Any discussion of Vampire Weekend has to start with the name. “Vampire Weekend”? What does that even mean?! Wikipedia claims that the name comes from an independent film created by lead singer Ezra Koenig. If you check Internet Movie Database, though, it says the film does not exist. And bear in my mind, IMDB lists the name of the gaffer from Norbit and the boom operator from Vampire City 2: Rock ‘n Roll Zombies from Outer Space. (Those distinguished gentlemen’s names? Terry Meadows and Jo Lapitz. Jo doesn’t need an ‘e’; he’s that cool.)
After their first few songs at Constitution Hall, I had very little indication of what the name “Vampire Weekend” meant. It was pretty clear, however, that this would be an incredibly strange show. The band walked on to blaring hip hop, eased into some low-key tropical tunes, and ended with a series of high-energy sing-a-longs. It made no sense. The set decoration was just as odd. Above the performers hung several glittering chandeliers; behind the performers hung a giant Grace Kelly banner. It was not Grace Kelly exactly, but some attractive Hitchcock blond who, for no apparent reason, halfway through the show, grew red dots in her eyes!
Undoubtedly the strangest part of the concert was the fact that it actually worked! It was strange in a good way: eerie without being unpleasant. (Think Smashing Pumpkins not Counting Crows; Muse not Bob Dylan.) The biggest reason it worked was the crowd. They were a packed house and continued to sing/clap no matter how absurd it got – picture 3500 people chanting “Blake’s got a new face! Blake’s got a new FACE!” Not exactly a radio-ready hook… The other reason it worked was they played a number of legitimately good songs: “A-Punk,” “Oxford Comma,” “I Stand Corrected,” “Cousins,” “Horchata,” and “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa.” They all sounded quirky and upbeat, so it did not matter that you could not fit them into any clear categories (Jamaican Cotillion music? Chorus-less Killers?).
In the end, I was definitely glad I went to the show and will check them out next time they’re at DAR. Maybe by then I’ll understand the meaning of their name…
Grade:A-
Sunday, April 11, 2010
64 –- Nada Surf -– Friday, April 2, 2010 –- 9:30 Club -– DC
Nada Surf may never be one of my all-time favorite bands (many of their songs seem to drift without ambition), but they did put on one of my favorite concerts. Everything about the show was fun. It did not have the gravitas of Springsteen, Smashing Pumpkins, or Rise Against, but it didn’t need it. Their attitude the whole night fit one of their best songs: the hell with everything else, they were going to have a party!
Here are some of the many things I liked about their DC party:
1. There was a wide variety of songs: driving rock (“The Plan”), upbeat mood music (“Hyperspace”), moody slow burner (“Killian’s Red”), dreamy acoustic ballad (“Blizzard of ‘77”), haunting acoustic ballad (“Blonde on Blonde”), and bursts of pure joy (“The Blankest Year,” “Always Love”).
2. Many of the songs connected to strong songs from other artists: “Hyperspace” to Blink 182’s “Going Away to College,” “Killian’s Red” to Get Up Kids’ “On A Wire,” “Blonde on Blonde” to, well, Bob Dylan’s whole B.O.B. album.
3. Everything was chill; nothing was forced. Frontman Matthew Caws engaged the crowd in a way that was real. He said “we always like coming back to the 9:30 Club,” not “you guys are the best ever.” He laughed about various mistakes the band made. And he seemed genuinely moved by the fact that philosophy students from his dad’s GW philosophy class came to the show. It did not matter that he was not as outgoing as Dave Grohl or as witty as Ben Folds; he made you feel like you were back at college, hanging with an incredible Lodge One band you could not wait to tell all your friends about.
4. The second guitarist had ridiculous hair. Alright, so that’s a less serious point than the others, but his hair was insane! It was like that Guinness World record fingernail thing where the guy has to wrap part of the nails up in a bag when he sleeps – except the Nada Surf guy had that on his HEAD! Pretty crazy/cool.
