After washing out the cigarette smoke from Las Vegas, I jetted down to San Diego for the FM 94.9 Holiday Hootenanny. KROQ had announced night one of Acoustic Christmas but besides Wolfmother, and Incubus I couldn't have cared less. So I was excited when I found out about the Holiday Hootenanny. As a huge fan of the Smiths, and Electronic.. I was excited to see Johnny Marr on stage again. I had seen him before perfoming with The The as the openers for Depeche Mode on the Songs of Faith and Devotion Tour but missed him at the Troubadour when he performed with the Healers. Silversun Pickups happenend to open the show and secured my rail spot to check out there set. On the way into the arena, multiple signs were posted that no cameras were allowed but security wasn't doing any pat downs so only later on did I start taking pictures. The show was delayed for 45mins for no apparent reason but the DJ's came out and said everyone would play their full set to the crowd's delight. As with festival type shows, set times were short. Silversun Pickups played their usual outstanding set and added "Common Reactor" back into the fold at the expense of "Dream at Tempo 119". The sound was mixed very well and you could hear Joseph's keyboard/sampler setup clearly. It also seemed like some of the songs were sped up to accomodate as many as possible. The crowd responded very well again and its only a matter of time before they become super huge. Pete Yorn was up next and played a solid set. I wasn't terribly impressed with his latest album but his first album was extremely good. I guess he knows this because he mostly played songs from his first album. I have seen Pete a few times in the past and his voice is hit or miss.. that night he missed. He did play "Undercover" which was really good but missed some of the high notes. The Shins came up next and did a phenomenal job. Their new single "Phantom Limb" is incredibly catchy and they played a lot of songs from the upcoming album "Wincing the Night Away". This album will make them huge as well. They added a former member of the Fruitbats to their line up to help round out their sound with slide guitar and some keyboard parts. Some of the stand out songs include "New Slang", "Phantom Limb" and numerous new songs. James mentioned to the crowd that too many people were singing along to the new album given the fact that it has not been released yet. Modest Mouse stormed the stage next and the crowd seemed to be eagerly awaiting them the most. Unfortunately, I picked the wrong side of the stage as Johnny Marr was across the stage. I did manage to see his stellar Fender Jaguar. I think most people either love or hate Modest Mouse live. Some of the new songs sounded good, but I could be biased since I love Johnny Marr's guitar playing. Isaac usually throws a temper tantrum during the set but I managed to avoid that after 7 songs because I had to drive home in the worst rainstorm ever.
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