Almost every A+ show makes some sort of comeback. It overcomes a slow start, a slow previous show, unfairly low expectations, or impossibly high ones.
Franz Ferdinand made no such comeback. They got the audience in their crosshairs from minute one (the first song was literally called “Bullet”!) and spent the next 90 minutes taking them out again and again and again. The band’s outfits, accents, vocals, instruments.....everything was irresistibly smooth. It took half the concert for “This Fire” to arrive, but you could feel the heat from the beginning. Girls wanted them; guys wanted to be them; everyone just wanted them to keep playing more songs.
You would think all of this would come off as too slick or self-involved, but it didn’t. It felt natural – like they could not help who they were. It would be like faulting Elvis Presley for not being Elvis Duran, or Usher for not being Urkel. To quote an equally slick stage production, “When you’ve got it, flaunt it.”
And flaunt they did, tearing into 19 songs with urbane abandon. They may have claimed they “hate pop music,” but if there were any justice in the world, they would be bonafide British pop stars.
Quick hits from the show below:
--- Whoa, ZERO vocal dropoff from the album.
--- “Matinee”!!! Love the ninja stage move, the unexpected slowdown, the nine other rhythm changes, the bouncing guy in front of me, and the fact that I have the best view in the whole auditorium -- dead center stage!
--- Nice call-and-response during “No, You Girls,” backup vocal during “Tell Her Tonight,” and guitar solo during “Evil Eye.”
--- Called “Do You Want To?” from the opening strum! Alex Kapranos has started walking through the audience, five feet away! ‘Lucky lucky lucky lucky’ indeed. Everyone has started bouncing. BEDLAM has begun.
--- Huge contrast with “Walk Away.” Slows everything down to a crawl. One audience member whistles in the silence as he does. How is Franz Ferdinand not more well known? They are pros.
--- Hahaha, the lyrics are making this too easy. “Can't Stop Feeling” literally contains the phrases “I feel love,” “so good,” and “I can’t feel anymore.” Killer keyboard too.
--- “Stand on the Horizon” is mediocre -- until the electric orange arrives.
--- Other than the all-too-relatable line “we all lose our keys,” “Brief Encounters” is a letdown.
--- Whoa, “The Fallen” is a tongue twister. I like the la-la-s and the last line.
--- “Take Me Out”!!! Never knew it had a banjo part.
--- “Sweet Love Illumination”!! By far the best song from the new album.
--- “Ulysses”! Don’t ask us to get high; everyone already is. If we're never going home, does that mean the show doesn’t have to end?!
--- “This Fire”!!! Red flames, blue flames, hot white ones – whoa. Slight excess in the middle, but epic / euphoric overall. Worthy of a rollback from Pancho Hernandorena.
--- “Goodbye Lovers and Friends.” Noooo, does that mean this is end? I know you hate pop music, but please, Franz, don't leave us!
--- HA, random compliment: “Thank you, people of DC and Mary-land. We appreciate your high ceilings.”
--- “Jacqueline”!!! Their first song, my first song, so glad they played it! Yes. Darts remains.
--- “Treason! Animals” is trippy – the word ‘narcissist’ is well pronounced.
--- Heh, “Outsiders” ends with a MEGA DRUM SOLO, a la Imagine Dragons. Great minds…
Grade: A+
Sunday, November 3, 2013
141 – The Flaming Lips – Friday, October 4, 2013 – Merriweather Post Pavilion – Columbia, MD
T.F.L. were a giant, flaming disappointment. Two respected musicians (my Memphis cousin Robbie and my Chaminade friend Tom) swore by the band, saying their Lips concerts were the best concerts they had ever been to. I understand where they were coming from in the sense that it was an intense experience, but I could not say it was an enjoyable one.
I could not recognize almost any of the Lips’ songs, despite having listened to their entire discography. The sounds and visuals also never seemed to cohere. Usually, if I wrote about a concert “most extreme sounds/visuals ever,” that would be a good thing. (See Rise Against, Smashing Pumpkins.) This felt different though. It made me uncomfortable: like, at any moment, it seemed the band would invite someone on stage to be burned alive – and the crowd would cackle in glee at what it just saw.
The Lips kept trying to encourage drug use, but I feel like that would have made it worse. The swirling ash clouds and the blinding stage lamps were scary enough sober; I can’t imagine how scary they would have been high! The stage lamps literally hurt my eyes at one point; I had to stare back down at my seat. The mingling scents of pot and cap guns (?!) didn’t help matters.
