I fell asleep. I bought my ticket, found my seat, settled into the first few songs, and fell asleep. Strangely, however, this was not a bad reflection on Coldplay. Coldplay actually put on a heckuva show, as I’ll describe in a minute. The problem was the concert was held on a Friday night during the school year. I sleep in Saturday mornings, so I’m good to go Saturday nights, but social events Friday…just don’t work. No matter what the activity or the venue – Gone Baby Gone at Tysons’ Corner, dinner and drinks at Adams’ Morgan, this concert at the Verizon Center – 5am catches up with me. A Metallica drummer could probably be standing in front of me pounding in both ears, and I’d still start to doze off.
All that being said, I was able to stay awake and enjoy most of the show. As you’d expect, “Viva La Vida” was the clear high point. From my upper deck seat, I could see the entire arena lift up and join in. There was head bobbing, thigh slapping, and actual rhythmic dancing – which was quite an accomplishment, given the sizable white male contingent. Other musical highlights included the “Clocks” laser light show, the twisty “Don’t Panic,” and the moody “Cemeteries of London.” Memorable non-musical moments included the unveiling of the giant disco ball Jack O’ Lantern, the mad dash band members made across half the arena into the crowd, and the fact that they pledged not to make any political statements two days before an election...right before implicitly sharing their support for Obama.
I would never want to be an opening act. After seeing Alkaline Trio open for Rise Against last October, I don’t know if I’d even want to see another opening act. No matter how good you are – even if you are an audience member’s favorite band – you’re destined to be second best. Most of the crowd won’t know you, and may even talk through your performance. The part of the crowd that does know you will be angry that you didn’t play half the songs they wanted to hear and angry that the other people won’t shut up. You just can’t win.
This is basically what happened to Alkaline Trio at Roseland Ballroom. It did not help that virtually all of the songs they played came from their latest album, the disappointingly poppy Agony and Irony. “I Found Away” has a nice verse-chorus contrast and “In Vein” has a strong beat, but overall, the album pales in comparison to earlier entries. “Help Me” and “Live Young, Die Fast” sound like Fall Out Boy rejects and “Love Love Kiss Kiss” is just embarrassing. A drippy ballad from the guys who brought you “Private Eye”? Really? If a bunch of edgy songs had been thrown into the mix, I probably would be able to embrace “Calling All Skeletons” – which is incredibly catchy, hand claps and all. As is, though, it sounded like the first of many sell out songs.
Grade: C+
Rise Against
I had far from given up on Alkaline Trio as musicians – one listen to “We’ve Had Enough” is all they’d need to return to form – but I had given up on the night. I was so embittered by the opening that I seriously considered leaving before the main show. I knew it would only go downhill from there. I had listened to all of the Rise Against albums and had difficulty remembering any of the songs, mainly because most of them were equally bad. Appeal to Reason had its moments but The Sufferer and the Witness was abrasive and Siren Song of the Counterculture was unlistenable. Who wants to listen to a bloodcurdling, lyricless wail for a minute and a half (i.e. “State of the Union”)? And how is that music?
Thank God I decided to stay. Over the next two hours, I witnessed a revolution. I watched as fundamental concert rules were broken; I listened as my basic assumptions about live shows were proven wrong. The first basic assumption that was proven wrong was the idea that I needed to know the songs beforehand to get anything out of them. The second was that I needed to like the songs I knew to get a lot out of them. And as I made clear in previous paragraph, I neither liked nor knew most Rise Against songs.
Standing there, though, among 3000 rabid Rise Against followers, was incredible. They pounded their fists, pounded their thighs, and spit out every word of every song. It was like being taken in by a pack of rhythmically gifted wolves. Or, more to the point, it was like attending a left-wing Hitler Youth rally. The whole Hitler Youth comparison is an exaggeration of course, but it did seem hilariously plausible when the band told the crowd to “RISE” – that is, to raise one arm up in unison! Hippie Fascists Unite!
