so I back dated a couple of my old concerts.. enjoy!
So if you know me then you probably know who Maximo Park are (since I might go all of 2 hours without talking about or listening to them), but if you don't know them (or me) I highly suggest you do! The more I listen to them, the more I really don't understand why they don't have people following them around yet! well. maybe it's because they're album isn't out. I'm pretty sure it's leaked somewhere (these things always do) but take my advice and buy it when it comes out (late may). It's excellent. I play the cd over and over and over and I still dance. After coming home from Regina, I was listening to it on my ipod and I wanted to break out in some kind of spastic dance... it's compelling dance music, folks. Undeniably.
But anyway! on to my next subject - music! wait. that's not really a change of subject, is it? I've avoided actually describing the concerts that I've been to this past week but now I'm forcing myself. So buckle up people!
Monday was (link extravangza!) the Features/Ben Kweller/the Walkmen:
What was supposed to be Marla, Cate and me then turned into me and Neal. So Neal and I headed over to the concert.. except we didn't really know where we're going. and it was raining. We went the wrong way a bit - I stopped everyone on the street asking where irving is (I've never been to irving plaza before) and we finally get there. Soaking wet.
the Features had already started playing, so we rushed upstairs. They had some sound problems, which was a bit distracting. The Features are so huge when you listen to the recording that at first I was a little disappointed. But then they fixed the sound problem, and then I was good. they sounded much better - and their songs are catchy too! Their playing style reminded me a bit of the blueskins, but in all honesty the blueskins rocked so much harder when I saw them a few weeks ago. They are damnnn good.
but anyway. the Features played really well and have really good and catchy songs. support them.
Next was Ben Kweller. I was never a Ben Kweller fan, but I figured - hey, maybe I'll actually like it now; my musical tastes have shifted a lot since high school. He came on in a sweater with the rest of his band. He's very funny. Most of his mic breaks in between songs were, "Wa! Ha! Hee! HuA! yeah!" Yup, BK is definitely a cool kid. Oh and did I mention that he was awesome? Because he was. The songs were so good; I even contemplated spending my last dime of the month buying a record. Sometimes I would think, "I want the cd that song is on!" He and the band did a bunch of jamming in the middle of songs and they would huddle in a circle around the drummer, and just play. Ben also jumped around - he seems like a really cool guy. He ended his set with "No Reason" and I decided then that I love that song. I am now a fan. OOPs! I forgot to mention it when I first wrote this, but about half way into his set, Ben brought out a Evan Dando (you probably know him from the lemonheads) and they sang "Have You Ever Seen The Rain" together. It was cool. Evan Dando is really big.
End opinion: Ben Kweller and his performance -- the coolest of the awesome. (ha. those are probably the worst adjectives to use, but I think you can get the idea)
then the Walkmen came on. I saw them once during orientation at this outdoor concert sponsored by Columbia and the sound was awful. They also seemed a bit peeved. I thought it was due to the lackluster students standing around, but it turns out that's just how they perform. I went into it thinking, "well maybe this one will be better." But to be honest... it wasn't. It was really crowded and I was very uncomfortable. I had to tilt my head a lot to see anything really, and the Walkmen were just not into it at all. They played with the attitude of a band that's like "oh yeah well we make some good music I think so whatever I think maybe we'll play some or one or you know, music, you're here for that right?" seriously. if they had actually said anything during the concert, I'm sure that would have been it.
So they did play some songs. the first one blew really hard. Something about lemons or limes or something. There were a couple of songs that I liked. "The Rat" of course (which sounds infinitely better than it did in august), "Bows & Arrows" and whatever song was their last song or encore... did they do an encore? well anyway, the last song was awesome.
All and all: I am not a Walkmen fan. they play some good songs, so maybe I'll listen to those. If you like them a lot, more power to you.
Unfortunately, their very unhappy performance and the endless dentyne adds shoved in our faces (the concert was $5 for a reason) made the concert not bad, but not the greatest. First two acts were good good though.
well now I'm tired.. regina spektor tomorrow!
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