Annuals, Jim Noir, Tralala at Spaceland

Having a severe case of deja vu, I ended up at Spaceland again on Wednesday night for Club NME and a spectacular line up of The Annuals, Jim Noir, and Tralala. I was most interested in seeing Jim Noir as he was featured in one of my favorite magazines "Future Music". The magazine did a good write up describing his Beach Boys influenced Brit Pop and explaining his love of synths. My interest was also piqued by some of the press I was reading about the Annuals who hail from Raleigh, North Carolina. The Annuals came up first and Spaceland was surprisingly packed early on. I guess the word is out because The Annuals played an incendiary set. An amalgamation of Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, with a dash of jazzy guitar riffs, odd instrumentation, lush harmonies, and gobs of volume. Kenny Florence who plays guitar carries this band with their shifting time changes and excellent use of pedals. He had a Electro Harmonix Holy Grail reverb, Boss Delay,Phaser, Tremolo, and Pitch Shifter in his arsenal. Another interesting fact about the band is no one is over the age of 22..yikes!!! They have a ton of talent for being that young and were extremely tight as a band. Rolling Stone and Spin have gushing reviews about their album "Be He Me" which I purchased at the show. They will be one of the bands to watch in 2007. Jim Noir came up next and though not as loud as the Annuals, he was very entertaining. I heard at his show the night before that he missed a verse in one of his songs due to the jetlag from his flight from England. His stage presence was very dapper for being billed as Jim Noir which was ironic. He proceeded to play a tight set of polished '60s style pop songs with flakes of electronica eminating from his laptop. I recommend checking out his cd "Tower of Love". If you go to the Barsuk records website you can get it with 2 extra tracks as well. The crowd seemed even more excited to see Jim Noir because he received a rapturous appaluse that forced a rare encore for an opening band at Spaceland. I included some video of the toe tapping "Tell Me What to Do". Tralala are a band by the way of Brooklyn. They have a 3 female singer fronted band that sounds similar to the Donnas, The Runaways, with a more pop-punk type vibe. The crowd had slowly diminished thru the night and I stayed for a few songs as I needed to go home and pack for Vegas and the Australian power trio of Wolfmother and some other band called the Silversun Pickups.

Roger O'Donnell, Christopher Willits, Haley Bonar at Spaceland

Sometimes synthesizers get the best of me. I couldn't pass up the last minute opportunity to check Roger O"Donnell(formerly the Keyboardist of the Cure) at Spaceland. So I headed down expecting a good size crowd but ended up being one of the first people there. I was glad I showed up early cause their was some good bands on the bill. Haley Bonar was up first and she played some minimalistic tunes on her Rhodes Pianos with a backing band as well as some tunes on her acoustic guitar. Funny enough ...kinda sounded like Jenny Lewis. Some tunes stood out more then others. Her uptempo songs were catchier then her ballad songs but I am a sucker for Rhodes pianos so I will check out her album. Christopher Willits was interesting... Here is the description from the spaceland site.."Surf Boundaries is full of gorgeous, hazy, glitchy,multi-layered tone poems that are totally soothing the savage beast in me and making this Monday so much more bearable. Willits has been making music for years now- he is a guitarist and sound-artist who has released a number of abstract and experimental albums, he has collaborated with a number of musicians (Kid606,Matmos, Paul D'Amour, and Ryuichi Sakamoto among others) and multimedia artists from his home base in San Francisco." - Music for Robots review Of Willits' album, Surf Boundaries. Quite the impressive resume....interesting sounds... he had 2 laptops with one used for the projector and the other laptop he plugged his guitar in and was using a ton of delay spliced with samples, feedback,phasing. The songs were good but really stood out when he incorporated it with the live drums and some programmed beats. He also had a female vocalist but you couldn't hear her that well due to the mix. Roger O'Donnell was awesome. He had 2 Moog Voyagers setup with a laptop and a projection screen. He would play a keyboard line ... sample it.. layer it.. and repeat till he had like 8 different tracks. He had some technical difficulties ...his program Ableton Live 6 crashed so he replayed the song which was a bonus. He also had a guest female singer Erin Lang who was really talented. He ended his set with her singing The Cure song "A Forest" which was spectacular!! I got his CD signed and talked to him for a bit. Nice guy..very humble. Roger also has a remix disc coming out soon with remixes by The Album Leaf, Dntel (Jimmy Tamborello) which I will purchase for sure, I also spotted Alessandro Cortini(ModWheelMood) in the audience checking out the bands so I felt vindicated that I was not the only synthesizer enthusiast in the crowd.