5. Also cool was the fact that they didn’t play “Popular.” It could have seemed forced, it could have meant dragging out a song they’d long since lost affection for, and it gives me something to look forward to if they decide to play it next time.
6. After an emPHatic “Blankest Year” / “I Fought the Law” encore, a remarkable thing happened: the drummer threw his drumstick and I CAUGHT IT! Then, sadly, seconds later, I let some jerk grab it out of my HANDS! Guess I was so shocked that I caught it that I let my guard down. I could’ve also been a little woozy from the encore. Another night, I would’ve fought for it, or at least gotten in an epic point-by-point argument ;). On this night, though, I figured, the hell with it – better to just enjoy the party...
Grade: A
Here are some of the many things I liked about their DC party:
1. There was a wide variety of songs: driving rock (“The Plan”), upbeat mood music (“Hyperspace”), moody slow burner (“Killian’s Red”), dreamy acoustic ballad (“Blizzard of ‘77”), haunting acoustic ballad (“Blonde on Blonde”), and bursts of pure joy (“The Blankest Year,” “Always Love”).
2. Many of the songs connected to strong songs from other artists: “Hyperspace” to Blink 182’s “Going Away to College,” “Killian’s Red” to Get Up Kids’ “On A Wire,” “Blonde on Blonde” to, well, Bob Dylan’s whole B.O.B. album.
3. Everything was chill; nothing was forced. Frontman Matthew Caws engaged the crowd in a way that was real. He said “we always like coming back to the 9:30 Club,” not “you guys are the best ever.” He laughed about various mistakes the band made. And he seemed genuinely moved by the fact that philosophy students from his dad’s GW philosophy class came to the show. It did not matter that he was not as outgoing as Dave Grohl or as witty as Ben Folds; he made you feel like you were back at college, hanging with an incredible Lodge One band you could not wait to tell all your friends about.
4. The second guitarist had ridiculous hair. Alright, so that’s a less serious point than the others, but his hair was insane! It was like that Guinness World record fingernail thing where the guy has to wrap part of the nails up in a bag when he sleeps – except the Nada Surf guy had that on his HEAD! Pretty crazy/cool.
5. Also cool was the fact that they didn’t play “Popular.” It could have seemed forced, it could have meant dragging out a song they’d long since lost affection for, and it gives me something to look forward to if they decide to play it next time.
6. After an emPHatic “Blankest Year” / “I Fought the Law” encore, a remarkable thing happened: the drummer threw his drumstick and I CAUGHT IT! Then, sadly, seconds later, I let some jerk grab it out of my HANDS! Guess I was so shocked that I caught it that I let my guard down. I could’ve also been a little woozy from the encore. Another night, I would’ve fought for it, or at least gotten in an epic point-by-point argument ;). On this night, though, I figured, the hell with it – better to just enjoy the party...
Grade: A
63 -– Ben Folds -– Friday, March 26, 2010 –- 9:30 Club -– DC
For people who read this blog regularly, the criteria for an A+ show should be pretty clear. For newcomers, here’s the criteria: it breaks the rules. It upends convention in a way that leaves you dazed afterwards. It makes for a long, silent trip back to the car as you consider how completely you’ve been proven wrong. All that happened again at the 9:30 Club last Friday.
FIRST LAW: The first law broken at the concert was the Law of Diminishing Returns. That is, after you see a band in concert, every subsequent show will be less special. The newness will be lost; bitter feelings toward casual fans will develop; your overall enthusiasm will fade.
There was a strong possibility all that could happen at my third Ben Folds concert considering the first one at DAR Constitution Hall had earned a “B” and the second one at the Kennedy Center had earned a “C-.” The problem at DAR had been Folds’ arrogance: 18 of the 21 songs he played had never been released. (He essentially told audience how privileged they were to hear such material; the audience did not feel privileged.) The problem at the Kennedy Center had been Folds’ presence: he came in, played for less than 90 minutes, and slipped out without an encore.