As it turned out, the most powerful songs ended up being the least aggressive. Frontman Tim McIllrath spend the majority of the show running and screaming across the stage, so it made the moments in which he pulled back euphoric. On the album, “Hero of War,” a bitter acoustic tribute to soldiers in Iraq, was poignant. Performed live, I got chills. Nearly as moving were the covers he played for two of the opening bands, Thrice and Gaslight Anthem. Instead of feigning enthusiasm for the openers by saying their names and insisting how “great” they were, McIllrath actually introduced and performed two of their songs. I would have been in the stratosphere if he had also performed one of the Alkaline Trio songs, but you can’t have everything.
The final fundamental rule Rise Against broke was that you should not end on your biggest hit because it will feel like pandering. In other words, true fans (/people who have connected with you the entire show) will feel that you are cynically dragging out a song you have lost affection for long ago. (See Jimmy Eat World’s “The Middle,” Alkaline Trio’s “Radio,” Coldplay’s “Yellow,” etc.) Remarkably, Rise Against was able to end on “Prayer of the Refugee” and make it seem like a bold move. They knew just when to push forward and pull back. Moments before, they had played the Siren Song ballad “Swung Life Away.” Knowing the audience had sufficiently rested with that softer song, they tore into “Refugee” with a vengeance. The crowd, understandably, flipped out. They started jumping, thrusting, screaming…it was incredible.
I may not be a card-carrying member of the Fascist Hippie community, but rest assured: next time Rise Against comes to NY or DC, I am there.
They gave away a tree. They built it up throughout the show, asking pseudo serious questions between songs, culminating in a final Guess the Species round before the encore. And then, after the encore, they yanked the ten-foot sapling out of the soil it had been sitting in on stage and passed it off to the lucky winner. Who does that?!
Cake, clearly. It did not occur to me at the time, but the tree stunt actually fit the band perfectly. It was arresting, daring, and hilariously offbeat. You did not fully know what was going in, but you picked up on the sarcasm, the fake eco enthusiasm. They let you in on the elaborate, sly joke.
All of those characteristics also fit Cake’s music. I was happy to find that they played virtually all of my favorite Cake songs. It was also gratifying to hear that frontman John McCrea's voice lost nothing on stage – it was every bit as deep and snarky as on the albums.
Ok, so this concert brought good news and bad news.
Bad news first: the concert disappointed me. The venue seemed like it doubled as a studio for a ‘70s dating show, the audience seemed to be filled with overgrown frat boys, the band played very little Pinkerton, and, most importantly, Rivers Cuomo’s mustache was horrible. I’m kidding to an extent when I say that the mustache was the ‘worst’ part, but it was hard to get past. Like the fleeting cowboy hat and extended Hootenanny stunt, it felt like he was trying to be eccentric – looking for some Cake-style funk. The problem was that has never been Weezer’s appeal. They have always been more about sincerity than irony. You could count on them to rock, not smirk – to show emotion, not hide behind a wink.
The good news was that for most of the show, Weezer did rock; they did show emotion. I was disappointed because Weezer had long been my favorite band, and I wanted them to be perfect, but it was still thrilling to hear so many meaningful songs on one night. I had waited four years to hear “Say It Ain’t So,” “Undone,” “Pink Triangle,” and “Buddy Holly” live, and now I could finally hear them! I had also been waiting months to hear a number of the Red Album tracks. Some fans seem to hate the new album, but they seem to have confused it with Make Believe (a truly awful record). Other than “Everybody Get Dangerous,” the songs are remarkably strong. “Troublemaker” and “Pork and Beans” are catchy as anything on Green, “Greatest Man Who Ever Lived” is an stunning, ten-style epic, and “Dreamin’” / “Heart Songs” sound like hidden tracks from a hopeful Pinkerton.
