The Hives at the Glass House

Check out my photos of The Hives at the Glass House over at Stereogum.

The Rapture at the London Astoria

One of the few good luck stories from my trip to England was seeing Rapture at the London Astoria. I checked Ticketmaster U.K. and found out that The Rapture were playing but unfortunately it was sold out. I happenend to eat dinner close to the Astoria and walked by the venue after the concert had already started. Within seconds, ticket scaplers magically appeared. I ended up paying below face value for the ticket due to my shrewd negotiation skills. The London Astoria is a fair sized venue roughly the size of the Hollywood Avalon and it was packed. After paying my respects at the Keith Moon Bar, I strolled upstairs to get a decent view of the show. The cigarette smoke had filled the room and made picture taking a challenge. Rapture has quite the following in the U.K. and the crowd was going crazy all night as they were treated to songs from Echoes and Pieces of People We Love. During "House of Jealous Lovers", the entire floor of the Astoria was jumping up and down. Other highlights included "Whoo!Alright-Yeah Uh Huh" and "Sister Saviour". The Rapture will be touring with Daft Punk so make sure you get those tickets now because it will be an amazing show.

Rapture and The Presets at Henry Fonda Theatre

Final round of Rapture and the Presets at the Henry Fonda theatre. The Fonda was the final date of this tour and the bands had a lot of energy once they hit the stage. The Fonda has a history of not allowing cameras so I didn't bother to bring mine. Of course, once the bands hit the stage it became a free for all as a bunch of cameras emerged from the crowd. I had some extra photos and videos from San Diego so I included them above. I opted for front row balcony at the Fonda to just relax and enjoy the show. It ended up being a wise decision because the Fonda experienced a 20 degree increase in temperature as the night moved on. The show was sold out but everyone was on the floor as there were empty seats up top. LA crowds are know for being jaded but that was not the case at this show. The Presets got an excellent reception and played their 45 minute set to rapturous applause (no pun intended but Mattie and Gabe were on the side of the stage clapping and dancing). Interesting to note that the Presets reduced their shirt prices to $15 so they wouldn't have to ship the shirts home to Australia. Bands are known to increase their prices when they play L.A. but I applaud their decision. The bands thanked one another for an amazing tour and I would have to agree with them. In terms of the increase in temperature...it was due to the whole dance floor going crazy. Probably the most movement I have seen in a concert in a little while. Rapture highlights included "Olio", and the best performance of "House of Jealous Lovers" I have seen. It is interesting to see how a good crowd can make a good show.

Rapture and The Presets at Brick By Brick

Round 2 of Rapture and The Presets was down in San Diego at the Brick By Brick. The first round in Pomona was so good, I was compelled to forgo my plan of seeing the Lemonheads for another dose of guitars and synths. I arrived down in San Diego and was surprised how small the Brick By Brick was. It was maybe 1.5 times the size of the Troubadour. It was also 21 and over so no kids tonight. It was sold out and the Presets did one very loud sound check that could be heard while I was outside the venue. The Presets came on at 9:15 and proceeded to rock the house as usual. Their CD is really good but I almost wish they would put out a live DVD because the different mixes of how they play the songs are really outstanding. Highlights from their set include "Are You the One?", "Down, Down, Down", and "The Girl and the Sea". They also mentioned they would be back next year which was really exciting. The Rapture came on and kept the energy level high as they knocked out a 14 song set. Unfortunately the concert was paused for awhile because part of the ceiling fell and hit the guitar tech in the head. An ambulance was called and he was transported to the hospital. I hope this wasn't the same tech who received a nasty electrical shock from the microphone during the Pomona show. When the Rapture was playing though, I noticed Luke was using a nickel as a guitar pick!! The paint just past the strings is all chipped away and that would explain why. I always thought the Rapture had a metallic sound but I didn't think it was due to a nickel!! Gabe was killing on the sax as usual and seemed to dance around more versus the Pomona show. Overall an excellent perfomance but the energy was stopped due to the injury of the guitar tech. Rapture song highlights include "Get myself Into It", "House of Jealous Lovers", and "Echoes".

Rapture and The Presets at the Glass House

I was excited about this show for 2 reasons. I had seen The Presets at Spaceland a few months ago and they had everyone in Spaceland dancing like there was no tommorow. I was extremely impressed by their set and was stoked when I found that the Rapture had chosen The Presets to open their shows. The other reason was I can show up early to Analogue Haven and check out all the sweet synths that they have. I arrived fairly early to walk around and avoid traffic out to Pomona. The first item at Analogue Haven that caught my eye was the moog etherwave pro Theremin. At the small price of $1295.00 this amazing piece of machinery could be yours. Some other cool stuff they had was the new Korg Kaoss pad 3 and an Analogue Systems French Connection which is used by Alessandro Cortini of NIN and Johnny Greenwood of Radiohead. After prying myself from the Theremin, I got in line for the Rapture show. I got to hear the Presets do their sound check from outside which was cool. The doors opened at 7:30 with the Presets finally hitting the stage at 9:00. I secured a pretty good spot and was ready for the onslaught of the Presets. The Presets are a two man duo from Australia with a electronic dance synth vibe. I had read in Future magazine that both Julian and Kim have classical music training but opted for 4 on the floor dance beats and sugary synth dance tunes. One of the cool things the Presets did was use the intro segment from the Pet Shop Boys song "It's a Sin" before they went into the crushing groove of "Are You the One?". The band was quickly winning over fans with each song played. They left the stage with a huge roar of approval from the pomona kids. It will be interesting to see if they convert the L.A. crowd. I had already got my money's worth after seeing the Presets. The Rapture had a lot to live up to as far as I was concerned. They came on and played a 16 song set that delivered. Gabriel was killing it on the saxophone and added delay to it to give it a really funky texture. Vito also had a sweet setup with a Moog Little Phatty synth onstage as well as a Roland Juno. Some of the Rapture highlights included "Heaven", "Sister Saviour", "Get Myself Into It", and "Olio". I have adapted my concert schedule to fit in the San Diego show. Off to San Diego for the next show.