Death Cab for Cutie at the Long Beach Terrace Theatre

December is finally here and so starts the concert marathon. The last time I saw Death Cab for Cutie was at the Bridge School Benefit concert in Mountain View. They played 2 different acoustic sets that were spectacular. I had also seen them on their late summer tour at the Greek theatre as well as the KCRW concert with Franz Ferdinand. I figured their tour was over and Ben would work on the new Postal Service record but alas the boys packed up their stuff for another go around. Since the show was in the LBC and it was Death Cab... I couldn't even muster an excuse not to go. After stopping off for some Tsunami's Crunch rolls, I rolled up to the LBC. Jenny Lewis and the Watson twins opened for them. I have seen Jenny with Rilo Kiley when they opened for Coldplay but they didn't leave an impression. Jenny Lewis takes a different turn as a solo artist on her album "Rabbit Fur Coat". Her sound is a more alternative country vibe. I was very surprised that I enjoyed her set so much. She had the requisite costume changes as well as showing off her talents on the keyboards, guitar, and a dance number with the Watson twins. They played a 45 minute opening set and you couldn't have asked for more. Bonus points for the Watson Twins for playing the sticks, and the tambourine!!! The Watson Twins will be playing the Getty museum in 2007 so I might have to swing by and see how they do. Ben also came out and did a song with Jenny. Death Cab came on and played a similar set as the one I saw at the Greek. This is nothing to complain about since they played such favs as "The New Year", "Marching Bands of Manhattan", "A Movie Script Ending", "Soul Meets Body", "I Will Follow You Into the Dark", a hair raising version of "Transatlanticism", and "Sound of Settling". For those who haven't seen Death Cab live.. you either love it or hate it. They really turn up the guitars and let it loose. The songs wield a sharper attack live and would surprise some people expecting a mellow show. They told the crowd to stand because it was a, "Rock Show" as Ben said. Ben also pulled a "Pennywise"(the Hermosa Beach Punk Band) by inviting the crowd to come closer to the stage since there was empty space. After the security guards panicked, Chris Walla advised all the people in the wings to go back to their original seats. I stayed the course because my row emptied out and I still had a good view. I ended up seeing Jimmy Tamborello (the other half of the Postal Service) at Spaceland the next night which was ironic.

TRS-80, Thavius Beck, ModWheelMood at the Alterknit Lounge

I have been to many shows at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood but I had never been to a show at the alterknit lounge at the Knitting Factory. The alterknit lounge is a shack, so I was shocked when I walked in to the club and basically was on the stage. For the astounding cost of $7.00 I enjoyed a trio of great acts. I had seen ModwheelMood a few times before at the Key Club, Chain Reaction, and the Viper Room and it is always a great show. ModwheelMood usually consists of Alessandro Cortini/Pelle Hillstrom as a two man electronic operation. As a synth fan, I appreciate some of the synths that the band has brought on stage. Some examples include a Korg MS-20, Nord Modular, and my personal favorite a custom EAR Performance synth that was custom built for Alessandro. Alessandro has a awesome moonlighting job as the touring keyboardist of Nine Inch Nails which automatically meets the qualifications of a show worth going to see. Apparently Pelle was in England recording so the show turned out to be Alessandro alone on stage with the Nord Modular and a sampler. He did an excellent job layering samples while stomping on his Line 6 Delay pedal to fill out the sound. The tunes are very radiohead like with angelic like vocals. Check out his ep "Enemies and Immigrants". Thavius Beck was up next and after doing some research was impressed with his resume. He has worked with Saul Williams and Trent Reznor on producing Saul's new album. Armed with a AKAI MPC 1000 and a Roland SP 404, Thavius rocked the house. He would trigger a sample of drums or piano and layer other samples other them with a good groove and continue to switch them out to keep things interesting. Thavius was received very well and I picked up his new CD. TRS-80 came up next and put on an impressive show as well. They had a projection screen with various images as well a live drum set and a keyboardist. They played a great set with most songs off their album "Mystery Crash". I also snapped a picture of their keyboard setup on the way out. Overall...a good night of electronic music.

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".

Silversun Pickups at the Orange County Museum of Art

I was happy to pay six dollars to see the Silversun Pickups in San Diego. I was even happier to pay nothing and see a full set sans encore at the Orange County Museum of Art all of ten minutes from my house. I arrived early to beat traffic and secure a decent spot. The merchandise was a little pricier in Orange County ie. (Zipped hoodie was $30 in San Diego $40 in OC). But that is excusable as it was a free show. They played the same setlist as in San Diego but without the two song encore which was omitted due to time limit restrictions but rocked just as hard if not harder. There were no opening bands and they hit the stage at 8:15 and wrapped up around 9:30. I recorded "Lazy eye" which was a great performance especially since Brian was rocking out near the crowd. They will now embark as the openers for the Wolfmother show which should be a great tour for them. I will give you a full report from the Vegas show. Silversun Pickups will also play two nights at the Troubadour in December which will sell out quickly and I recommend you get your tickets now. The mind boggling move they made was opening for Snow Patrol, and OK GO in January. I like Snow Patrol but I think the Wolfmother tour was a better idea. It will be interesting to see how well they fare.