The fact that they opened with “My Name is Jonas” was a pleasant surprise. The distinctive smell that circulated through the crowd during “Hash Pipe” was…not that surprising.
In the end, despite my disappointments, despite the fact that I nearly died on the way to the show (driving five hours on a Friday night after a full work week is not a good idea), I am glad I went. If I scale back my expectations for August’s NJ/MD shows, I’m sure the grade will bump up to an “A.”
There are a lot of adjectives I could use to describe Ben Folds: poignant, perceptive, funny, corny, clever, etc. One adjective I never would have expected to apply is “arrogant.” Sadly, though, Folds’ arrogance took center stage at DAR Constitution Hall. The first SIXTEEN songs were tracks that no one had heard before. Twelve were from his yet-to-be-released Way to Normal album, and four were “fake” versions of the new songs that they “made up on the flight.” If he wasn’t arrogant, he was really unobservant because the audience clearly was not amused. He may have expected them to find the fake versions ‘cutting edge’ and the full album a ‘rare privilege,’ but they clearly didn’t. Their reaction was less ‘rapt silence’ than ‘rising hostility.’
Thank God, for the audience’s sake (and Folds’ safety), there was an encore. “Zak and Sara” was a perfect transition song, an infectious piece of rhythm candy that could take anyone out of the deepest malaise. “Badoodoodoodoodoodoo… Zak and Sara spelled without an ‘h’ were getting bored, on a peavey amp in 1984. Zak without a ‘c’ tried out some new guitars, playin’ Sara with no ‘h’’s favorite song…Ladadaladadaladada, Zak and Sara!”
I’m not a huge fan of the next song, “Landed,” but it was a song the audience would know, so it was a wise choice. The final song was another wise choice, “My Philosophy.” (I’m going to pretend he didn’t end with an abysmal fake version of the already abysmal “Frown Song.”) “My Philosophy” was a known song, it satisfied the need to be both moved and entertained, and it actually improved upon the original.
I should probably remove the ‘actually’ qualifier from that description because, in general, Ben Folds is a talented live performer. The decision to start with sixteen unheard tracks was incredibly dumb, but everyone was into the last three songs, and Ben Folds Live is the best live album I’ve ever heard. On the album and in the encore, he managed to do what Guster, Death Cab, and Jack Johnson couldn’t: he sold acoustic. He made minor alterations in melodies, shared insights into the creation of certain songs, and threw in more than a few witty comments. He understood that these touches enhanced, not detracted from, the songs themselves. In short, he made Soft rock.
My main criticism of Guster, Death Cab, and The Offspring’s performances was that they were a bit forced – they tried too hard to be something they weren’t. All of these bands were models of restraint in comparison to Counting Crows.
Frontman Adam Duritz’ intention was presumably to pour his heart out. The problem was, he seemed determined to do this literally, not metaphorically. He flailed his limbs, pounded the microphone into his chest, yanked his head back and forth, and most importantly, threw the words out as if they were unsavory projectiles. His vocal inflections on some of the albums are superb. The progression of pain to pleasure in “Round Here” and “Rain King” is incredible. The first three tracks of Foo Fighters’ In Your Honor are the only ones that I’ve heard capture the progression better. And to hear those intricate inflections bludgeoned time and time again…it was depressing.
The last thing I wanted to do was trash Duritz. I’d looked forward to seeing Counting Crows for nearly a year. Other than Arcade Fire, their Wikipedia page was probably the one I checked most to see if they were ever scheduling any new shows. “A Long December” helped me through the first few months at Frost, and “Mr. Jones” got me the rest of the way. (Call “Mr. Jones” played-out frat rock if you want; I would never have gotten that support from Hootie…)
Overall, though, if I’m being fair, I have to declare the concert a huge letdown. I give him credit for going there -- it takes guts to be that earnest – but he needed to know when to pull back. Shrieking does not make you genuine; a seizure does not show you’re sincere.