There remain a number of Flaming Lips songs I really like: “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots,” “She Don’t Use Jelly,” and “Do You Realize??” And it was not as if every moment of the show was miserable. “Nobody's Fault But My Own” had a cool White Stripes guitar riff, and “Silver Trembling Hands” had a cool crescendo -- slowly but surely taking the audience up its rainbow mountain.
Overall, though, it did not seem like a mountain I would want to scale again…
Grade: C-
I could not recognize almost any of the Lips’ songs, despite having listened to their entire discography. The sounds and visuals also never seemed to cohere. Usually, if I wrote about a concert “most extreme sounds/visuals ever,” that would be a good thing. (See Rise Against, Smashing Pumpkins.) This felt different though. It made me uncomfortable: like, at any moment, it seemed the band would invite someone on stage to be burned alive – and the crowd would cackle in glee at what it just saw.
The Lips kept trying to encourage drug use, but I feel like that would have made it worse. The swirling ash clouds and the blinding stage lamps were scary enough sober; I can’t imagine how scary they would have been high! The stage lamps literally hurt my eyes at one point; I had to stare back down at my seat. The mingling scents of pot and cap guns (?!) didn’t help matters.
There remain a number of Flaming Lips songs I really like: “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots,” “She Don’t Use Jelly,” and “Do You Realize??” And it was not as if every moment of the show was miserable. “Nobody's Fault But My Own” had a cool White Stripes guitar riff, and “Silver Trembling Hands” had a cool crescendo -- slowly but surely taking the audience up its rainbow mountain.
Overall, though, it did not seem like a mountain I would want to scale again…
Grade: C-
140 -- Imagine Dragons -- Friday, September 20, 2013 -- Merriweather Post Pavilion -- Columbia, MD
Imagine Dragons had three things stacked against them: (1) No matter how many times I listened to their debut album, I kept forgetting half of the tracks. (2) The concert was held on a Friday night, and I don’t have a great track record with shows that night. (3) The crowd had more poppy tweens than I was used to or comfortable with.
Very early on in the show, however, I started to realize that not only were these ‘problems’ not problems, they would help turn this into an A+ show. I did not have strong attachment to the album versions of a lot of the songs, so I could take in the live versions for the first time. I was used to falling asleep on Fridays, so it meant more that I was wide awake this time. And most importantly, by judging the young people I saw there, I set myself up for a huge surprise.
This was anything but a pre-packaged pre-teen arena show. It was a roaring indie-rock explosion. Young kids, young adults, college kids, and actual adults watched as the band laid waste to the stage – smashing cymbals, tearing through timpanis, chucking sticks left and right. The fact that most of the vocals (or at least the verses) were rough added to the vibe. This was Imagine Dragons unfiltered. In their own words, this was “a band who started out three years ago dirt poor in Vegas headlining the biggest stage they ever played.” I’m just glad I was there to witness it.
Live reactions below:
--- “Round and Round.” HA, they’re smashing the drums just like in the Carlock clip. Kyle was right: this band’s gonna be big.
--- So glad I got the wristband and am right up in front. This feels so exclusive haha.
--- The look of the backup guitarist is funny: like a stoner Dave Grohl, with even longer hair.
--- “Amsterdam.” Big vocal dropoff from the album. He’s half-croaking, half-speaking the verses. The soaring choruses totally work though. And I love how he waits for the crowd to finish “any other wayyyy” and “much lonnnnger.”
--- I appreciate “Tiptoe”’s empowerment message, but the sound is mediocre. No! He prompts the crowd with “nobody else…can take me higher,” and then it totally works!!
--- “This is the biggest headline show we've ever played. We're not going to act like that doesn't mean a lot to us. We're not going to try to be cool.” Awwww.
--- “Hear Me.” The song's meh, but the way Dan Reynolds destroys the cymbal is hilarious.
--- HA: “My cousins are from DC. I threw up the first time I came here. It's okay; I love you guys anyway.”
--- Why do more bands not talk with the crowd? This intro makes the song ten times better: “‘Cha Ching’ is about being dirt poor. We wrote it in an apartment in Vegas three years ago. It's on the deluxe album. If you've heard it, you're a true fan. If you haven't, you're here, so you're about to be.”
--- HA, the front rows [understandably] flip out when Reynolds flicks water from his water bottle at them.
--- “What day is it? Is it Friday? I didn't even know that. We hope you can forget about work and school and all that and just exist. Get loose.” Swoooon.
