69 / 70 -- Arcade Fire / Spoon -- Wednesday, August 4, 2010 -- Madison Square Garden -- NYC

On July 24, 2007, three years before this show, I saw the White Stripes' debut at Madison Square Garden. At the start of the show, Jack White walked on stage and announced, “I don’t think we’ve ever played this bar before…” It was a great beginning, a clever wink at the fact that the White Stripes were about to stray outside their comfort zone. They were about to take on an arena.

Sadly, they were not up to the challenge. Their guitar feedback was so loud that the usual funky riffs sounded like thrashing. At a smaller hall, their quirky, scratchy phrasing could have worked well, but at the Garden, it sounded like mumbling.

Considering the White Stripes’ failure, I was nervous for Arcade Fire. Were arenas just for Justin Bieber? Did Arcade Fire belong in the same venue as Disney On Ice? Adding to my nerves was the fact that I had looked forward to the show for months, claiming on numerous occasions that they were the band I most wanted to see in concert. Given these giant expectations, I could have easily been disappointed.

Lucky for me, Arcade Fire IS giant. The soaring melodies, the crescendos, the guttural wails…they seem built for more space. Couple those sounds with the striking images that flashed above the eight band members’ heads, and you had one heckuva show.

The show started exactly as it should have: with the propulsive “Ready to Start.” (Why was that not the first track on their new album? It fit much more than “The Suburbs.”) "Ready to Start" was ominous, atmospheric, and offered an immediate buy in. They followed that with strong Neon Bible tracks: “No Cars Go,” “Keep the Car Running,” and “Windowsill.” They also made me appreciate “Crown of Love” and “Rebellion” more than I did on Funeral.

In between the powerful songs, frontman Win Butler found time to throw in a clever taunt: “This is my favorite section of Madison Square Garden right here. [He points to a section near the front. That section cheers; the rest of the crowd boos.] That section is the best because that’s where Hakeem Olajuwon dunked over the Knicks in ’94, destroying their hopes of winning the NBA Finals! [The whole crowd boos. They then chuckle, begrudgingly.]”

By the middle of the concert, everything started to become a euphoric blur. Out of the blur, I could identify two high points: “Intervention” and “Wakeup.” “Intervention” had one of the most depressing lines I’d ever heard: “every spark of friendship and hope will die without a home.” But it also had one of the most upbeat sounds. “Wakeup” contained an equally crazy irony: the whole song was about repression, yet it laid bare your emotions. Who in the Garden did not feel the sad poetry of ''children, wake up, hold your mistake up / before they turn the summer into dust''? The transition in the middle of the song was also incredible, going from surrender to anger to action in three verses.

In the end, the word I’d use to describe the show is ‘epic.’ My students overuse the word like it’s their job, but here it fits. They did what the White Stripes couldn't; they delivered an EPIC performance.

Grade: A+

Endnote: Spoon opened the show. Their performance was the same as last time, except fewer people knew them, so there was less enthusiasm. Though maybe enthusiasm wasn’t what frontman Britt Daniel was going for, considering he stumbled out in a pilly white t-shirt. Still like “Cherry Bomb,” still like “The Underdog,” still don’t get them overall.

Grade: C

68 –- Weezer -– Friday, April 30, 2010 -– Byrd Stadium: University of Maryland –- College Park, MD

Let’s start with the good stuff: it wasn’t held in a Jersey casino ballroom, I didn’t nearly crash on the way to the show, and I got to listen to Weezer – in concert. Moreover, I appreciated the times Rivers talked to the crowd, the balloons that filtered through the rows, and the well balanced setlist. The setlist had everything from “Why Bother” (a little-known, downbeat old song) to “If You’re Wondering…” (a well-known, upbeat new one). And finally, honestly, I enjoyed “Can’t Stop Partying.” Cuomo’s stab at Lil Wayne is hilarious; it’s that bad!

Despite these positives, this was definitely the least enjoyable of my three Weezer shows. Part of this was familiarity: it was not as fresh and surprising as the first times. Part of this was the environment: I was trapped in a group of dumb, fratty Maryland undergrads who seemed to know far more about shotgunning than the band. If I had been able to secure a wristband, I could have fled and joined the diehards near the stage. There had been no mention of a wristband in advertising beforehand, though, so I was stuck with the drunks.

Oh well. If they can still put out tracks like “Heart Songs,” there’s always hope for the band. Play that, “Dreamin,’” and a bunch of Pinkerton at a DAR / 9:30 Club show, and it’ll be back up to an “A”…

Grade: B-

67 –- Phoenix –- Monday, April 26, 2010 –- DAR Constitution Hall -– DC

There were a number of cool things about the Phoenix concert: I got to see it with Kim Walker and Jen McGovern, it was held at sound-boosting DAR Constitution Hall, and Phoenix brought a lot of enthusiasm to each song. (The best songs were the bouncy “Lasso,” the moody “Love Is A Sunset,” and the funky “Squaredance.” It’s also hard not to like “Lisztomania.”)

All of those cool things were overshadowed by the fact that, at the end of the concert, they gave a third of the audience a shot to run up and join them on stage! I thought they’d finished the last song, “1901,” but clearly not. As long as you could make it up there by the 20^th time they repeated “fold it, fold it, fold it” (which I always thought was “ballin, ballin, ballin”), you could jump in and join the band! And by the last few seconds, by the 17^th “ballin,” I did – I made it on stage. :)

Grade: B+

Unless you’re a big Phoenix fan, my advice for these clips is to skip to the last two. The second-to-last is the Phoenix album version of “Lisztomania.” This will give you an idea of Phoenix and the song. The last is a version done by a whole class of elementary school students. It is INCREDIBLE. I challenge you to watch it and not be moved.

66 –- The Protomen –- Saturday, April 24, 2010 -– The Red & The Black -– DC

Picture a steam room. Without the steam. Or the random old men. Now, most bands would not choose to hold a concert in a steam room -- nor would they don Power Ranger masks and channel Rammstein / Bonnie Tyler in the same show. Most bands are not, however, the Protomen.

The Protomen show was unquestionably the strangest show I've ever been to. It wasn't bad exactly, and it certainly wasn't boring; it was just strange. They would build and pound these ten-minute mood tracks ("Hope Rides Alone," "Light Up The Night"), and then they'd deliver a spirited, upbeat cover of "Total Eclipse of the Heart." It made no sense.

I would have liked to revel in this strangeness, as Andrew Schmadel and Mike Vance were able to do, but all I could really focus on was the temperature. The show was held in the attic of The Red & The Black, a 500-foot cubby hole with 100-degree heat. If I had gone sleeveless like the guitarist or shirtless like the drummer, I might have been able to get past the heat, but a long-sleeve sweater was not going to cut it.

Overall, I'm willing to give the band another chance; they were intriguingly odd. Next time they just need to perform somewhere that has A/C.








Grade: B-