The main cool thing about attending a festival is that you get to see a bunch of different bands. That gives you more bang for your buck, leaves you clamoring for more if there’s a band you like, and enables you to quickly move on if there’s a band you don’t.
The main cool thing about blogging a festival is that you don’t have to write as much for each band. They play fewer songs, so it’s perfectly acceptable to write less. Yay, laziness. I hope to continue this laziness at Austin City Limits and Bonnaroo in the near future. ;) For now, here are four capsule reviews from the 2008 Virgin Mobile Fest.
Wilco
“Spiders” still rocked! I thought it would be a letdown after the mind-blowing Merriweather performance the year before, but it sounded as good. “Muzzle of Bees” and “Sky Blue Sky” sounded just as smooth. A.M./Summerteeth songs sounded better because this time I’d actually heard the albums before the concert. ;)
Both aspects of the concert that I found disappointing were out of Wilco’s control: (1) There were not enough Wilco fans in the audience. A fair number of morons talked through the performance. Great as festivals can be, the presence of non-fans is a definite disadvantage. (2) There were not enough Wilco songs. I said earlier that it’s good to be left wanting more, but here it was simply too few to be satisfied.
Grade: B
The Offspring
It was a solid show: they brought a ton of energy, made several genuine attempts to talk with the crowd, and played as many hits as time would allow. I particularly liked “Self Esteem,” “Original Prankster,” “You’re Gonna Go Far Kid,” and “The Kids Aren’t Alright.” “The Kids Aren’t Alright” was the best for me because I’d already connected to it through my kids at school. To get the kids pumped for the school-wide ping pong tournament I organized, I played a You Tube version of the song in all the classes. The song plays as each of the Top Ten Ping Pong Shots of All Time are revealed. After watching the clip, one of the kids even said, “The shots wouldn’t be the same without the song!”
Solid as the show was, it couldn’t enter the “A” range because the Offspring didn’t have the gravitas of a dark punk band. The moshing was fun, and “Pretty Fly” was amusing, but you didn’t feel the weight you’d feel at a Rise Against or Alkaline Trio concert. The performance also felt…forced at times. True Punk is about cunning, menace, and focused aggression. It’s a metaphorical finger to the Man. If you feel the need to actually extend that finger every three seconds, to shout “F’in A” after every song, you’re not true Punk. You’re just trying too hard.
Grade: B+
Jack Johnson
My minor Offspring criticism was that they tried too hard. My MAJOR Jack Johnson criticism was that he didn’t try AT ALL. He strummed, he mumbled, and he left. He made no attempt to emote, no attempt to relate to the crowd; he just stood there and strummed.
As I said in my Death Cab review, I’m not expecting someone with a soft sound to go hard. A rendition of “Flake” that included guitar smashing would be amusing -- but ridiculous. Finishing “Bubble Toes” with a feet-first slide across the stage would be just as unfortunate.
Your job as an acoustic artist is not to rock out; your job is to draw your audience in. If he’d made minor alterations in certain melodies, shared a few insights into the creation of certain songs, threw in a witty comment or two, he’d have been golden. These touches would not have detracted from the songs themselves; they would have enhanced them. Yet…he stood there and strummed.
The infuriating low point of the show was the gnat. Midway through “Wasting Time,” a gnat buzzed around the frets of his guitar, causing him to mess up the melody. Here it came, the human moment, the opportunity to augment the album, to show everyone the man behind the ‘magic.’ “Oh. Again, I guess.” That was his response. The backup guitarist tried to help him seize the moment, goading him about how rude the bug had been. “Oh. Yeah. Ok.” The gnat continued to buzz. Johnson started playing again. Eventually, the gnat went away – as did any chance that this concert would end up as anything other than the worst that I have ever attended.
Grade: D- (He escapes without an ‘F’ because, performance or not, “Breakdown” is still so smooth.)