Fortunately, the Diminishing Returns rules was not followed. He maintained a perfect balance of old and new material (“Annie Waits” before “Effington,” “Emaline” before “Hope is a Bastard”) and played for more than two hours, stretching past midnight for the encore.
SECOND LAW: The second major law broken at the concert was the Law of Friday Failure. As I described in my Coldplay review, I do not do Friday nights. Every time I try to eat, drink, see a show, or watch a movie after ten on Friday, I doze off. Considering the show didn’t start till ten, there was no way I’d last long. Three songs in, though, “Annie Waits” jolted me out of my only real nap. Folds followed that with the supersonic “Zac and Sara,” so I was good to go the rest of the night. :)
THIRD LAW: The third major law broken at the concert was the Law of Guitar Supremacy. At virtually every concert I’d ever been to, guitars were what musicians used to rock. Other instruments had their place but were used to express less aggressive emotions: the soothing recorder in Dispatch’s “Walk with You,” the funky spinner in Cake’s “Frank Sinatra,” the hypnotic organ in Death Cab’s “Transatlanticism.”
At this concert, though, Folds came out and ROCKED on the piano. On songs like “Army,” “Annie Waits,” “Effington,” and “Hiroshima,” he literally pounded on the keys, generating a sound as loud and powerful as a White Stripes bass riff. He pulled back a bit on midtempo songs like “The Ascent of Stan” and “Jesusland” – which made sense. They would naturally be slower, but he still got out of his seat multiple times and played with the same sense of urgency.
LAST LAW: The final major law broken at the concert was the Law of Indie Detachment. All too often at small clubs, indie bands act like any interaction with your audience is selling out. They seem to think that the second they start to talk with fans, they’ll become so much less cool. What are they, in seventh grade? Clever conversation with a few people in the crowd is not the same as insisting the entire crowd is “the best crowd ever.” Sharing an amusing/insightful anecdote is not the same as launching free t-shirts into the mezzanine! TV on the Radio, The Shins, Spoon, The New Rockers, Jack Johnson, and Arctic Monkeys had trouble grasping these differences.
Fortunately, Ben Folds had no trouble, establishing a singer-crowd connection I haven’t seen since…Bruce Springsteen! Obviously he couldn’t match Bruce (who could?), but he definitely connected. He shared his past history at the 9:30 Club (“I could probably recognize the sound of each type of bottle breaking behind the bar”), he took several direct song requests, he gently mocked people who shouted too often / too loud, and he shared meaningful backstories on several key songs.
Unquestionably the best backstory was “Hiroshima”’s. Before the song, he told this incredible story of a performance in Japan in which he fell off the stage face first! He told how he got up, head cracked, blood on the keyboard, and performed the rest of the set! He didn’t know if he was fueled by pure adrenaline or embarrassment, but he did finish the set.
The best crowd moment and the best moment of the night overall was the last one. Initially, I was somewhat disappointed because he hadn’t performed “Fred Jones Part 2,” “The Luckiest,” or “Rockin’ the Suburbs” (even though that would build anticipation for the next show). I was more disappointed that it would end on an unprintable Dr. Dre cover, which would expose Folds’ biggest weakness, an overreliance on profanity. As it turned out, though, the song was AMAZING because halfway through it, he invited this pasty, gangly white guy up on stage for an earnest hip hop duet! (No, it was not me – some other pasty, gangly white guy…) The song was successful mostly because it was awkwardly funny, but there were various points in the song where you thought, “This guy is actually a decent singer. He seems to have come in with genuine charisma.” If he had not come in with it, he at least know whose lead to follow…
Grade: A+
FIRST LAW: The first law broken at the concert was the Law of Diminishing Returns. That is, after you see a band in concert, every subsequent show will be less special. The newness will be lost; bitter feelings toward casual fans will develop; your overall enthusiasm will fade.
