining, I've got to say, but probably something that you would only need to see once. I'd love to see a Blue Man show that is all about the music.