Foo Fighters
Other than having a few less songs, this Foo Fighters concert was a virtual repeat of the Montreal one. The lack of originality did not remotely dampen my enthusiasm, though, because it was still a first-rate, fist-pumping performance.
If anything, I enjoyed this show more because I had something to directly compare it to – the Jack Johnson debacle two hundred yards away. I actually started at the Jack Johnson concert, intending to check out Foo Fighters only briefly, since I’d already seen them. (Why festival organizers forced festivalgoers to choose between the two headliners in the first place is another question. I suppose they thought the bands would not have overlapping fans, but the bands were high profile enough that people would have wanted to hear both.) After discovering that an insect flying on stage had more stage presence than the actual performer, though, I fled to Foo and never went back.
The only awesome element I did not mention in the Montreal review was the Triangle Solo. You kind of had to be there to appreciate it, but there was this hilarious moment during the acoustic section of the show when Dave Grohl gave generic props to everyone in the band, paused, paused again, and said, “And finally, we have Drew Hester. Drew Hester, you see, is no ordinary triangle player. And you’re not about to hear any ordinary triangle solo. Get ready, because you are about to hear a triangle genius perform the greatest f'ing triangle solo you’ve ever heard!” Grohl was right. Drummer Taylor Hawkins also did well on the extended solo he was given later in the show, but nothing could compare the triangle…
Wilco, The White Stripes, Dispatch, Muse, The Shins, Guster, Jimmy Eat World, Bruce Springsteen, Foo Fighters, Ok Go, Foo Fighters, The New Rockers, Bruce Springsteen, Lifehouse, Nada Surf, Death Cab for Cutie, Modest Mouse, REM, Alkaline Trio, Alkaline Trio, Bruce Sprinsteen, Bruce Springsteen, Wilco, The Offspring, Jack Johnson, Foo Fighters, Counting Crows, Ben Folds, Weezer, Cake, Alkaline Trio, Rise Against, Coldplay, The Who, Smashing Pumpkins, AC/DC, Oasis, The Killers, Kings of Leon, Jimmy Eat World, Ben Kweller, Tokyo Police Club, Girl Talk, Modest Mouse, Flogging Molly, David Cook, Death Cab for Cutie, Kings of Leon, Sister Hazel, The Decemberists, Alkaline Trio, Bruce Springsteen, Bruce Springsteen, Tv on the Radio, Wilco, Bob Dylan, John Mellencamp, Willie Nelson, Blink 182, Weezer, Taking Back Sunday, Rise Against, Green Day, Jet, The Bravery, Blink 182, Weezer, Ben Folds, U2, Bruce Springsteen, Bruce Springsteen, The Get Up Kids, Bob Dylan, The Pixies, Weezer, Rock and Cole, Rise Against, Arctic Monkeys, Muse, Alkaline Trio, Spoon, Ben Folds, Nada Surf, Vampire Weekend, The Protomen, Phoenix, Weezer, Arcade Fire, Spoon, The Presidents of the United States of America, Live, Naughty by Nature, Everclear, Third Eye Blind, Billy Idol, Rock and Cole, Wilco's Jeff Tweedy, Gogol Bordello, Girl Talk, Jimmy Eat World, Bon Jovi, DJ Pauly D, Carbon Leaf, Dropkick Murphys, Girl Talk, The Strokes, Lupe Fiasco, Rise Against, Alkaline Trio, Jack's Mannequin, Guster, Wilco, Smashing Pumpkins, Givers, Ra Ra Riot, Wu Lyf, Foo Fighters, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Rock and Cole, O.A.R., The Black Keys, Bruce Springsteen, Nada Surf, Guster, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Radiohead, Wilco, Motley