There was a strong possibility all that could happen at my third Ben Folds concert considering the first one at DAR Constitution Hall had earned a “B” and the second one at the Kennedy Center had earned a “C-.” The problem at DAR had been Folds’ arrogance: 18 of the 21 songs he played had never been released. (He essentially told audience how privileged they were to hear such material; the audience did not feel privileged.) The problem at the Kennedy Center had been Folds’ presence: he came in, played for less than 90 minutes, and slipped out without an encore.
Fortunately, the Diminishing Returns rules was not followed. He maintained a perfect balance of old and new material (“Annie Waits” before “Effington,” “Emaline” before “Hope is a Bastard”) and played for more than two hours, stretching past midnight for the encore.
SECOND LAW: The second major law broken at the concert was the Law of Friday Failure. As I described in my Coldplay review, I do not do Friday nights. Every time I try to eat, drink, see a show, or watch a movie after ten on Friday, I doze off. Considering the show didn’t start till ten, there was no way I’d last long. Three songs in, though, “Annie Waits” jolted me out of my only real nap. Folds followed that with the supersonic “Zac and Sara,” so I was good to go the rest of the night. :)
THIRD LAW: The third major law broken at the concert was the Law of Guitar Supremacy. At virtually every concert I’d ever been to, guitars were what musicians used to rock. Other instruments had their place but were used to express less aggressive emotions: the soothing recorder in Dispatch’s “Walk with You,” the funky spinner in Cake’s “Frank Sinatra,” the hypnotic organ in Death Cab’s “Transatlanticism.”
At this concert, though, Folds came out and ROCKED on the piano. On songs like “Army,” “Annie Waits,” “Effington,” and “Hiroshima,” he literally pounded on the keys, generating a sound as loud and powerful as a White Stripes bass riff. He pulled back a bit on midtempo songs like “The Ascent of Stan” and “Jesusland” – which made sense. They would naturally be slower, but he still got out of his seat multiple times and played with the same sense of urgency.
LAST LAW: The final major law broken at the concert was the Law of Indie Detachment. All too often at small clubs, indie bands act like any interaction with your audience is selling out. They seem to think that the second they start to talk with fans, they’ll become so much less cool. What are they, in seventh grade? Clever conversation with a few people in the crowd is not the same as insisting the entire crowd is “the best crowd ever.” Sharing an amusing/insightful anecdote is not the same as launching free t-shirts into the mezzanine! TV on the Radio, The Shins, Spoon, The New Rockers, Jack Johnson, and Arctic Monkeys had trouble grasping these differences.
Fortunately, Ben Folds had no trouble, establishing a singer-crowd connection I haven’t seen since…Bruce Springsteen! Obviously he couldn’t match Bruce (who could?), but he definitely connected. He shared his past history at the 9:30 Club (“I could probably recognize the sound of each type of bottle breaking behind the bar”), he took several direct song requests, he gently mocked people who shouted too often / too loud, and he shared meaningful backstories on several key songs.
Unquestionably the best backstory was “Hiroshima”’s. Before the song, he told this incredible story of a performance in Japan in which he fell off the stage face first! He told how he got up, head cracked, blood on the keyboard, and performed the rest of the set! He didn’t know if he was fueled by pure adrenaline or embarrassment, but he did finish the set.