---- Love the Vampire Weekend calypso vibe in “Nothing Left to Say / Rocks."
--- “It's Time”!!! Brilliant slowdown intro, then click into it. No gimmicks, just the crowd and the band passionate delivering a really good song.
--- A rare dud: “Lay Me Down.” Evil audience members talking through it too.
--- “Demons” gets an extended heavy electric intro!! Adds variety. As do the Cold War Kids / “Stand By Me” covers.
--- Ooh, confetti balls for the Owl City-y “Underdog”!
--- “Most importantly, congrats to you guys for supporting live music.” YES.
--- “On Top Of The World”!!! The entire crowd jumps at once. Over and over again.
--- “I can't believe how many people are here.” They’re so sincere. It’s awesome.
--- “Radioactive”!!! Mega drum. It’s literally hard to hear yourself think the audience has gotten so loud. Surreal.
--- Finished with the more-restrained, lesser-known “Fallen.” It is, in its own way, just as emotional.
--- I am so getting a shirt.
Grade: A+
Very early on in the show, however, I started to realize that not only were these ‘problems’ not problems, they would help turn this into an A+ show. I did not have strong attachment to the album versions of a lot of the songs, so I could take in the live versions for the first time. I was used to falling asleep on Fridays, so it meant more that I was wide awake this time. And most importantly, by judging the young people I saw there, I set myself up for a huge surprise.
This was anything but a pre-packaged pre-teen arena show. It was a roaring indie-rock explosion. Young kids, young adults, college kids, and actual adults watched as the band laid waste to the stage – smashing cymbals, tearing through timpanis, chucking sticks left and right. The fact that most of the vocals (or at least the verses) were rough added to the vibe. This was Imagine Dragons unfiltered. In their own words, this was “a band who started out three years ago dirt poor in Vegas headlining the biggest stage they ever played.” I’m just glad I was there to witness it.
Live reactions below:
--- “Round and Round.” HA, they’re smashing the drums just like in the Carlock clip. Kyle was right: this band’s gonna be big.
--- So glad I got the wristband and am right up in front. This feels so exclusive haha.
--- The look of the backup guitarist is funny: like a stoner Dave Grohl, with even longer hair.
--- “Amsterdam.” Big vocal dropoff from the album. He’s half-croaking, half-speaking the verses. The soaring choruses totally work though. And I love how he waits for the crowd to finish “any other wayyyy” and “much lonnnnger.”
--- I appreciate “Tiptoe”’s empowerment message, but the sound is mediocre. No! He prompts the crowd with “nobody else…can take me higher,” and then it totally works!!
--- “This is the biggest headline show we've ever played. We're not going to act like that doesn't mean a lot to us. We're not going to try to be cool.” Awwww.
--- “Hear Me.” The song's meh, but the way Dan Reynolds destroys the cymbal is hilarious.
--- HA: “My cousins are from DC. I threw up the first time I came here. It's okay; I love you guys anyway.”
--- Why do more bands not talk with the crowd? This intro makes the song ten times better: “‘Cha Ching’ is about being dirt poor. We wrote it in an apartment in Vegas three years ago. It's on the deluxe album. If you've heard it, you're a true fan. If you haven't, you're here, so you're about to be.”
--- HA, the front rows [understandably] flip out when Reynolds flicks water from his water bottle at them.
--- “What day is it? Is it Friday? I didn't even know that. We hope you can forget about work and school and all that and just exist. Get loose.” Swoooon.
---- Love the Vampire Weekend calypso vibe in “Nothing Left to Say / Rocks."
--- “It's Time”!!! Brilliant slowdown intro, then click into it. No gimmicks, just the crowd and the band passionate delivering a really good song.
--- A rare dud: “Lay Me Down.” Evil audience members talking through it too.
--- “Demons” gets an extended heavy electric intro!! Adds variety. As do the Cold War Kids / “Stand By Me” covers.
--- Ooh, confetti balls for the Owl City-y “Underdog”!
--- “Most importantly, congrats to you guys for supporting live music.” YES.
--- “On Top Of The World”!!! The entire crowd jumps at once. Over and over again.
--- “I can't believe how many people are here.” They’re so sincere. It’s awesome.
--- “Radioactive”!!! Mega drum. It’s literally hard to hear yourself think the audience has gotten so loud. Surreal.
--- Finished with the more-restrained, lesser-known “Fallen.” It is, in its own way, just as emotional.
--- I am so getting a shirt.
Grade: A+
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)