Crue, Kiss, Band of Horses, My Morning Jacket, Bruce Springsteen, Alabama Shakes, Nas, ZZ Top, Jack White, Nas, Skrillex, Dispatch, Passion Pit, Of Monsters and Men, Rock and Cole, Fun., Mumford and Sons, Elliott Yamin, Crystal Bowersox, Rockapella ft. Carmen Sandiego, Alkaline Trio, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Grizzly Bear, The XX, Bruno Mars, Beyonce, Guster, Ben Folds Five, BN Ladies, American Idol Season 12 Tour, Jimmy Eat World, Imagine Dragons, The Flaming Lips, Franz Ferdinand, Alkaline Trio, Alkaline Trio, Elton John, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Kanye West, Rock and Cole, Rebelution, Young The Giant, Bruce Springsteen, Bruce Springsteen, Alabama Shakes, Ben Folds, Queen ft. Adam Lambert, New Politics, Paramore, Fall Out Boy, Phillip Phillips, OAR, Arcade Fire, Jimmy Eat World, Foo Fighters, Zac Brown Band, Black Keys, Carrie Underwood, Metallica, Bruce Springsteen, Rihanna, Eminem, Taking Back Sunday, Ben Folds, Dave Matthews Band, Mumford and Sons, Kelly Clarkson, Foo Fighters, Rise Against, OAR, Christina Perri, Ed Sheeran, Stevie Wonder, Kendrick Lamar, Givers, Straight No Chaser, Melinda Doolittle, Muse, Bruce Springsteen, Wilco, Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Guns 'n Roses, Paul Simon, Panic! At the Disco, Weezer, Tony Bennett, Paul McCartney, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, Weird Al Yankovich, Bruce Springsteen, Adele, Jimmy Eat World, Green Day, Explosions in the Sky, Wilco, Rise Against, Dispatch, Jimmy Eat World, Incubus, Sister Hazel, Regina Spektor, Ben Folds, Roger Waters, Coldplay, Ed Sheeran, Colony House, Mutemath, Foo Fighters, Bruce Springsteen, Haley Reinhart, Dispatch, Franz Ferdinand,U2, Foo Fighters, Jimmy Eat World, Game of Thrones: Live Concert Experience, The Pixies, Weezer, Gary Clark Jr., Muse, Snow Patrol. Ben Platt, The Rolling Stones, Ra Ra Riot, Jimmy Eat World, Third Eye Blind, and The Mountain Goats, Sonic Castaways, Jeremy Eliot, Norah Jones, Mavis Staples, Katy Perry, Wilco, Nada Surf, Jazz Trotters, Foo Fighters, Guster, Rise Against, Sleater-Kinney, Wilco, The Eagles, Noah Kahan, Laughing Colors, Up All Night, Guster, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Dave Tieff, Rage Against The Machine, Franz Ferdinand, Dispatch, O.A.R., The Killers, Broken Social Scene, 'Bruce Springsteen' at Paul Verbesey's 'Surprise' Party, Arcade Fire, Noah Kahan, The Struts, Spoon, Jimmy Eat World, Straight No Chaser, Van Morrison [Newmyer Flyer], Bruce Springsteen [Newmyer Flyer], Colony House, Bruce Springsteen, Bruce Springsteen, Lauryn Hill, Dispatch, Jason Isbell, OAR, Goo Goo Dolls, Death Cab for Cutie, The Postal Service, Hozier, John Legend, Wilco, Ben Platt, Joan Jett, Alanis Morissette, The Doors, David Bowie, Grateful Dead, Talking Heads, The Hives, Foo Fighters, Fitz and the Tantrums, O.A.R., Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam, Dinosaur Jr., The Flaming Lips, Weezer, Tonic, Violent Femmes, Girl Talk, Jimmy Eat World, Liz Phair, Dispatch, Rise Against, Bob Dylan, Laughing Colors, AC/DC, Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band. [Recaps still to come for Dashboard Confessional, Goo Dolls, and James Taylor.]
Upcoming Shows
Ian Tongi (Saturday, November 1, The Hamilton – DC). [There's literally never been a single entry on the Upcoming Shows list. If you have a good one in mind, lemme know.]