The best crowd moment and the best moment of the night overall was the last one. Initially, I was somewhat disappointed because he hadn’t performed “Fred Jones Part 2,” “The Luckiest,” or “Rockin’ the Suburbs” (even though that would build anticipation for the next show). I was more disappointed that it would end on an unprintable Dr. Dre cover, which would expose Folds’ biggest weakness, an overreliance on profanity. As it turned out, though, the song was AMAZING because halfway through it, he invited this pasty, gangly white guy up on stage for an earnest hip hop duet! (No, it was not me – some other pasty, gangly white guy…) The song was successful mostly because it was awkwardly funny, but there were various points in the song where you thought, “This guy is actually a decent singer. He seems to have come in with genuine charisma.” If he had not come in with it, he at least know whose lead to follow…
Grade: A+
62 –- Spoon –- Tuesday, March 23, 2010 –- 9:30 Club -– DC
So let’s start with good stuff:
They were not Arctic Monkeys. Two months earlier, Arctic Monkeys, another hip indie band I saw at the Club, had been a major disappointment. They thrashed where they should have driven, they drove where they should have strummed – it was not good. I also hated the fact that they said nothing to the audience – as if Americans wouldn’t be able to understand ‘British’ anyway, so why bother? Fortunately, Spoon knew how and when to power their instruments and at least made an attempt to acknowledge the crowd.
I was also glad I was able to familiarize myself with their albums beforehand. I’m surprised I was able to do this because I only started really listening to them two days before the show. I’d booked the tickets months earlier based on Mike Erickson and Chris Prickett’s high praise, but I didn’t remember the actual show until the last minute. Luckily I was able to cram four albums into that short time: Ga Ga Ga Ga, Gimme Fiction, Kill the Moonlight, and Transference. And I was able to come out with four songs that I genuinely liked: “Got Nuffin,” “You Gut Yr. Cherry Bomb,” “The Two Sides of Monsieur Valentine,” and “The Underdog.”
The overall problem with the band and the show, though, was that I could never go much beyond “like.” “Got Nuffin” had a nice Foo Fighters vibe, “Cherry Bomb” had a catchy chorus, “Monsieur Valentine” was an interesting character study, and “The Underdog” would boost the spirit of anyone listening to it, but in the end, there was nothing to really love. Spoon will remain on my iPod and serve as pleasant background music during a long grading session, but the chance of going to another Spoon concert….not likely.
Grade:C+
They were not Arctic Monkeys. Two months earlier, Arctic Monkeys, another hip indie band I saw at the Club, had been a major disappointment. They thrashed where they should have driven, they drove where they should have strummed – it was not good. I also hated the fact that they said nothing to the audience – as if Americans wouldn’t be able to understand ‘British’ anyway, so why bother? Fortunately, Spoon knew how and when to power their instruments and at least made an attempt to acknowledge the crowd.
I was also glad I was able to familiarize myself with their albums beforehand. I’m surprised I was able to do this because I only started really listening to them two days before the show. I’d booked the tickets months earlier based on Mike Erickson and Chris Prickett’s high praise, but I didn’t remember the actual show until the last minute. Luckily I was able to cram four albums into that short time: Ga Ga Ga Ga, Gimme Fiction, Kill the Moonlight, and Transference. And I was able to come out with four songs that I genuinely liked: “Got Nuffin,” “You Gut Yr. Cherry Bomb,” “The Two Sides of Monsieur Valentine,” and “The Underdog.”
The overall problem with the band and the show, though, was that I could never go much beyond “like.” “Got Nuffin” had a nice Foo Fighters vibe, “Cherry Bomb” had a catchy chorus, “Monsieur Valentine” was an interesting character study, and “The Underdog” would boost the spirit of anyone listening to it, but in the end, there was nothing to really love. Spoon will remain on my iPod and serve as pleasant background music during a long grading session, but the chance of going to another Spoon concert….not likely.
Grade:C+
Saturday, April 10, 2010
61 –- Alkaline Trio –- Friday, March 12, 2010 –- The Nokia Theatre –- NYC
The defining moment of the show was when they did not play “Radio.” Although some might consider it arrogant, even disrespectful not to play your most popular song, the decision actually worked for me. It added an element of surprise, it created anticipation for the next concert where there could now be actual suspense over whether they’d play it, and it stuck it to casual fans who only came to listen to hits. It felt like a genuine ‘punk’ move.