Silversun Pickups at the Belly Up

I was super excited for this show. I had witnessed the Silversun Pickups destroy the Echo along with Viva Voce a few months ago and was impressed that they could back up my sentiments that Carnavas is the album of the year. I was also impressed with the Belly up and was looking forward to coming back and hanging out in Solana Beach. I decided to avoid Lou's records since I was there a few days ago and opted to catch Borat down in Encinitas prior to the show. The movie has hilarious and I would recommend it but on to the show. The show was sponsored by FM 94.9 and billed as an upcoming artist show. The ticket price was an astounding $6.00. I can't think of any legal entertainment that you can get for $6.00. The stereotypes opened up the show and were good musically but lacking in the vocal department. They also mentioned that it was great that the radio station was supporting "local" bands like Silversun Pickups. I didn't know "Silver Lake" was local in reference to Solana Beach. Clearly the lead singer had no idea who the Silversun Pickups were. Brian and company finally came on stage and proceeded to drown the audience in feedback, distortion, and squeels of fuzz. I included a photo of his pedal board because his live sound is so awesome. I think its a combination of his hollowbody Gibson guitar and his two amp setup of a Valvestate Marshall and a Fender Deville. Some of the gems in his pedal collection include a Boss Loop station, and a Big Muff Fuzz. They played almost all of Carnavas and a few songs from Pikul. Unfortunately they had mentioned they got a $350.00 speeding ticket on the way to the show and were asking for the fans to purchase some merch to offset the cost. Another funny part from the show was Brian was quoting Borat in between songs. I can't wait to see them at the OCMA. Another interesting factoid is that the Silversun Pickups will be playing the Live 105 Not So Silent Night in S.F. and the Holiday Hootenanny in San Diego but missing from the KROQ Acoustic Chrismas line up. I am willing to bet they will make it next year for sure.

Deftones at Soma

People often ask me why do I go to multiple nights of concerts seeing the same band two nights in a row. The Deftones are a perfect example of why I go to mulitple shows. The first Deftones show featured "RX Queen", "Hexagram", "Digital Bath",and "Knife Party". The second Deftones show featured none of the previous songs and instead had "Minerva", "Nosebleed", "Lifter", and "Root". I had never been to SOMA before but I had heard about a lot of cool shows that go on there. SOMA is located in a strip mall close to the San Diego Sports arena and had free parking which was cool. It is an all ages venue so the kids were out in force. My friend pointed out that the club was an old movie theatre because you could see the beams in the middle of the venue and the projection booth slots were still in place. I opted to hang out in lobby and miss out on Deadsy. When I ventured back in to watch the Deftones... the place was packed. Not wanting to fight the crowd.. I hung back to watch the chaos unfold in the pit. The deftones played a spectacular set which was very heavy with old songs from "Adrenaline". The good thing was the show ended early and I was back home around 12:30. I also didn't lose my ticket this time which was a plus.

The Hold Steady Acoustic at Lou's Records

At the FM 94.9 bash on Saturday, there were flyers for an acoustic performance at Lou's records by the Hold Steady. I couldn't pass that up so I rolled out to Lou's and did some minor shopping prior to the acoustic performance. Just a little after 4:00 the band had started to set up their stuff and were ready to rock. One of my measures of how good a band happens to be is whether or not a band can play good acoustically. When you plug in to rock, you can make a lot of mistakes and distortion or volume can cover you. Performing acoustically really highlights the song itself. The Hold Steady proved how good they are with an 8 song acoustic set. They played for 45mins which was pretty stellar in my opinion. Franz was totally rocking the accordion and caring the songs since Galen was without an acoustic bass. Tad was strumming away on his acoustic guitar and Craig was drinking and singing along. After Craig was finished with his paper cup drinks, members of the audience mysteriously produced various alchololic beverages to place right next to his mic stand. My friend said he could smell the alcohol even before he started drinking. I figure since he had the shades on that he was recovering from the previous nights show. The amazing thing is that Craig didn't slur his words at all. The guys did an informal signing afterwards and were extremely cool. They are touring the East coast in a couple of days but will return according to Bobby. Rock on!!!

The Hold Steady/Sparta at 4th & B in San Diego

After recovering from the Rapture set, I managed to gather enough energy to drive down to San Diego for the 94.9 FM anniversary bash featuring Sparta, The Hold Steady, and Ok Go. I was excited to see The Hold Steady again who had destroyed the Detroit Bar back in October. I had never been to 4th & B so I was hoping it would be as awesome as the Belly Up. Things were looking grim when I had to pay $15 for parking. I thought to myself that I was back in L.A. again. The doors opened at 9:00 and The Hold Steady came on first. They proceeded to play another stellar set with the highlights being "Chips Ahoy", and "Killer Parties". They still look like they are having more fun being on stage then the audience and that energy translates to a very good show. By the end of the set, the chants for Sparta had died down and the chants changed to "Encore!". I had secured a great rail spot and was taking some good pics of the Hold Steady and then I got confronted by the man. No more pics per club policy. BOOO!!!! on 4th & B. Well I got to concentrate on Sparta's set which was very heavy on the new songs but still very convincing. Sparta highlights include "Air" and "Taking Back Control". I figured I will get some good pictures at the Avalon show. I did not stay for OK Go because I needed to save my energy for the Hold Steady acoustic set and the Deftones on Sunday.