Another pleasant surprise was the fact that they played so many other old songs. I feared they would waste half the show slogging through This Addiction, their depressingly tame latest album. Fortunately, they only played the vivid title song and “Lead Poisoning,” a song that was accompanied by their (first ever?) trumpet solo. (Opening band Cursive provided the trumpet.) Some of the solid old tracks they revisited included “Sadie,” “97,” “Blue Carolina,” “Crawl,” “Blue in the Face,” and “Mr. Chainsaw,” which had been requested by every previous Trio audience. It was also satisfying to see them come back with three songs I’d been clamoring for the past three shows: “Mercy Me,” “Armageddon,” and “We’ve Had Enough.”
The lead singer on almost all of these songs was Dan Andriano, a reversal from the usual dominance of Matt Skiba. Andriano has a deeper, slower voice than Skiba, which often lent the songs greater gravitas. Next show, I’ll be ready to return to Skiba, to power through “Private Eye,” “Stupid Kid,” “This Could Be Love,” and a full speed “Armageddon,” but on this night, Andriano was a nice change of pace. He didn’t force mosh pits when none were needed, he didn’t attempt watered-down Rise Against, he just let hardcore fans (like me) sway and mouth the words.
Grade:A-
Another pleasant surprise was the fact that they played so many other old songs. I feared they would waste half the show slogging through This Addiction, their depressingly tame latest album. Fortunately, they only played the vivid title song and “Lead Poisoning,” a song that was accompanied by their (first ever?) trumpet solo. (Opening band Cursive provided the trumpet.) Some of the solid old tracks they revisited included “Sadie,” “97,” “Blue Carolina,” “Crawl,” “Blue in the Face,” and “Mr. Chainsaw,” which had been requested by every previous Trio audience. It was also satisfying to see them come back with three songs I’d been clamoring for the past three shows: “Mercy Me,” “Armageddon,” and “We’ve Had Enough.”
The lead singer on almost all of these songs was Dan Andriano, a reversal from the usual dominance of Matt Skiba. Andriano has a deeper, slower voice than Skiba, which often lent the songs greater gravitas. Next show, I’ll be ready to return to Skiba, to power through “Private Eye,” “Stupid Kid,” “This Could Be Love,” and a full speed “Armageddon,” but on this night, Andriano was a nice change of pace. He didn’t force mosh pits when none were needed, he didn’t attempt watered-down Rise Against, he just let hardcore fans (like me) sway and mouth the words.
Grade:A-
60 –- Muse –- Monday, March 1, 2010 –- The Patriot Center –- Fairfax, VA
Attending the concert felt like participating in an arena-size music video. Select lyrics flashed in front of you, strobe lights flashed behind you, and eerie images gleamed all across the stage. Band members rising, falling, and spinning on giant conveyor belts added to the fun. And of course there were the exploding spheres lobbed into the crowd – always a nice Muse touch.
The fact that I had seen Muse before (two years earlier at Madison Square Garden) could have been a disadvantage, but it was balanced by the fact that they were not Bob Dylan. The Dylan debacle was the last show I’d seen at the Patriot Center, so this one was a huge improvement. This audience was thrilled, not horrified; this band was lucid, not abusive.
The only thing that held the concert back from a full “A” was it seemed a little shallow. You left stimulated, but not overcome with emotion. Overall, though, in terms of pure style points, Muse earned their bow…
Grade:A-
The fact that I had seen Muse before (two years earlier at Madison Square Garden) could have been a disadvantage, but it was balanced by the fact that they were not Bob Dylan. The Dylan debacle was the last show I’d seen at the Patriot Center, so this one was a huge improvement. This audience was thrilled, not horrified; this band was lucid, not abusive.
The only thing that held the concert back from a full “A” was it seemed a little shallow. You left stimulated, but not overcome with emotion. Overall, though, in terms of pure style points, Muse earned their bow…
Grade:A-
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